{"id":36272,"date":"2025-07-31T06:40:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T06:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/36272\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T06:40:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T06:40:08","slug":"astros-to-acquire-ramon-urias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/36272\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros To Acquire Ramon Urias"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Astros are acquiring infielder\u00a0Ram\u00f3n Ur\u00edas<\/a> from Baltimore, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post<\/a>.\u00a0 Minor league pitcher\u00a0Twine Palmer<\/a> is headed back to the Orioles, reports MLB.com\u2019s Brian McTaggart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ur\u00edas has some defensive versatility but figures to play everyday at the hot corner in Houston. The Astros lost Isaac Paredes<\/a> to a significant hamstring strain a couple weeks ago. USA Today\u2019s Bob Nightengale suggested this morning that season-ending surgery was a possibility. Ari Alexander of KPRC 2<\/a> subsequently reported that Paredes is seeking out multiple opinions in hopes of avoiding the knife. In any case, he\u2019s expected to miss at least two months.<\/p>\n

Urias, 31, joined the Orioles in a February 2020 waiver claim and found himself getting a decent amount of playing time the following year.\u00a0 In 2022, Urias won the AL Gold Glove at third base despite playing fewer than 800 innings there.\u00a0 He\u2019s led the Orioles in third base innings every year since.<\/p>\n

Despite the Gold Glove on his mantle, Urias\u2019 third base defense has been a bit erratic over the years by measure of Statcast Outs Above Average.\u00a0 After subpar marks in 2023 and \u201924, he\u2019s back to demonstrating positive defense this year.\u00a0 The defensive runs saved metric backs the fact that Urias has had a resurgence with the leather.<\/p>\n

Urias has been a sneaky good hitter at times for Baltimore, showing above average offense 2021, \u201922, and \u201924.\u00a0 However, after last year\u2019s fine 114 wRC+, Urias has slipped to a 90 mark this year in 290 plate appearances.\u00a0 A right-handed hitter, Urias has a 124 wRC+ against southpaws dating back to 2024.<\/p>\n

Given Paredes\u2019 injury, Urias makes for a solid stopgap for the Orioles without the acquisition or financial cost of recently-traded third basemen Eugenio Suarez<\/a>, Ryan McMahon<\/a>, and Ke\u2019Bryan Hayes<\/a>.\u00a0 Urias, who is under the Astros\u2019 control through 2026, will be owed a raise on this year\u2019s $3.15MM salary.\u00a0 The Astros can either move him in the offseason, or work him into the second base picture next year.<\/p>\n

Following tonight\u2019s thumping of the Nationals, the Astros sit at 62-47.\u00a0 With 53 games left in the regular season, they\u2019re 4.5 ahead of the Mariners in the AL West.\u00a0 Not long after the Astros picked up Urias, the Mariners landed<\/a> perhaps the prize of the 2025 trade deadline in Suarez.\u00a0 Suarez had, at the least, been on the Astros\u2019 radar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Astros have flirted with big deadline moves as well, having approached the Twins<\/a> about the possibility of acquiring Carlos Correa<\/a> and also showing interest<\/a> in the Padres\u2019 Dylan Cease<\/a>.\u00a0 Correa was always viewed as unlikely, and perhaps third base is now settled with Urias anyway.\u00a0 But the Astros were known to have been seeking a left-handed bat, with Brandon Lowe<\/a> said to be one potential target for GM Dana Brown.<\/p>\n

Urias is just one of many veterans departing the disappointing Orioles at the trade deadline.\u00a0 They followed the Urias trade by almost immediately<\/a> shipping Andrew Kittredge<\/a> to the Cubs, and have also unloaded relievers Seranthony Dominguez<\/a>, Gregory Soto<\/a>, and Bryan Baker<\/a>.\u00a0 The trades of Urias, Kittredge, and Baker suggest Executive Vice President and General Manager Mike Elias is willing to move players under control beyond this year.\u00a0 He\u2019s got plenty of rentals, too.\u00a0 Those still on the trading block include Zach Eflin<\/a>, Charlie Morton<\/a>, Tomoyuki Sugano<\/a>, Cedric Mullins<\/a>, Ryan O\u2019Hearn<\/a>, Ramon Laureano<\/a>, and perhaps Trevor Rogers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Twine Palmer<\/a>, a 20-year-old righty, was drafted by the Astros out of Connors State College in Oklahoma in the 19th round last year.\u00a0 Working in A-ball this year, Palmer owns a 2.13 ERA in 13 games, including eight starts.\u00a0 He\u2019s punched out more than a quarter of hitters but has also issued free passes to nearly 13% of them.\u00a0 He boasts a strong groundball rate near 55% and thus has yet to allow a home run.<\/p>\n

Palmer was not among the Astros\u2019 top 30 prospects, per Baseball America and MLB.com.\u00a0 FanGraphs ranked him 37th<\/a>, with James Fegan writing, \u201cA funky reliever is probably all that should be hoped for at this stage, but that\u2019s more than most dare dreaming about in the 19th round.\u201d\u00a0 With all due respect to Palmer, this trade illustrates the point that teams can acquire useful veterans like Urias at the trade deadline without giving up much in the way of prospects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Astros are acquiring infielder\u00a0Ram\u00f3n Ur\u00edas from Baltimore, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post.\u00a0 Minor league…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,26935,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-36272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-ramon-urias","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}