<\/p>\n
Astros general manager Dana Brown didn’t mince words in saying the team will once again be seeking a left-handed outfield bat before the\u00a0trade deadline.<\/p>\n
Kirk Sides\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014 With less than a month until the Aug. 3 trade deadline, Houston Astros<\/a> general manager Dana Brown pointed to adding a left-handed hitting outfielder as the team\u2019s top priority.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve said it multiple times, we need a left-handed bat, because we need more offense in the outfield,\u201d Brown said Tuesday at Nationals Park. \u201cLately our outfield has been swinging the bats, they\u2019re showing some promise. But we\u2019re going to need a left-handed bat. That\u2019s going to be our main need.\u201d<\/p>\n Entering Tuesday, Astros outfielders had combined for a .670 OPS, tied for the third-lowest in the majors. The lack of production prompted a shakeup of personnel last week<\/a> as Houston optioned its opening-day center fielder, Jake Meyers, and left fielder, Joey Loperfido, to Triple-A Sugar Land and filled those roster spots with LaMonte Wade Jr. and Zach Dezenzo.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Houston has also recorded the fewest plate appearances by left-handed hitters in the majors this season, with Yordan Alvarez its only left-handed hitting regular. The need for outfield offense, combined with an established current infield group, makes the outfield a logical place to pursue a left-handed addition. Nor is that a new quest for Brown and the Astros.<\/p>\n At last year\u2019s trade deadline, the Astros acquired Jes\u00fas S\u00e1nchez from the Marlins<\/a> in an effort to bolster their outfield. S\u00e1nchez struggled down the stretch and Houston traded him this spring to the Blue Jays, offloading his salary and reacquiring Loperfido in the deal<\/a>. Brown declared at the time the Astros were \u201cnot done,\u201d but they made no further outfield additions before opening day.<\/p>\n Through 94 games, the Astros have started nine different players in left field and six different players in center. Loperfido and Zach Cole, two young left-handed hitting outfielders in their system, were unable to claim regular playing time and are now at Triple-A. Aside from Alvarez, Houston\u2019s left-handed hitting outfield options currently are Wade and Taylor Trammell.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Trammell started the season at Triple-A and entered Tuesday with a .718 OPS in 118 plate appearances for the Astros this season. Wade was signed to a major-league contract in early June after opting out of a minor-league deal with the White Sox, reflecting the Astros\u2019 search for left-handed hitting, and played in four games before a quad injury that sidelined him for nearly a month.<\/p>\n BATTERS Team Totals Alvarez Pe\u00f1a Correa Delgado Shewmake Paredes Trammell Walker Diaz Allen Altuve Harris Smith V\u00e1zquez Loperfido Meyers Matthews Dezenzo Wade Price Cole Johnson Whitcomb Salazar ___<\/p>\n PITCHERS Team Totals Ullola Meyers Hader Santa VanWey King Okert Lambert Brown Blubaugh Pearson Arrighetti Teng De Los Santos Roa Bolton Abreu Burrows Imai McCullers Murray Weiss France Sousa Salazar Alexander Javier Gordon Mu\u00f1oz Last offseason, and even into spring training, the Astros were linked in trade rumors<\/a> to the Boston Red Sox, and their outfielders Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu, though no deal came to fruition. USA Today recently reported<\/a> Houston has interest in two left-handed hitting outfielders from the Rockies, Mickey Moniak and Jake McCarthy, with last-place Colorado a likely deadline seller.<\/p>\n Brown hedged Tuesday that outfield help \u201ccould come from the minor leagues,\u201d naming prospect Lucas Spence<\/a> as a potential candidate for a call-up. Spence was promoted to Triple-A in late June and spent time in Houston\u2019s major-league camp this spring, but he would not bring a track record of major-league production like an established trade addition.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not afraid to call (Spence) up if he continues to swing the bat and continues to play well,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBut at some point, we want to add a left-handed bat that we feel can really increase our offensive production in the outfield.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n While Brown did not cite starting pitching as a potential pursuit, an argument for it could be made. The Astros still own the majors\u2019 third-highest rotation ERA and optioned Mike Burrows<\/a>, their staff leader in starts and innings, to Triple-A on Tuesday amid his first-half struggles. Tatsuya Imai, another of their five pitchers with double-digit starts, lasted 3 \u2154 innings in his outing Tuesday<\/a> and has a 6.06 ERA.<\/p>\n Peter Lambert, Spencer Arrighetti and Kai-Wei Teng are Houston\u2019s other pitchers with double-digit starts. Teng is on the injured list and being converted back to a relief role<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hunter Brown, who recently missed two months to a shoulder strain, and Imai are the only members of the season-opening rotation currently in starting roles. Cristian Javier was moved to the bullpen<\/a> upon returning from a shoulder injury, though he now seems a candidate to fill the rotation spot vacated by Burrows. Lance McCullers Jr. is still rehabbing from a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n If the Astros do not consider the rotation a trade deadline priority, it may be due to pitchers expected to return from injuries<\/a> in the second half. Ronel Blanco could be one rehab start away from returning from Tommy John surgery, with Hayden Wesneski not far behind him. Javier is healthy. Brown acknowledged Tuesday that prospect Ethan Pecko could be considered for a second-half call-up.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Last year, the Astros eschewed adding rotation help at the trade deadline, citing reinforcements coming from the IL, so the idea has precedent. Tuesday, Brown sounded more open to pursuing bullpen help.<\/p>\n Closer Josh Hader\u2019s return<\/a> from a biceps injury has helped stabilize the back of Houston\u2019s bullpen. Still, several of manager Joe Espada\u2019s most trusted late-game relievers are left-handed in Hader, Bryan King and Steven Okert. Bryan Abreu\u2019s first-half struggles<\/a> dislodged him from a leverage role. Righty Enyel De Los Santos has pitched late in games but had an 8.74 ERA over his past 11 outings before Tuesday.<\/p>\n The Astros are \u201creally excited\u201d about the emergence of right-hander AJ Blubaugh, Brown said. Blubaugh has a 2.36 ERA over his past 30 outings, but he has pitched mostly in middle relief, often handling multi-inning appearances. Brown said that \u201cif we can get some right-handed relief help, that would be great,\u201d though he did not deem it a necessity.<\/p>\n King has held right-handed hitters to a lower OPS (.580) than lefties (.626) this season. Okert has more usual platoon splits but was holding righties to a .644 OPS entering Tuesday. A return to form by Abreu could solve the need, but he still sports a 5.90 ERA. Left-hander Bennett Sousa<\/a> could return from the IL soon. Sousa has handled leverage outings but made just five appearances this season due to injuries.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not afraid to go with four lefties (in the bullpen) if that\u2019s what it means,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe just need guys that can get both sides out, that\u2019s the bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Astros general manager Dana Brown didn’t mince words in saying the team will once again be seeking a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-364897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nAVG
\nOBA
\nAB
\nR
\nH
\n2B
\n3B
\nHR
\nRBI
\nBB
\nSO
\nSB
\nCS
\nE<\/p>\n
\n.241
\n.316
\n3156
\n430
\n762
\n144
\n7
\n126
\n411
\n312
\n768
\n33
\n12
\n41<\/p>\n
\n.313
\n.420
\n335
\n62
\n105
\n16
\n0
\n29
\n67
\n59
\n70
\n1
\n0
\n2<\/p>\n
\n.295
\n.356
\n183
\n34
\n54
\n9
\n0
\n6
\n21
\n15
\n35
\n8
\n1
\n5<\/p>\n
\n.279
\n.369
\n122
\n22
\n34
\n8
\n0
\n3
\n16
\n18
\n26
\n1
\n0
\n1<\/p>\n
\n.267
\n.313
\n30
\n3
\n8
\n1
\n0
\n1
\n4
\n2
\n5
\n0
\n0
\n2<\/p>\n
\n.256
\n.272
\n78
\n10
\n20
\n4
\n0
\n3
\n9
\n2
\n13
\n0
\n0
\n2<\/p>\n
\n.250
\n.344
\n316
\n37
\n79
\n16
\n0
\n12
\n47
\n34
\n58
\n0
\n0
\n6<\/p>\n
\n.243
\n.308
\n107
\n14
\n26
\n5
\n1
\n3
\n11
\n9
\n40
\n1
\n0
\n1<\/p>\n
\n.242
\n.319
\n343
\n49
\n83
\n17
\n1
\n20
\n58
\n32
\n85
\n0
\n0
\n0<\/p>\n
\n.242
\n.267
\n153
\n15
\n37
\n7
\n0
\n5
\n21
\n5
\n26
\n0
\n1
\n1<\/p>\n
\n.241
\n.293
\n83
\n14
\n20
\n3
\n0
\n1
\n9
\n6
\n21
\n2
\n0
\n2<\/p>\n
\n.234
\n.310
\n269
\n43
\n63
\n13
\n1
\n10
\n26
\n29
\n65
\n2
\n2
\n3<\/p>\n
\n.226
\n.286
\n31
\n4
\n7
\n0
\n1
\n0
\n4
\n2
\n6
\n2
\n0
\n0<\/p>\n
\n.223
\n.300
\n309
\n38
\n69
\n13
\n1
\n11
\n32
\n31
\n83
\n9
\n1
\n4<\/p>\n
\n.220
\n.275
\n168
\n17
\n37
\n6
\n0
\n4
\n21
\n13
\n32
\n1
\n0
\n0<\/p>\n
\n.216
\n.314
\n102
\n13
\n22
\n7
\n1
\n1
\n12
\n14
\n31
\n1
\n1
\n1<\/p>\n
\n.206
\n.264
\n136
\n14
\n28
\n6
\n0
\n3
\n11
\n10
\n30
\n1
\n2
\n0<\/p>\n
\n.199
\n.253
\n201
\n23
\n40
\n5
\n1
\n7
\n21
\n15
\n70
\n3
\n4
\n1<\/p>\n
\n.196
\n.281
\n51
\n7
\n10
\n4
\n0
\n1
\n3
\n6
\n21
\n1
\n0
\n0<\/p>\n
\n.190
\n.261
\n21
\n3
\n4
\n2
\n0
\n1
\n4
\n2
\n7
\n0
\n0
\n0<\/p>\n
\n.167
\n.231
\n12
\n1
\n2
\n1
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n1
\n6
\n0
\n0
\n1<\/p>\n
\n.157
\n.189
\n51
\n4
\n8
\n1
\n0
\n3
\n8
\n1
\n21
\n0
\n0
\n1<\/p>\n
\n.143
\n.294
\n14
\n1
\n2
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n2
\n3
\n0
\n0
\n0<\/p>\n
\n.130
\n.167
\n23
\n2
\n3
\n0
\n0
\n2
\n5
\n1
\n11
\n0
\n0
\n0<\/p>\n
\n.056
\n.227
\n18
\n0
\n1
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n1
\n3
\n3
\n0
\n0
\n0<\/p>\n
\nW
\nL
\nERA
\nG
\nGS
\nSV
\nIP
\nH
\nR
\nER
\nHR
\nBB
\nSO<\/p>\n
\n46
\n48
\n4.74
\n94
\n94
\n28
\n832.1
\n754
\n472
\n438
\n129
\n404
\n814<\/p>\n
\n0
\n0
\n0.00
\n2
\n0
\n0
\n4
\n2
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n7<\/p>\n
\n0
\n0
\n0.00
\n1
\n0
\n0
\n1
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n0
\n0<\/p>\n
\n3
\n0
\n0.59
\n16
\n0
\n10
\n15.1
\n3
\n1
\n1
\n1
\n8
\n25<\/p>\n
\n0
\n1
\n1.35
\n9
\n0
\n0
\n13.1
\n7
\n6
\n2
\n1
\n5
\n9<\/p>\n
\n1
\n0
\n1.50
\n5
\n0
\n0
\n6
\n5
\n2
\n1
\n0
\n0
\n5<\/p>\n
\n2
\n1
\n2.02
\n38
\n0
\n6
\n40
\n33
\n11
\n9
\n1
\n14
\n31<\/p>\n
\n2
\n1
\n2.42
\n44
\n1
\n0
\n44.2
\n27
\n12
\n12
\n5
\n12
\n44<\/p>\n
\n7
\n5
\n3.26
\n14
\n14
\n0
\n80
\n60
\n29
\n29
\n10
\n32
\n74<\/p>\n
\n1
\n0
\n3.38
\n6
\n6
\n0
\n29.1
\n23
\n13
\n11
\n4
\n17
\n35<\/p>\n
\n4
\n2
\n3.57
\n35
\n0
\n0
\n58
\n43
\n24
\n23
\n6
\n29
\n56<\/p>\n
\n1
\n0
\n3.79
\n15
\n0
\n1
\n19
\n16
\n10
\n8
\n1
\n11
\n15<\/p>\n
\n7
\n4
\n3.81
\n14
\n14
\n0
\n78
\n58
\n35
\n33
\n10
\n38
\n79<\/p>\n
\n4
\n6
\n4.36
\n23
\n10
\n0
\n64
\n59
\n35
\n31
\n10
\n28
\n63<\/p>\n
\n0
\n2
\n4.54
\n39
\n0
\n5
\n41.2
\n39
\n23
\n21
\n5
\n10
\n39<\/p>\n
\n0
\n1
\n5.19
\n7
\n0
\n0
\n8.2
\n10
\n5
\n5
\n1
\n7
\n6<\/p>\n
\n0
\n1
\n5.40
\n8
\n3
\n1
\n20
\n21
\n12
\n12
\n3
\n14
\n22<\/p>\n
\n2
\n3
\n5.70
\n33
\n0
\n5
\n30
\n25
\n21
\n19
\n7
\n25
\n38<\/p>\n
\n4
\n9
\n5.99
\n18
\n17
\n0
\n94.2
\n112
\n69
\n63
\n21
\n35
\n75<\/p>\n
\n5
\n4
\n6.06
\n13
\n13
\n0
\n52
\n45
\n35
\n35
\n9
\n33
\n63<\/p>\n
\n2
\n3
\n6.86
\n8
\n8
\n0
\n39.1
\n38
\n32
\n30
\n7
\n22
\n43<\/p>\n
\n0
\n0
\n7.43
\n8
\n0
\n0
\n13.1
\n19
\n11
\n11
\n1
\n7
\n8<\/p>\n
\n0
\n3
\n7.62
\n9
\n2
\n0
\n26
\n35
\n24
\n22
\n8
\n20
\n30<\/p>\n
\n0
\n0
\n8.10
\n3
\n0
\n0
\n6.2
\n6
\n6
\n6
\n1
\n5
\n4<\/p>\n
\n0
\n0
\n8.10
\n5
\n0
\n0
\n3.1
\n3
\n3
\n3
\n0
\n5
\n4<\/p>\n
\n0
\n0
\n9.00
\n1
\n0
\n0
\n1
\n1
\n1
\n1
\n1
\n0
\n0<\/p>\n
\n1
\n1
\n9.33
\n4
\n2
\n0
\n18.1
\n21
\n19
\n19
\n4
\n8
\n14<\/p>\n
\n0
\n1
\n11.12
\n4
\n3
\n0
\n11.1
\n15
\n14
\n14
\n3
\n10
\n8<\/p>\n
\n0
\n0
\n11.57
\n4
\n1
\n0
\n9.1
\n21
\n12
\n12
\n6
\n3
\n11<\/p>\n
\n0
\n0
\n15.75
\n3
\n0
\n0
\n4
\n7
\n7
\n7
\n3
\n6
\n6<\/p>\n