Houston Astros: Myles Straw a casualty of organizational depth
We can see the window closing on the Houston Astros playoff chances. No, not this year, but in the near future. The Astros are well on their way to a fifth straight postseason and they wanted to shore up an area of weakness. To do so, they were forced to trade from an area of strength.
Houston did a lot to rectify their bullpen issues at the trading deadline this year. They acquired Kendall Graveman and Rafael Montero from the Seattle Mariners. They acquired Yimi Garcia from the Miami Marlins. They acquired Phil Maton from the Cleveland Indians. All relievers will slot in nicely to a bullpen which has been overworked and underwhelming this year.
In the Maton trade, the Astros had to part with starting centerfielder, Myles Straw. The light hitting Straw, was not tearing the cover off the ball, but he was starting to come into his own. On an explosive offense which features Yordan Alvarez, Jose Altuve, and Carlos Correa (not to mention Alex Bregman who is returning from the Injured List, soon), the Astros were happy with the production they received from Straw.
Straw led the team in stolen bases, was fourth in walks, and batted a respectable .262. They would have been just fine running him out there in the playoffs with those numbers. If only the bullpen wasn’t atrocious and there weren’t a few guys behind Straw on the depth chart, making him expendable.
Myles Straw was traded from the Houston Astros because they have organizational depth in the outfield.
Click: "We felt like we still needed one more weapon out there in the bullpen to solidify things out there. I felt Chas McCormick had done everything to earn a lot more playing time. He's been exceptionally effective... Jake Meyers can bring a lot of athleticism to the team."
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) July 30, 2021
Chas McCormick will slide into the starting centerfield position and brings more power to the dish than Straw. Jake Meyers was hitting .343 with an OPS over 1.000 at Triple-A when he was recalled. Meyers is 25 and ready to show he can contribute at the big league level. Jose Siri and Ronnie Dawson await their turn at Triple-A, and either of them could find themselves as a fourth outfielder before long.
Bryan De La Cruz was another outfielder the Astros had stashed at Triple-A, that they were able to move as a part of the Garcia trade earlier in the week.
Next. Astros add Garcia in trade. dark
As for Straw, he’ll get an opportunity to showcase his talents in Cleveland, on a lesser stage. He would have been just fine batting seventh and playing center for the Astros come playoff time, but the ‘Stros had other thoughts.