The buzz began early Friday when it became evident that Teagarden was going to be moved. The Cubs, A's and Yankees all made very competitive offers but at the last minute Houston swooped in with the winning bid.
After the dust settled Houston acquired the Rangers starting catcher and second baseman. Former Longhorn Texas Teagarden headlined the deal and former Cubs farm hand Ryan Flaherty will be the second act returning back to the division that drafted him. Heading to the Rangers is RHP Jeremy Jeffress, who made great stride with his control this year to go from above average prospect to the type of young arm that can headline a deal. In just his second major league start he tossed a 5 hit complete game shutout. Also going with him are two more arms, LHP Colton Pitkin and RHP Wily Peralta, and future Flaherty/Teagarden replacement in the slick fielding, speedster Jovianni Mier and power bat Derek Norris. Texas not only valued Norris' power bat but his reputation for handling pitchers as well.
As the Texas GM commented "We feel with this deal we take our weakness, pitching, and make it a strength" and that really sums it up for them. With Jeffress expected to immediately enter Texas' rotation and Pitkin and Peralta to be arriving at some point next year Texas might finally have found their pitching to go with their already potent line-up.
As for Houston, the implications aren't so clear cut. There's the small issue of a sub-.500 club acquiring talent, but with 2 years of club control left and youngster like Gaston and Barr knocking at the door it's not unreasonable to expect them to be competitive while Teagarden is here, but unless they lock him up this could turn into a major loss for Houston.
The bigger issues start to crop up when you look at the Astros depth chart. Jason Castro has been the heir apparent at catcher since being drafted in 08 by former GM Ed Wade. He's had an injury plagued season so far in 2011 and his stats have reflected that. For the time being they're moving him to first in hopes that dropping the catching responsibilities from his work load will result in improved hitting results, but many expect Alonso and his AAA .943 OPS to get a call up this year and start handling full time 1B duties next season. Could Castro become a deadline deal? If so what in the world could the Astros hope to acquire for him.
The only position more affected by this deal than catcher for the 'Stros is what to do with their infield. Punto hasn't got it done after getting an above market deal in free agency, Brian Roberts is signed for another 2.5 years at 10,000,000 annually, McGehee has been groomed for the past year as the Astros 2nd baseman and has done admirably thus far, and Chris Chris Johnson has been turning it on of late and if he keeps it up he'll easily surpass 20 dingers for the year and lost in this mix is the newly acquired Ryan Flaherty. If you include the Castro/Teagarden issue into the mix that leaves 5 infield spots for 7 players. Obviously Punto is one of the odd men out for now and Houston GM DJ Collora has said before he thinks Flaherty needs more seasoning but the second one of Flaherty, Alonso, Viciedo, Steele, or Gaston make the jump the major league the Astros will be forced to relegate a quality player to the bench.
Does this mean we're not done seeing the Astros make moves before the deadline? Can the Astros find a taker for Brian Roberts or Castro to clear up this log jam? If I were a betting man I'd say we haven't seen the last move for the Astros this year. It should certainly be interesting and this writer will certainly stay tuned.
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