The Houston Astros ‘badly want’ Bumgarner, Wheeler, or Bauer, but is that enough to help them beat the Yankees and reach a World Series?
The New York Yankees are targeting starting pitching and relief pitching before the Trade Deadline on July 31 at 4 ET. Well, they might have hit a little bit of a roadblock because their biggest threat to reaching the World Series, the Houston Astros, reportedly “badly want” to acquire Madison Bumgarner, Trevor Bauer, or Zach Weeler before the Wednesday afternoon deadline.
If the Astros were to trade for one of the three starters they would definitely be the favorites not to just make it to the World Series, but to win it.
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Their bullpen may be the biggest question mark but it has been better than previous years with Ryan Pressly and Roberto Osuna closing out games.
Some may bring up the fact that after Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole Houston’s rotation isn’t very solid, but in the postseason there is a lot of travel days to rest.
For a 7 game series, they play 2 then have a day off, play three, have a day off, and then the final two so Verlander and Cole would be able to pitch potentially 5 times combined (Verlander three times, Cole twice).
But if they add a starter then that rotation suddenly gets a whole lot deeper, especially when there is a lot of rest days involved in a series.
On the other hand, the New York Yankees are still searching for starters but I feel like Brian Cashman might just try to deepen their bullpen in an attempt to combat their ‘so-so’ rotation.
Their bullpen is already deep, but Dellin Betances is not back yet so they don’t know how efficient he will be when he does come back, and Luis Severino may be nearing a return but a solid bullpen piece would really help New York in October.
Names like Kirby Yates, Felipe Vasquez, and maybe even Edwin Diaz could be some potential targets.
Regardless, if the Houston Astros do add Bumgarner, Bauer, or Wheeler then I do believe they are the favorites to win not just the American League pennant but the World Series.