Grading Dana Brown and the Houston Astros front office at the season’s midway point

Acquired or traded

Perhaps the uncertainty over exactly who was the decision-maker in Houston confused general managers of the other 29 teams. For whatever reason, since the end of the 2022 season, the Astros have essentially taken a pass on any trades, waiver wire claims, purchase or sales of players if those transactions involved other teams.

Remarkably, only two players came to Houston directly from other clubs, and not a single 2022 Astro was dealt, waived or sold to another major league entity.

Beyond that, the two players who were shipped to Houston from other clubs have both served only the most peripheral functions.

In early December, when Crane, Bagwell or somebody other than Brown was calling the shots, the Astros put in a waiver claim on Rylan Bannon, an infielder who had been similarly claimed by the Cubs two weeks earlier.

To that point, Bannon’s entire major league experience consisted of four games with the Orioles and one with the Braves. When the Braves put him on waivers at season’s end, the Cubs claimed him, only to immediately turn around and waive him to the Astros.

It’s not clear what the Astros wanted with Bannon, who played only two late April games with the Astros before being sent down to Triple-A. He has since been sidelined with a fractured index finger.

The second pickup belonged to Brown. In February, a few weeks after Brown was appointed GM, he claimed Matt Gage on waivers from the Toronto Blue Jays, who had signed him as a free agent a year earlier.

Again, Gage’s major league experience was virtually non-existent. It consisted of 11 games with the Jays in 2022. Called up in early May, he pitched in three games, was sent down, was recalled in mid-June, pitched in two more games and was sent down again.

All that being the case, it won’t surprise you to learn that the total contribution of the Astros’ trade excursions works out to -0.1 WAA.