Astros bolster 'pen with deal for Ferguson?

HOUSTON -- Astros general manager Dana Brown said the acquisitions he made prior to Tuesday’s Trade Deadline -- adding veteran starter Yusei Kikuchi on Monday and veteran reliever Caleb Ferguson on Tuesday -- addressed the team’s needs and put them in position to make another postseason push.

“I think our Deadline was very strong,” Brown said. “We feel very confident that we stabilized the rotation, we added to the back half of the ‘pen where we had rode those guys real hard early in the season. And so, we feel very confident that we did what we needed to do at this Deadline.”

One day after they sent three young players -- outfielder Joey Loperfido, infielder Will Wagner (No. 13 prospect) and pitcher Jake Bloss (No. 9 prospect) -- to the Blue Jays for the 33-year-old Kikuchi, the Astros sent Minor League pitcher Kelly Austin and $750,000 in international bonus money to the Yankees for Ferguson.

TRADE DETAILS
Houston receives: LHP Caleb Ferguson
Toronto receives: RHP Kelly Austin, $750,000 international bonus money.

Ferguson, 28, had a 5.13 ERA and 1.32 WHIP in 33 innings this year in the Yankees' bullpen. He’s struck out 41 and walked 15. He had a 3.43 ERA in 60 1/3 innings for the Dodgers last year. Lefties have a .639 OPS and .196 average against him in 2024.

Ferguson features a fastball that averages 94 mph and mixes in a cutter, slurve and sinker. His 26.5-percent K-rate is in the top 77 percent in baseball. Ferguson is expected to join the Astros on Wednesday.

“We like the arm,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “He’s really good against lefties and righties. We have seen things in his execution that we can help him with, so I’m excited to get him here and get him with our pitching guys and kind of walk him through a couple of things we think can help him be a more effective pitcher against both righties and lefties.”

Brown said the club explored adding a bat, but the price tag was too high. Houston will continue to use Jon Singleton as the starter at first base for the rest of the season while hoping injured right fielder Kyle Tucker, who’s been out since June 3 with a shin contusion, makes a return at some point.

“Ultimately, our biggest goal at the Deadline was to meet some needs with pitching,” Brown said. “We felt like getting a starter was very important and adding to the back end of the bullpen was another big thing because we rode those guys pretty hard in the first half. We did have some discussions about position players, but nothing materialized.”

When Justin Verlander, who’s been out since June 9 with a stiff neck, returns in the coming weeks, the Astros plan to employ a six-man rotation of Verlander, Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, Ronel Blanco, Spencer Arrighetti and Kikuchi. Brown, Blanco and Arrighetti could finish the season with career-high innings pitched, so a six-man rotation could help ease that concern.

“The starter and reliever we got in the last two days, you have a chance to go to a six-man rotation and you always have a chance to give these guys a breather,” Brown said. “And where it’s going to get really difficult is August. I think we’re pretty much set up to face that battle. The schedule in August is going to be tough. We know that and that’s part of what we had to do at the Trade Deadline.”