The Houston Astros’ outfield looks nothing like it did during the team’s championship era.
Obviously, the loss of All-Star right fielder Kyle Tucker looms largest. But the Astros are also playing nine-time All-Star second baseman José Altuve in left field in more than half of their games, and rookie Cam Smith is cutting his teeth in right.
Jake Meyers, the Astros’ starting center fielder, is having a shockingly good season on offense. His 119 OPS+ is 30 points above league average. Is that enough production for Houston to rule out any deadline trade additions?
One baseball analyst isn’t so sure. In fact, that analyst believes Houston could make a trade for a former All-Star who’s having about as bad a year as he could have imagined.
In a recent YouTube video, Jim Riley of BALLCAP Sports named Chicago White Sox center fielder Luis Robert Jr., who is in the final season of a $50 million arbitration extension, as a potential trade target for Houston.
“I do think that Luis Robert can get traded,” Riley said. “I think that the struggles that he’s going through maybe make it easier. Because if he was having a great season, the package of players that you would have to give up… may be a little uncomfortable.”
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“I have Houston… they could use that outfield upgrade, get Altuve into that everyday second base role.”
As Riley intimates, Robert has been shockingly bad this year. Despite a league-leading 21 stolen bases, he’s been worth only 0.4 bWAR, thanks to a career-worst .191 batting average and .586 OPS.
On merit from this season, there’s no reason for the Astros to justify swapping out Robert for Meyers in center. But if he picks his numbers up, perhaps a Robert-Meyers-Smith outfield could make sense in some configuration, with Altuve indeed back in his usual spot.
Still, Robert would have to show enough promise for the Astros to justify giving up some sort of prospect capital to acquire him.
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