Report: Astros looking for hitter in addition to established starter
On Tuesday, Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow revealed a bit more about his club's hopes for the non-waiver trading deadline coming up on July 31.
As he told Brian McTaggart of MLB.com for McTaggart's Tag Lines blog, the Astros have 'opened up a lot more conversations' about potentially adding another offensive weapon to their lineup.
This comes after the club is already on record as being interested in acquiring starting rotation depth to back up Dallas Keuchel and Collin McHugh, as well as Luhnow's recent comments about finding a 'flamethrower' to complement the already capable bullpen unit.
Said Luhnow to McTaggart: “We’re looking at every avenue. Our priority so far has been on pitching, but I think we’ve opened up a lot more conversations regarding position players, and right now we’re having conversations about starters, relievers and bats.”
Perhaps most intriguingly, Luhnow said things that indicate the team isn't opposed to trading for a 'rental' arm - such as a Scott Kazmir or Jeff Samardzija type (as both pitchers are free-agents-to-be): “Those sorts of things all sell themselves, but we wouldn’t make a move assuming that we’re going to get long-term deals done. Having said that, would we be OK giving up some future value to acquire a player we think could help us this year that we know is probably not going to sign here? Yeah, we probably wouldn’t. It all depends on what the cost is.”
The wheels are obviously turning in the Astros' front office at the moment as they figure out how best to boost the club's chances of reclaiming first place in the AL West.