Houston Astros Should Target Breakout Starter In Trade Market
Despite their awful start to the 2024 season, it's clear that the Houston Astros are going to avoid becoming sellers at the trade deadline.
Does that mean they still expect to contend? If so, they should address their starting rotation and it's disastrous few weeks.
The Chicago White Sox are expected to trade away all of their most valuable players before the deadline, which means Erick Fedde is up for grabs.
Fedde has had an interesting career. Through his first six seasons with the Washington Nationals, he was just ok at best. His top season was in 2019 when he finished with a 4.50 ERA in mixed duty between the starting rotation and bullpen.
After he became a free agent, the Las Vegas native left for the Korea Baseball Organization where he dominated.
In 26 games, he finished with a 2.00 ERA and 0.954 WHIP en route to winning the MVP award.
Now, with a newfound confidence, he is back in the majors where he has had his best season on American soil.
The 31-year-old has a 3.46 ERA with career highs in WHIP, FIP, K/9 and BB/9. The introduction of a splitter and less reliance on his four-seamer has transformed his MLB game. He’ll have a lot of interest at the deadline and for good reason.
Not only has Houston had a bevy of health issues throughout their starting rotation, the ones that have stayed on the mound have mostly performed poorly.
They could desperately use some help in the place of Spencer Arrighetti and Hunter Brown in the rotation and can't rely on the injured arms staying healthy for the rest of the season when they return.
Fedde will be under contract through next season and should have one of the more fair trade values among the best starting arms on the market.
DYLAN SANDERS
Dylan Sanders graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree from the Manship School of Mass Communication in 2023. He was born in raised in Baton Rouge, LA but has also lived in Buffalo, NY. Though he is a recent graduate, he has been writing about sports since he was in high school, covering different sports from baseball to football. While in college, he wrote for the school paper The Reveille and for 247Sports. He was able cover championships in football, baseball and women's basketball during his time at LSU. He has also spent a few years covering the NFL draft and every day activities of the New Orleans Saints. He is a Senior Writer at Inside the Marlins and will also be found across Sports Illustrated's baseball sites as a contributing writer. You can follow him on Twitter or Instagram @dillysanders