The Houston Astros have finished a deal with the Toronto Blue Jays that will net them a slew of prospects along with Major League role players Ben Francisco and Francisco Cordero in exchange for Brandon Lyon, J.A. Happ, and David Carpenter. This is a trade that will improve Houston’s farm system while Toronto adds some big league upgrades without giving up any top prospects.
The Blue Jays get a more reliable reliever in Lyon and a potential long term high-leverage relief arm in Carpenter who I thought would be closing games in Houston by this time this year. ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweeted:
Some scouts thinks David Carpenter, acquired by #BlueJays in 10-player trade, has closer potential. “Quality arm,” says one scout.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) July 20, 2012
J.A. Happ still has two years of arbitration left and has a career best 8.45 K/9 and has improved his BB/9 to 3.36. Happ also has a career best 46.9% groundball rate but he is still giving up too many homeruns, his Achilles heel, at 1.47 HR/9 and his career mark is 1.18. Happ is 19 years old and has never pitched more than 166 innings in a season and has only been worth 3.6 fWAR in his career. The AL East may not be so kind to Happ.
The Astros free up some money right away with this deal and get a slew of mid-level prospects to add to their ever improving system. Cordero and Francisco are likely only filler pieces for the Astros 2012 roster and neither is guaranteed any money in 2013.
Joseph Musgrove is the prized prospect in this group but profiles more as a middle-of-the-rotation guy. He is a big framed right-hander who has good fastball velocity to go with good control. He also as a breaking ball that has above-average potential and he is developing a change-up. He has not pitched since late June but had 9 strikeouts in 8 innings without allowing a walk. He will play all of 2013 at the age of 20.
Asher Wojciechowski is another big framed pitcher capable of eating innings at the back of a rotation but his mechanics are a bit out of whack and could lead him to a bullpen role. He limits walks by throwing a lot of strikes but leaves too many hittable pitches out of the plate. The Astros will keep him as a starter, though, until they feel the need to move him to the pen. He is repeating High-A at age 23 with good results and needs to be tested in Double-A soon.
Carlos Perez is a solid defensive catcher who has thrown out 33% of attempted base stealers in almost 450 career attempts against him and he is only 21 years old. He is a patient hitter with good plate coverage and gap power and a solid hit tool who could turn out to be an above-average regular with more consistency behind the plate.
David Rollins is the sleeper in this group as more of a finesse lefty with a fastball that reaches 90 and a low-80s slider but it is his above-average change-up and command that are his bread-and-butter. He will be 23 next season and has yet to reach High-A so there has been no real challenge for this college arm who knows how to pitch despite no plus offerings. He could be a back-end starter if all works out.
Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos improves his current roster for a shot at a Wild Card spot without giving up any pieces that were key to his franchise’s future. Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow swapped some pieces that saved him money and a potential hazard in Happ who is a fifth starter that will command over $4M next year in arbitration for some solid prospects. I understand why Anthopoulos made this trade but I absolutety love it from Lunhow’s side.
-Jonathan C. Mitchell can be found writing about the Tampa Bay Rays at DRaysBay and the Florida Marlins at ESPN’s SweetSpot site Marlins Daily. You can follow him on twitter at @FigureFilbert. Be sure to follow MLBdirt at @MLBdirt
