The 'Stros will look to add some experience to their young pitching rotation.
With the Houston Astros still comfortably leading the American League West standings after the All-Star break, you might think that the team has all they need to clinch another division and cruise into contention for their third World Series in the past decade.
But the injury concerns and back half of the starting rotation would tell you that they're not ready to go just yet.
According to Chandler Rome of The Athletic, the Astros could pull a little bit of deja vu and deal for an experienced pitcher from the Arizona Diamondbacks, specifically Merrill Kelly, who just so happens to be a Houston native.
The deja vu moment calls back to the 2019 season, when the Astros traded for Zack Greinke at the deadline, forming a Big 3 of Houston pitching along with Cy Young Award contenders Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole, the former winning and the latter finishing second, though it failed to bring the city a World Series after losing in a thriller to the Washington Nationals.
Fast forward to this year, and the Astros again seem to be in need of a third solid starting pitcher behind Hunter Brown and Framber Valdez, and with Kelly and Zac Gallen leading the Diamondbacks pitching after Corbin Burnes went down with Tommy John surgery, he might just be the perfect candidate for that role in Space City.
"If owner Jim Crane covets a splashy name while contemplating whether to cross into the luxury tax, Kelly fits the bill." Rome says.
Category: Baseball
