Houston Astros Need to Trade Chris Carter While they still Can

Chris Carter is a frustrating player. His size and raw power make his potential through the roof but his lackadaisical swing, strikeout rate and defensive liabilities make him of questionable value. The Houston Astros acquired Chris Carter in 2013 and this trend of frustration hasn’t ended.

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The idea behind Chris Carter’s continued usage is that his power is supposed to offset the enormous hole in his swing and the enormous hole in his glove. But this season, through 99 at-bats, he’s struck out an enormous 43 times while only belting 4 home runs. In fact, in April, his two home runs were his lowest home run totals of his Houston Astros’ career. Of course, 31 strikeouts a month is common for him, so that wasn’t the highest strikeout amount.

Jeff Luhnow seemed to not care too much about the massive amount of strikeouts his team was going to put up. He told CBS: “It’s something that we think about but at the end of the day we are going to produce 27 outs each game no matter what.” What Luhnow is failing to acknowledge is that if there’s a player on third and less than two outs, putting the ball in play will get that runner in the majority of the time. Striking out will not.

The kingpin of the strikeouts almost set a Major League record in 2013 with strikeouts (212), but his playing time dipped at the end of the year (probably to avoid that embarrassment). If Chris Carter was given a physical golden sombrero each time he earned one, he’d have more sombreros than a small Mexican village.

The point is that at some point you have to accept that Chris Carter isn’t the middle of the lineup guy that a playoff contending team wants. Since coming to Houston, his batting average has never surpassed .227. He strikes out well over once a game. Sure, he’s also hit 70 home in the three years since becoming an Astro, but that is quite literally the only positive we can pull from Carter’s Houston Astros career.

At 28 years old, Carter isn’t going to get any better. This is who he is. I’d much rather see him be used as a pinch hitter than continue to see him traipsing out into the batters box swinging at whatever ball the pitcher throws. He’s a liability. The Astros have plenty of power (and extra strikeout potential as well) in Evan Gattis, George Springer, Colby Rasmus, Luis Valbuena and more. They don’t need Chris Carter. 

And speaking of liabilities, Carter is a defensive liability as well. As a first baseman, you shouldn’t be dropping clean throws from your teammates, but Carter manages too. He’s a designated hitter by trade, but he’s not that effective of a hitter.

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For those reasons, the Astros need to trade him as soon as possible while he still has some value. 70 home runs in three season will fetch a decent return. 28 isn’t exactly old, so there may be teams out there who are lacking power that want to take a gamble on the hulking Chris Carter. The White Sox, the Phillies, the Marlins – they’re all having trouble getting the ball out of the park. Plenty of team would offer a mid-to-late rotation pitcher for someone with the raw power of Chris Carter.

It’s hard not to root for Chris Carter. He’s a down to earth guy who’s always smiling and seems to be like a giant teddy bear. But you don’t keep a guy just for his personality. Carter isn’t a guy that a playoff-contending team wants to have, especially not in the middle of the lineup.

Luhnow may say that strikeouts don’t bother him, but when you have a middle of the order that excels in strikeouts, it couldn’t hurt to send one of the masses away for something they need more than anything else – starting pitching.