Astros send three players to Blue Jays to add Yusei Kikuchi to struggling rotation

By Chandler Rome, Ken Rosenthal and Kaitlyn McGrath

HOUSTON — To round out their injury-ravaged starting rotation, the Houston Astros may have made one of the biggest overpayments of the trade deadline.

Houston acquired left-hander Yusei Kikuchi from the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night, giving the team stability in a sector where there was none.

The Blue Jays’ return includes promising pitcher Jake Bloss, who was held out of Monday’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. It also includes outfielder Joey Loperfido and infielder Will Wagner, the son of Astros great Billy Wagner.

Loperfido and Bloss both made their major league debuts this season. Wagner appeared to be on the brink of collapse, hitting .307/.424/.429 in 324 plate appearances in Triple-A Sugar Land this year. All three were ranked among the Astros’ top 12 prospects by Keith Law before the season began.

It’s a nice haul for Toronto, which employs former Houston general manager James Click as its vice president of baseball strategy. Astros owner Jim Crane fired Click after Houston won the 2022 World Series and replaced him with Dana Brown.

Kikuchi is ranked No. 33 overall — and No. 7 among starting pitchers — on Athleticism Top 50 Trade Deadlines. He is in the final year of a three-year, $36 million contract he signed with the Blue Jays ahead of the 2022 season.

Kikuchi will be eligible for the remainder of his $10 million salary before becoming a free agent at the end of the season, which would temporarily put the Astros above the second luxury tax threshold. Only a long-term extension — unlikely given that Kikuchi is a Scott Boras client — or an elite performance over the next two months could begin to explain the haul Houston gave up to get him.

Bloss has emerged as one of the team’s most promising pitchers this season, bypassing Triple-A entirely to make his major league debut in June. Loperfido has been a fixture in Houston’s major league outfield for most of the season, though a high strikeout rate has kept him from finding an everyday role. Wagner has been touted as an internal option to replace Alex Bregman next season, when he is expected to leave as a free agent.

Kikuchi, 33, has had his ups and downs with the Blue Jays, even losing his spot in the rotation in 2022. However, he has become a regular starter, starting a league-high 22 games.

Although he has a 4.75 ERA heading into Monday’s game, his 10.1 strikeout rate on nine earned runs puts him in the top 10 in the American League. A 3.64 FIP and .344 batting average on balls in play suggest some bad luck is behind his inflated ERA.

Kikuchi isn’t a front-row starting pitcher, and he’s not expected to be one as an Astro. He’s pitched at least 155 innings in two of the last three seasons, providing a volume of innings that few players in Houston’s current rotation have ever thrown.

Two of the team’s most consistent starters, Ronel Blanco and Hunter Brown, are on pace to break career highs in innings pitched. General manager Dana Brown and manager Joe Espada have both wanted to deploy a six-man rotation to give them some breathing room, but with six starters on the injured list, there aren’t enough players available to do that.

Kikuchi enters the scene, immediately slotting into a middle-rotation role behind Blanco, Hunter Brown and Framber Valdez. The fact that Kikuchi already has experience as a reliever could allow him to play in important games late in the season once Justin Verlander and Luis Garcia return from the injured list.

GO FURTHER

Eno’s Take on Yusei Kikuchi Trade: Astros Get Left-Handed Pitcher With Excellent Upside

(Top photo by Yusei Kikuchi: Norm Hall/Getty Images)