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2. Houston Astros
Luke Gregerson performed well in his first season as a full-time closer with Houston, but despite his success the Astros were still connected to big-time relievers at last year’s trade deadline. They ultimately bolstered their middle relief, trading for Oliver Perez, but the team was connected to both Chapman and Kimbrel among others late in July.
The Astros thinned out their farm system a bit with the trades for Perez, Carlos Gomez and Scott Kazmir this summer, and might be hesitant to ship out more prospect depth to pick up Chapman. But that being said, adding the Reds closer and sliding Gregerson to the eighth-inning role makes Houston that much better.
2015 wasn’t supposed to be the year the Astros made their run, as general manager Jeff Luhnow admitted that his project worked a year ahead of schedule. But 2016 is the year that the full-out Houston rebuild was supposed to start working, and with the Angels, Rangers and Mariners all set to be improved next season, they’ll need reinforcements to repeat and build on their success of 2015 in the American League West.
Next: No. 1: Boston Red Sox