Astros' top trade candidate amid brutal start is 14.73 ERA reliever originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
There are a ton of top contenders who are off to rough starts to the season. The Philadelphia Phillies are struggling a lot lately, while the New York Mets are on an 11-game losing streak. But the Houston Astros might be the worst of them all.
Dana Browns' squad is 8-13 to begin the season, but more concerning is the plethora of injuries all across the roster, including to key players on offense and the pitching staff. Selling at the trade deadline seems very much in play at this rate.
And if they do sell off some of their players, ESPN's David Schoenfield identified their most likely trade candidate in reliever Bryan Abreu, who would need to improve upon his brutal 14.73 ERA start to the year if the Astros want anything decent in return.
"Trade candidate: Bryan Abreu (FA)," Schoenfield writes. "Including Abreu here is contingent on the reliever figuring things out. He has been unable to throw strikes - and when he does, he has given up the long ball, with four home runs in just seven-plus innings."
The Astros' looking to move on from their veterans at the trade deadline is very much a possibility. They've gotten off to a bad start this season, and with their injuries to blame, things might not be getting any better.
If they do end up trading away players at the deadline, there will be plenty of attention on Isaac Paredes and Christian Walker. But Abreu might be one of the more obvious trade candidates this season.
However, he has a 14.73 ERA and -0.9 bWAR on the season so far. What team would want such a reliever?
More: Red Sox never close on Astros’ Isaac Paredes trade
He posted a 2.28 ERA in 70 gams last year, and a 3.10 ERA in 78 games the year before that. Abreu has the talent; the issue is just that he's struggling far too much this season.
And the worst part? His FIP, which can factor in bad luck for a pitcher and indicate how he's really pitching, is a brutal 12.27. He has a WHIP of 3.000. That's terrible.
Add in his 9.3% home run rate, which is just less than the sum of his home run rates for every season in his career (9.6%), and there are some major reasons why teams won't trade for Abreu even if the Astros are looking to move on from him.
The Astros are in a precarious spot and could be sellers at the trade deadline. Abreu might be their top trade candidate, but he will need to pitch a bit better for Houston to actually find a suitor by the deadline for the soon-to-be 29-year-old reliever.
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