Brown talks top trade need ahead of Deadline

This story was excerpted from Brian McTaggart’s Astros Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

HOUSTON – Astros general manager Dana Brown was on the phone until 11:30 p.m. Thursday talking with general managers from other teams about possible trades. He was back on the phone at 7 a.m. Friday, which reveals the kind of urgency the Astros are approaching ahead of Tuesday’s Trade Deadline.

“It’s a grind, but you do it because you know it’s important and you need to get a starter,” Brown said.

Brown left no doubt Friday afternoon while discussing the team’s most urgent needs, which begin and end with starting pitching. He said the club is targeting a “third starter … or a fourth starter,” and he didn’t rule out the possibility of acquiring multiple arms. He said the Astros ideally would like to get players who are under control past this season, but they’re not opposed to a rental.

“Ultimately, you need a starter for 2024,” Brown said. “If you’re in a position where you get a guy and have him for 2024 and ’25, that would be great, particularly when you’re talking about giving away some of your better prospects. … Ultimately, we need to get '24 solved. We know we need starters. That’s the main goal.”

One pitcher the Astros had interest in was Zach Eflin, who was dealt from the Rays to the Orioles on Friday. They have also shown interest in Jameson Taillon of the Cubs. Other possible targets could be Tigers right-hander Jack Flaherty, who’s a free agent-to-be, and right-handers Cal Quantrill of the Rockies and Erick Fedde of the White Sox, both of whom are signed through ’25.

Brown said it’s a seller’s market with a lot of buyers, most of whom also need starting pitching.

“Starting pitching is a priority, without a question,” Brown said. “We have seven starters on the IL, so we have to go get a starter. We would like to get a bullpen guy. That would be pretty helpful, because our core guys down in the bullpen have been pitching a lot. So to give these guys a break sometimes will be good. If a bat comes along that makes sense, we’ll pursue it. We are working in those three lanes of players.”

Astros starters Justin Verlander, Luis Garcia, Cristian Javier, Jose Urquidy and Lance McCullers Jr. are on the IL – with Javier, Urquidy and maybe McCullers out for the season. J.P. France, who began the year in the rotation, injured his right shoulder at Triple-A and had season-ending surgery. Verlander and Garcia are on target to return next month.

What’s more, Ronel Blanco is on pace to smash his career high of 125 1/3 innings pitched and Hunter Brown will approach the career-high 155 2/3 innings he threw last year.

“If we can acquire another starter and somehow go to a six-man [rotation], we can give guys like Blanco and Brown a breather, and even Framber [Valdez],” Brown said. “Even though he’s durable – he does this every year – he could still afford to have a breather. We would welcome that if we can get the pieces to do it. The focus is: we’ve got to firm up five [starters] and then we’ll start thinking about six.”

Brown said asking prices remain high, which puts the Astros in a tough spot, considering their farm system has been depleted by trades and promotions the last few years (Houston’s farm system was ranked 27th by MLB Pipeline in preseason). Brown said there are no prospects he would consider untouchable in trades.

“We feel like we’ve got enough prospects,” Brown said. “It’s a matter of putting a few prospects together and figuring out what works for us and what works for the other clubs, because we need a starter. We’re going to do what we have to do to get it done.”