Astros Predicted to Make Deadline Trade for League-Leading Ace Pitcher
A2-0 shutout loss to the lowly White Sox a little more than three weeks ago seemed, at the time, to announce the death of the Houston Astros’ 2024 MLB season. They had fallen 10 games behind the Mariners and were 33-40, with a starting rotation obliterated by injuries and little hope in sight. The trade deadline appeared a moot point.
Ah, but in the flimsy AL West, all it took was a seven-game winning streak to vault the Astros back into divisional contention, and a run of 13 wins in 17 games since has brought Houston to within 2.0 games of the division-leading Mariners with the Rangers scuffling as the A’s and Angels have long been left for dead.
Astros GM Dana Brown raised eyebrows when he declared, even amidst the Astros’ woes this spring, that his team would be MLB trade deadline buyers by July. It appears he is right. And CBS Sports foresees Brown landing the biggest prize on the pitching market: White Sox lefty ace Garrett Crochet.
Astros Trade Deadline: Pitching Help Badly Needed
In a roundtable answering the question, “Where will White Sox ace Garrett Crochet land at the 2024 MLB trade deadline?” CBS writer Mike Axisa predicted he will land in Houston.
“I’m going to say the Astros,” Axisa wrote. “They’ve climbed back into the AL West race and need another starter. It’s tough to count on Crochet to start the rest of the season is given his workload but not impossible, and there is the fallback plan of putting him in the bullpen later this year (a role he is familiar with). And you get him the next two seasons as well.