Astros general manager Dana Brown met with reporters this afternoon at the team\u2019s media luncheon. As he has throughout the offseason, the GM downplayed the possibility of trading from his infield while noting that they\u2019re still looking for ways to add a left-handed bat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can trade a guy to potentially get a left-handed bat or something like that, we\u2019ll consider it,\u201d Brown told reporters (including Matt Kawahara of The Houston Chronicle<\/a>). \u201cBut I think right now we have a really good infield. We do have the depth. We have a long season, 162. We have some veterans that we\u2019d like to give some breaks during the course of a season, and to have this depth is good.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s the tone Brown has struck all winter. He said as early as the GM Meetings that they weren\u2019t motivated to trade\u00a0Christian Walker<\/a> and had no interest in moving\u00a0Isaac Paredes<\/a>. He again spoke about those corner infielders today. \u201cRight now, both of them are still part of our roster. We have plans for both of them to play. So right now, the plan is for both of them to be there,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n Walker and Paredes are in very different spots in terms of trade value. Walker is signed for $20MM annually for his age 35-36 seasons. He\u2019s coming off a .238\/.297\/.421 showing with a drop in his defensive grades in his first year in Houston. The Astros would likely need to pay down more than half the contract to move Walker. He\u2019s unlikely to fetch a significant left-handed bat no matter how much of the money they cover. Walker did connect on 27 homers and had an alright second half, so the Astros probably don\u2019t want to move him solely to save a fraction of the contract.<\/p>\n Paredes would have much bigger appeal. He\u2019s making $9.35MM after reaching an arbitration settlement<\/a> this afternoon. The Astros don\u2019t have an obvious spot for him in the starting infield after reacquiring\u00a0Carlos Correa<\/a> to play third base while Paredes was injured last summer. Correa obviously has ample shortstop experience but isn\u2019t going to play there often on a team with Jeremy Pe\u00f1a<\/a>. Houston plans to keep Jose Altuve<\/a> primarily at second base. Manager Joe Espada has said all winter that they want to keep\u00a0Yordan Alvarez<\/a> at designated hitter as much as possible.<\/p>\n That leaves Paredes as a multi-positional infielder for now, though all it takes is one injury to change that. They\u2019d find ways to get his bat into the lineup on a regular basis even if everyone\u2019s healthy. Walker, Altuve and Correa are all in their 30s and could benefit from more rest than the team was able to provide last season. Paredes is coming off a significant hamstring strain that cost him most of the second half, so early-season off days wouldn\u2019t be the worst thing for him either.<\/p>\n The Red Sox are the team that has been most frequently tied to Paredes in trade rumors. They haven\u2019t replaced Alex Bregman<\/a> in the infield and have a pair of controllable lefty-hitting outfielders,\u00a0Wilyer Abreu<\/a> and\u00a0Jarren Duran<\/a>, who would fit Houston\u2019s biggest lineup need. It\u2019d be a surprise to see the Sox part with either Duran or Abreu for Paredes \u2014 at least not a one-for-one deal. Paredes has the shortest window of contractual control among that trio. Boston also reportedly prefers Marcelo Mayer<\/a> at the hot corner and is ideally looking to add a plus defensive second baseman, which isn\u2019t Paredes\u2019 specialty. Even if there\u2019s a workable framework, it\u2019d probably require Houston sending more talent to the Sox to even the package.<\/p>\n Former first-round pick\u00a0Brice Matthews<\/a> is likely headed back to Triple-A to begin the year. He hit 17 homers and stole 41 bases while batting .260\/.371\/.458 at the level a year ago. Matthews struck out at an alarming 28% rate, however, and he fanned in 20 of his first 47 MLB plate appearances. Baseball America<\/a> grades him as the #3 prospect in a weak Houston farm system. He still has a pair of minor league options but could theoretically be a trade chip if the Astros don\u2019t deal any of their veteran infielders.<\/p>\n Brown noted that the Astros are still evaluating free agent possibilities to add a lefty bat as well. They\u2019re within a few million dollars of the $244MM luxury tax threshold which owner Jim Crane is reportedly reluctant to surpass. Even a role player like\u00a0Mike Tauchman<\/a> or\u00a0Adam Frazier<\/a> could put them too close to that mark to leave the front office with enough space for in-season additions. Maybe there\u2019s a workable deal for a pre-arbitration lefty hitter who could be squeezed out by another club. Daniel Schneemann<\/a>,\u00a0Robert Hassell III<\/a> or Yanquiel Fern\u00e1ndez<\/a> (the latter of whom should currently be on waivers after being designated for assignment by the Rockies) are a few speculative options who\u2019d likely be available at a minimal cost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Astros general manager Dana Brown met with reporters this afternoon at the team\u2019s media luncheon. As he has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[29030,49,48,18282,3971,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-452640","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-brice-matthews","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-christian-walker","12":"tag-isaac-paredes","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452640","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=452640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}