The Astros have spent the entire offseason looking for a left-handed hitting outfielder. They swapped Jesús Sánchez for Joey Loperfido last week. That saves around $6MM in the difference between Sánchez's arbitration salary and Loperfido's league minimum sum but doesn't change their lineup balance. They added Cavan Biggio on a minor league deal and are reportedly looking at Michael Conforto, who could also settle for a non-roster invite after a rough year in Los Angeles. They're fine depth targets but not locks to even be on the MLB roster -- much less to be a meaningful upgrade.
Free agency only offers those types of reclamation targets at this point. Beyond Conforto, there are also Max Kepler (suspended for the first 80 games after a failed PED test), Jesse Winker and Alex Verdugo. If the Astros are going to make a significant move, it'll have to be via trade. Most of their trade pursuits have been tied to their willingness to field offers on Isaac Paredes given their infield logjam. That's one avenue but obviously not the only way they could trade for a lefty-hitting outfielder.
MLBTR readers are familiar with the top trade targets who fit the bill. Either Jarren Duran or Wilyer Abreu would be an ideal fit but seem likelier to remain in Boston. The Cardinals could deal Lars Nootbaar this spring but may prefer to hold him until the deadline, as they'd be selling a little low with their left fielder coming off a pair of heel surgeries. Last week's Caleb Durbin/Kyle Harrison swap is a reminder that teams explore various avenues that don't involve players who have been the subject of public trade speculation. It's safe to assume the Astros have had some of those conversations behind the scenes. Let's run through a handful of affordable left-handed bats whom they could look to pry from another club.
- Daylen Lile, Nationals (pre-arbitration, controllable through 2031)
Lile made his MLB debut in late May and hit the ground running, at least offensively. He ran a .299/.347/.498 slash line with nine home runs through 351 plate appearances. Lile is an excellent pure hitter. He has advanced contact ability and has always hit a ton of line drives. Although he doesn't have huge power, he should have a strong offensive floor based on the batting average alone. He's a career .273 hitter in the minors and had the highest "expected" batting average in MLB last year (.302), per Statcast.
All that said, the 23-year-old looks more like a quality complementary player than a cornerstone of a rebuilding Nationals team. Lile was a mid-tier prospect during his climb through the farm system. Scouts have never doubted the hit tool but have questioned how much all-around impact he'll make. He has fringe-average power. Although he has plus straight line speed, his reads in the outfield are rough. Defensive Runs Saved had Lile a dismal 14 runs below average in just over 600 innings. He was 10 runs worse than average by Statcast.
Single-season defensive metrics can be fluky, but those grades match the eye test. Here are a handful of examples of Lile turning what should have been easy outs into hits, largely by playing very conservatively at the catch point. Maybe he'll improve with time, but he's not a good outfielder right now. The Astros haven't cared much about left field defense, playing Yordan Alvarez, late-career Michael Brantley, and Jose Altuve out there in recent years. The Nationals have a new front office that played no part in drafting or developing Lile. They'd presumably be open to conversations.
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Good way to piss off readers: start an article then switch it to subscriber exclusive.
Don’t be cheap then.
Some of us have to live on a budget fella
$2.92 a month isn’t that much, about the same as a 20 ounce Coke.
I refuse to pay that much for a 2 liter. 20 ounces is just lighting $ on fire!
I assume the writers who also make their living off of writing for their site equally live on a budget.
Not saying you have to pay for a subscription but it’s also fairly asinine to complain (as the original poster was, not you) that a site that makes most of their content free puts up premium content for people who pay for the product.
I don’t pay for rumors. I trade in FACTS.
What a boring way to go through life.
People like you are why coke cost so much. If everyone was like me and Michael Douglas it would stil be 50 cents.
Deal with it. I live life a quarter mile at a time, hombre.
Only Front Office members can say that. Until I see the Trade Rumors Front Office badge, stop talking.
I would, I’m broke.
Hopefully broke because you are investing all of your $ and not from drinking coke or snorting it. We’ll get you unbroke either way. I just came to read a few comments. Don’t give a rats as who the astros could trade for. Trades are mostly dead until August now.
Why would you want me to broke for some stupid thing? And I don’t drink coke. Sprite, but fine.
Well excuse me. My bad. You keep drinking your sprite and not investing your $. It’s cool.
I don’t drink sodas that much. Water mainly. I do get some lemonade sometimes too.
I don’t get much sugar. If I wanted a coke I’d buy it. Just think sugar or corn syrup isn’t good for you. At $3 for 20 ounces I would just buy beer or wine. I go with water or teabag water. Have lemon and orange trees so do the lemonade or lemon water myself.
I actually invested in Coke, buying 50 shares in 2001.
I have a lot. It taste good. Doesn’t mean I want to spend $3 for it or put it in body.
There so under the radar we can’t even see them!!!!!!
It should be called Under the Paywall Trade Possibilities.
Of all the things I pay subscriptions for, MLBTR is the cheapest and the one I get the most use out of. These guys are killing it. Throw them a few bucks.
Spotrac has them close to $16M in Luxury Tax wiggle room. Benintendi and $22m brings it down to a $5M Luxury Tax hit for this year and next. Still can hit a bit, but can’t really cover much ground anymore. Could probably handle LF there though.
If the White Sox are giving away prospects to move his contract sure I’ll bite.
For $10M over 2 years? No way. He was + WAR last year even. Of course they wouldn’t get much back. Maybe even a salary dump kind of guy (not Christian Walker)
I guess I misread you, yeah if the Sox are paying him down to $5M per year I’d be interested. Of course that doesn’t give us a way to fit Paredes in the lineup.
Andrew is left restricted I think, so now we don’t have the option to put Alvarez in left.
Yeah you’d have to out Andrew at DH in that scenario to rest him a bit or bench against lefties
I think the whole point of trading for him would be to avoid playing Yordan in the OF so I assume it would mean making Benintendi a part time player or moving one of Paredes or Walker
I don’t think you can have the left field spot taken up. Because remember, without Benintendi, we still have Cole and Loperfido vying for left field time. So if we add Benintendi, we must move Paredes/Walker.
Well yeah that’s what I mean. Personally Benintendi would really only be of any interest to me if it meant Walker going the other way.
He’ll be much better in 2027 when he’s playing for a new contract.
Paredes for Cowser intrigues me, would be willing add Meyers.
I can’t figure out what’s going on? The Astros have too many infielders,, but are in serious trouble in the outfield, the Red Sox have a serious glut of outfielders, but need an impact bat in the infield. What’s going on? Is this posturing by Brown and Breslow? There’s a deal that surely makes itself and improves both teams. Duran/Abreu for Parades practically writes itself.
I think the Durbin pickup closed the door on that. Only thing the Sox really have left to do is figure out how to make Yoshida go away.
Can Durbin be pushed into a platoon role with Mayer?
Yeah I said that too. Something like Duran for Paredes +
It is Duran+ for Parades
Disagree. Duran is more valuable
I hope the Nats don’t trade away Lile. Young, on the other hand…
I’d love to have Lile as the Padres’ 4th of. Kid can rake.
Not going to lie, I think I could write something like this article myself if I take the time to do it.
And that would take you time. And if you did a good job, some might say your time was worth something. Say, less than $3 a month at the very least?
Are you trying to get me to get the Front Office subscription. And it would take me a week at the least of dedicated time to write that probably. To make sure it’s factually correct and stuff like that.
Hahaha …..”your time was worth something “ ……touché. Well played
Where are you Pirate fans with your latest Joey Bart proposals? Who knew Joey would be the most sought-after player on the trade market? A franchise cornerstone
I’ll bite–the Pirates are still the best trading partner for the Astros if their goal remains (1) filling their remaining lineup holes and (2) moving Paredes. They need a backup catcher, of which Bart is a good one. As I said in a different thread: Bart had 1.3 fWAR compared to Paredes 2.5 fWAR but he also had 100 fewer plate appearances. It’s also not out of the question that he could be closer to his 2024 season where he put up a very similar slash line as Paredes did last year:
Paredes 2025: .254/.352/.458
Bart 2024: .265/.337/.462
People who just look at WAR as the value of a player tend to ignore statistics like ABs–if a player plays more, they have the more opportunity to generate (or subtract from) their WAR. It is entirely possible that Bart could be a valuable (not as valuable as Paredes) piece of the Astros lineup both as a catcher and as a DH.
I’ve never suggested that Bart for Paredes, one for one, is a fair trade. It’s not. But fans tend to view trades as a comparison of headliners and therefore see any package with Bart as a poor trade. Bart with a player like Jake Mangum and another prospect is a very good trade to meet the Astros needs but I fully understand why Astros fans would be unimpressed with that offer.
The reality is that no contending team is going to trade one of their starting OF for Paredes. The only team that was going to fill that role was the Red Sox and the Astros didn’t want Duran because he was too expensive. This shot themselves in the foot because the Red Sox moved on and got Durbin. The Orioles might be a trading partner but their OF is anything but certain and I can’t see them offering an OF better than Kjerstad to meet Astros unique needs. Kjerstad is a worse OF than Bart is a worse catcher.
Paredes is a great player and I would love for the Pirates to have him but he is a bit of a unicorn whose profile doesn’t fit everywhere. This is why he is likely going to be a bat off the bench most of the year until someone gets hurt.
The Astros goals are.
1) Fixing infield logjam
2) Fill lineup needs
I would take Kjerstad.
Those are the same goals I listed but instead of saying moving Paredes, you said fixing the infield logjam. The only way they fix the infield logjam is moving either Paredes or Walker and unless they eat salary, they won’t move Walker. So it is de facto moving Paredes (or Pena, which they won’t do).
Put Kjerstad and Suwinski side by side and tell me why you’d prefer Kjerstad over Suwinski.
Did I say I would prefer Kjerstad over Suwinski?
Also, thanks for saying that they won’t move Pena. Someone said some really dumb things about trading Pena yesterday.
Sorry, just assumed since people keep laughing at Suwinski as a package with Bart whenever it’s been mentioned.
But I do maintain that if the Astros would be interested in Kjerstad, there’s no reason to not be interested if not more so in Suwinski if for nothing else than his power potential.
The only way the pirates are involved is in a 3 team trade. The Astros are not looking for a backup anything in exchange for Paredes. They can get 130 games with paredes moving around between 2nd, 3rd and DH. They can’t get 100 games for Bart at catcher and DH.
That said the Paredes to the Pirates in exchange for prospects going to a 3rd team for a left-handed corner outfielder does make sense.
Like for example the Marlins Kyle Stowers. Its a big ask though.
Yeah, I agree. I just don’t see any team that believes they are contending this year (the Marlins would count themselves in that camp) trading away one of their starters for prospects. Nor do I see any teams that need a 3B or similar power bat trading away one of their starters. This is why I’ve suggested someone like Mickey Moniak or Trevor Larnach as part of the return for Paredes (with another piece to the Astros).
I just think it’s too close to the start of the year to try and get a similar WAR player in return for Paredes. It’s an odd puzzle that the Astros FO has created.
I don’t know why so many people are hating on Larnach.
It’s just because people see Paredes for Larnach and get disappointed. I get it, they’re not equivalent but this isn’t a bad return and would likely be Larnach and another piece at least.
People see Paredes 128 wRC+ last year and compare that to Larnach’s 102 and freak out. But their 2024 numbers are very similar and Larnach would have hit 19 HRs in Daikon last year.
Larnach is one of the best LH OF options that the Astros could realistically acquire at this point in the offseason.
“It’s just because people see Paredes for Larnach and get disappointed.”
It’s not equal, and you addressed it. But that’s not really what I meant. So many people are like I’ll dump Larnach for a bag of Fritos or a can of 20 oz Coke or whatever. I would love to trade for Trevor Larnach personally.
But there weren’t any “under the radar proposals” proposals made in the article. Where’s the beef?
Thank you Anthony for your excellent, in depth analysis!
I’m still waiting for someone to define “pure hitter.” Is it a high batting average? If so, what makes that “pure?”
I’ll take someone with a lower BA and high OBP and SLG (like Schwarber) over someone with a high BA, mediocre OBP and poor SLG (like Arraez).
Both put together
Astros71, I’m not sure what your response means. Both what put together?