The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian McTaggart On The Latest With The Astros Trade Deadline

Episode Date: July 31, 2025

Brian McTaggart On The Latest With The Astros Trade Deadline 

Great friend of the show, Brian McTaggart, with us here to talk trade deadline for the next 12 or 13 minutes. Normally it's a good 10 minutes with him. Going 12 or 13 with him. Wow. Overtime. He's going to want overtime. He's going to claim extra money.

That's for sure. He'll be in Boston. Tomorrow you're going to be meeting a new third baseman. Brian, the question will be, will you be meeting anybody else by the time the Astros and Red Sox played tomorrow at Fenway Park? Yeah, that's a good question. I think so. If they can get there

I certainly think the Astros I know they're working on some other things here today and I'd be surprised if they don't get something done obviously they still want to get a starting pitcher I don't think they're done looking for offensive upgrades so Urias trade is just part of it but this is by no means their big move I think that's still to come if they can pull it off

Let's go to Arias for a second It feels like to me maybe I'm wrong is he just in theory of perhaps better Maricio DuBahn or are they one of the same at this point? Yeah, I mean, it looks like they're a little interchangeable. I mean, to me, Dubon's is more valuable because he can play the outfield.

Urius is more of an infielder. I mean, he played almost exclusively third base this year. So, yeah, I think it just gives them somebody they can put it third, see what else they can do, what other, you know, what are the kind of bats they can get. but if they're not able to pull off something, at least they have somebody they can put it third that plays a goal off third base,

can handle the bat a little bit. That's, you know, an upgrade over, you know, Zach Short and, and Shea Whitcomb and some of the guys have been playing here in the last couple of weeks. So, but I mean, I guess, you know, is there a chance? Maybe they moved to Dubon somewhere.

I know they don't want to trade off the major league roster, but he just does so many things. I just, don't know if that would be a good move for them. All right. Let's get to another infielder been talked about. Carlos Correa spoke yesterday in Minneapolis. The rumors have not died completely, although the Urius move probably slows it down a little bit. It feels like to me, and we were talking about this last hour, that there's been

consistencies in Jim Crane's ownership since the team has been relevant. One, he's not going to give you super lengthy long contracts. He will give you fair market value, but it will not be for the 8-9 mega deal. And number two is if there is a star player that he has his eye set on and he really wants him, he's going to tell his general manager, whomever it is to go get it. Whether it's Verlander, not once but twice, whether it is at Granky, whether it is going to get Josh Hater in free agency. And in this particular case, this feels Jim Crane driven.

So let me ask you, why do you think if you were able to get into the head of the owner of this baseball team, why Carlos is so appealing, especially because there is so much money attached to the remainder of his contract. Yeah, I mean, first of all, I think the twins would have to eat a significant amount of the remainder of their contract. I mean, that teams for sale. I think that they're obviously trying to shed some payroll here. You know, how much of the remaining three years would they be willing to eat?

Crane's also a businessman, and he knows that getting Kray in here is going to provide a boost. It's going to provide a spark. You know, remember when they both times they traded for Verlander, especially the first time, it was like, wow, you know, Verlanders here or Verlanders' back. and, you know, provided a spark. That being said, a lot of times these reunions don't work out very well. You know, Correa is, you know, not the player he was. Still a good player.

I think he could be a really good third baseman. I think it would be a popular move in the clubhouse, certainly with a guy like Jose Altuve and, you know, if he's on board, then everyone else is going to get on board. I mean, he would be a player that could help them. But it's weird because I still think their biggest need is a left-handed bat. And, you know, you are going to get Paredes back probably next year. Then you have Correa, Urius, a little bit of a log jam there.

So I see why they'd want to do it. I'm not sure it's the best fit at this point. Willie Castro, you know, left-handed hitting infielder who, you know, can move around a little bit for the twins and doesn't make all that money, makes a lot more sense. So but Astros will probably got a lot of fires, a lot of irons in the fire, you know, looking at a lot of different things. And that's just one of them. And with the irons and the fire, and we've talked about this farm system for the Astros, just the deals you've been. kind of seeing around baseball and kind of relating that to what the Astros have to give up. Where do you think that puts the Astros as far as getting in possible bidding wars?

Yeah, well, they're probably a little bit of going after, you know, some of these guys that a lot of teams are after. I mean, we just, you know, the trade went down with the Padres and A's and, you know, A's are sent them, Padres are sending one of the best prospects in baseball to the A's, you know, probably a better prospect than the Astros have. So that's going to make it a little bit more difficult. But they do have prospects to get deals done. You know, they don't want to trade off the Major League roster, but guys like Jacob Melton and Shea Whitcomb and, you know,

Chas McCormick could probably use a change of scenery at this point. Not that he's not that he's going to help you get a deal done, but he could be part of a deal. But it's going to come down to prospect capital, what they have to offer. You know, they do have a lot of arms in the upper levels of their prospect rankings that I'm sure some other teams would like to get their hands on. So that's part of it. It probably, you know, obviously in a disadvantageous spot than a lot of other teams

just because they just don't have the overall, the quality of upper level prospects that a lot of other teams do, including the Mariners who are, you know, pulled off the Suarez trade. And I don't think they, you know, give up one of their top 10 prospects. So that was a big coup for them. Brian McTaggart with us here on Sports Talk 790. And that was going to be my next question. much more urgency do you think there is from Dana Brown with what the Mariners are doing? Yeah, I mean, I think I think Dana had urgency anyway.

I think, you know, he knows that with all the injuries and, you know, Alvarez, I don't think you can really count on, you know, when he's going to come back, if at all this year. Paredes looks like he's out. There's urgency there to add a left-handed bat. But, you know, the team that's behind you in the standings has gone out and added Josh Naylor and now Suarez. They already have put him in a line up with J.P. Crawford, Cal Rally.

That is a pretty deep top of the lineup. They already have a really good rotation. So they're five games behind the Astros, but right now, their roster is better and significantly better and healthier. So, yeah, Dana's aware of that, and that's why I think they're not done. They've got to make a move or two for a starting pitcher and another bat. So help me out, and maybe you don't have a contact in San Diego, but just the general baseball.

So the Padres go to get Mason Miller, but Dylan Cs remains out there. are they moving from cease? Well, he's a free agent at the end of the year. They'll get something for him. He's making $14 million. So it's sort of a matter of let's get something while we can, and we'll replace him with his agency here and is under control for a few more years. So sort of just kicking the can down the road a little bit with a starting pitcher,

but CIS is a guy that a lot of teams are going to want, so they're probably going to be able to get a couple of prospects for him. And otherwise, they would lose them at the end of the year. agency likely. So the fact they went out and got Mason Miller, you know, a reliever, and got J.P. Sears, a starter. That makes C.S. a little bit more expendable now just because he is a free agent. He's making a lot of money. And so they'll give him some payroll flexibility here for the rest of the year. All right. If it's not CSE and clearly they are still looking for something in terms of pitching, does that give you the sign one way or the other that

they're not completely sure the guys that are on the farm and these rehab guys? You can come back and help. Are they worried about using Ryan Gusto the rest of the years? Maybe a back-in guy. Are they worried about keeping McCullors? Why would? And maybe there's age old thought of in baseball. We had Jim Bonnan last week that backed it up.

You can't have enough starting pitching. So maybe that's just a simplistic answer. But is there a party that says if they're kicking the tires on Dylan's cease, that maybe they're not sure that what they have, even when the guys come back, and I'm including irrigating the mix, are going to be guys that can go. go deep into ball games and they can help you win a September pennant race. Yeah, I think there's no doubt. You know, Eric Getty was a rookie last year who had a really good second half,

what made two starts this year. Looks still very much out on him. They're still way better off with him in the rotation over some of the other guys they have. But Luis Garcia hasn't pitched in two years. Javier hasn't pitched in more than a year. J.P. France hasn't pitched since early last year when, you know, his shoulder was falling off. So those three guys specifically, and even Harrogati, yeah, you don't know what you're going to get. Dylan Cis is a guy who makes 33 starts every single year.

And granted, the Astros get him. They're going to need him to make 10 or 11 starts, but he's going to do that. And he hasn't had a great year, but, I mean, he was a top five Sall Young finisher last year. And if you can maybe tweak him a little bit like they did with Cicucci, put him behind Hunter Brown and Franber Valdez. Dylan Cis, those one, two, three in a playoff series, that stacks up with. anybody, including the Mariners. And I think they just want a third guy who is a horse that they know in the playoffs, they can trot out there and match up with other teams. I mean, last year they had Kukuchi, and I guess he was going to start game three of the Wild Card Series, and they never

got there. So obviously the goal is to get the first or second seed. And so you don't have to play in that wild card series, and they can stack up their pitching as they want for the division series. A couple more minutes with Brian McTaggart with us here on 790. Are Jacob Melton and Bryce Matthews untouchable, in your opinion? I don't think Jacob Milton is. I would say Bryce Matthews is just because the way they talk about him so highly. He's also Dana Brown's first draft pick.

I think it would be hard for Dana to let go of him at this point. I mean, he came up and had a couple of good games in Arizona. But overall, it's been a little overmatched at times, you know, offensively and defensively. So I guess it just depends, you know, what's, your price, but it would surprise me, I guess, if they traded Bryce Matthews, would not surprise me if they traded Jacob Melton at this point. All right. Well, this interview has to go in the natural direction. Trade deadline interviews go, Brian. Crystal Bull. Time. What do you think happens between now

and the deadline at 5 p.m.? I do think they'll get a starting pitcher. I know as of last night, CIS was their main target and things were progressing maybe a little bit towards something getting done. So I'm going to I'm going to stick with that they do land, Dylan Cise. And I'm a little bit less clear on a bat. There's probably a lot of options. But I do think they'll also land a left-handed bat. And so, you know, how big of an impact player that will be remains to be seen. But I think it's safe to say when we get to Boston tomorrow.

There's going to be a handful of new faces, probably including Jeremy Pena. And three or four guys who took the flight to Boston are going to be flying elsewhere. So it's, you know, what we got about six hours to go, a little less than six hours. hour, so it's going to be very interesting. I love this conversation. Tags, great stuff is always from you, my friend. Safe travels to Bean Town, and we'll talk again next week. All right. Sounds good. Thanks, guys.