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Yordan Alvarez is off to a hot start, but if the Astros cannot bounce back into contention, an NL West contender could be willing to make a play for him.
The Houston Astros are off to about as bad of a start as possible. They sit at the bottom of the American League West, and at 10-16 have the third worst record in the junior circuit. They are only 3 1/2 games back in the wild card and AL West races, but now is the time for them to pull themselves together.
If they can’t, Yordan Alvarez could be somebody that ends up on the trade market this summer. He is off to a hot start, hitting .347/.466/.779 with 11 home runs, 26 RBI and a 1.245 OPS.
But if the Astros are out of contention, a trade would make sense. Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report proposed the idea of the San Diego Padres making a push for Alvarez.
“It’s just a matter of time before Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill start hitting, which therefore makes it a bit soon to fret about the Padres’ relatively slow offensive start. They only have a .671 OPS as a team,” Rymer wrote.
“But if they’re going to take down the Death Star that is the Los Angeles Dodgers, it helps to have as many Luke Skywalkers as possible.
To this end, Alvarez would be to the lineup what Mason Miller is to the bullpen. Those other guys are darn good, but a fully functional Alvarez is on his own level as a hitter, and he’s proven that this can be especially true in October.”
Yordan Alvarez’s Potential Fit in San Diego
Alvarez would fit quite nicely in San Diego with all of the big bats the Padres have, and could give the Padres’ lineup a completely different look as they try to take down the Dodgers in the NL West.
However, there’s one problem here. The Astros are going to want a massive haul of prospects in return for Alvarez if they do trade him, and the Padres don’t exactly have the best farm system.
In fact, the depth in the minor leagues took a major hit when the Padres traded for Mason Miller. They don’t have the top prospects to offer the Astros, so that makes a deal between the two teams unlikely.
While it makes sense for the Padres to pursue Alvarez, they don’t have what it’s going to take to get the Astros to budge. The Astros themselves have a thin farm system, so what the Padres do have to offer wouldn’t help them anyway.
Astros Should Find Better Trade Partner
In truth, the Astros are going to need to find a better trade partner for Alvarez if he ends up on the block this summer. The Padres don’t have what they will be looking for, but other teams will be willing to pay that price, as long as they have the pieces to get a deal done.
But it would not be in Houston’s best interest to make a deal with the Padres in this case. They need to add future assets, and they need the best possible ones to get where they want to go.
Curt Bishop Curt Bishop is a freelance sports writer who has written for various outlets including Heavy Sports, Sports Illustrated, FanSided, The Sporting News, Newsweek and Yardbarker. His work entails mostly breaking and trending news with a concentration on Major League Baseball (MLB). Curt graduated from Maryville University of St. Louis with a bachelor's degree in communications with a focus on emerging and new media, as well as a music minor. More about Curt Bishop