A look back at James Click’s 2021 trade deadline
· Yahoo Sports
James Click awoke on July 27, 2021, with a serious problem on his hands. The Astros were 61-40, one game behind the Red Sox for the American League’s best record. They had the league’s best offense and the American League’s best rotation. The bullpen, however, could best be described as shaky.
The night before, Click watched as the Astros blew a 6-0 lead and lost 11-8 in Seattle. Five relievers combined to allow five runs over 3 1/3 innings, punctuated by Dylan Moore’s pinch-hit grand slam off Brooks Raley.
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Click’s bullpen finished that night with a 4.15 ERA, ranking 18th in Major League Baseball. It was the team’s lone glaring weakness, and with the trade deadline approaching, the then-Astros GM had work to do to ensure it wouldn’t prove fatal.
Despite overseeing one of baseball’s worst farm systems and having little financial flexibility, Click spent the next four days remaking the Astros’ bullpen—not only to position the club for a World Series run that season, but also to keep it in contention the following year while strengthening the organization’s future.
Trade 1: Joe Smith and Abraham Toro to Seattle for Kendall Graveman and Rafael Montero
Smith, Pedro Báez and Enoli Paredes were supposed to anchor the Astros’ bullpen from the right side ahead of Ryan Pressly. Smith and Paredes were ineffective, while Báez struggled with both injuries and poor performance. Toro, who homered in that July 26 game in Seattle, was an analytics darling but was blocked from playing every day.
After transitioning to the bullpen the previous season, Graveman had emerged as one of baseball’s best right-handed relievers in 2021, allowing just three earned runs over 33 innings. Montero, meanwhile, had struggled all season.
Graveman posted a 3.13 ERA after the trade and allowed just two earned runs over 11 postseason innings. Injuries limited Montero to just four regular-season games with the Astros in 2021, but he rebounded to post a 2.31 ERA in 71 games the following season. He also recorded a 1.93 ERA in the postseason while appearing in 10 of the Astros’ 13 playoff games.
Trade 2: Austin Pruitt and Bryan De La Cruz to Miami for Yimi Garcia
De La Cruz was a 24-year-old outfielder putting up strong numbers in Triple-A, but he wasn’t considered a top prospect. He has since posted a career 90 OPS+ in 493 major league games. Pruitt was included in the trade to offset some salary and clear a roster spot.
Garcia’s impact was greater than his numbers indicate. He posted a 5.48 ERA in 23 regular-season appearances, but that drops to 3.86 if you remove an outing against the A’s in which he allowed four runs while recording just one out in a 12-2 loss. His 7.00 ERA in the postseason is also misleading. Garcia allowed runs in only two of his 10 postseason appearances.
Trade 3: Myles Straw to Cleveland for Phil Maton and Yainer Diaz
Straw was in the middle of the best season of his career, one that ended with 3.3 bWAR. He posted a 105 OPS+ in 60 games with Cleveland, earning a lucrative contract extension. He won a Gold Glove in 2022, but this trade became Click’s masterpiece.
Center field became a revolving door between Chas McCormick, Jake Meyers and Jose Siri, but the Astros didn’t experience much of an offensive drop-off. Phil Maton put together an outstanding three-year run in Houston’s bullpen, and Yainer Diaz is now the club’s primary catcher.
Maton recorded a 0.73 ERA with 14 strikeouts and one walk in 12 postseason appearances in 2021 after holding opponents scoreless in 14 of his final 16 regular-season outings. He went on to post a combined 3.42 ERA over the next two seasons and threw six scoreless innings in the 2023 postseason, allowing just one hit and one walk while striking out six after a broken hand forced him to miss the Astros’ 2022 playoff run.
Summation
Straw has posted 7.8 bWAR with Cleveland and Toronto since the trade, while Toro has compiled just 0.8 bWAR across four teams. De La Cruz has performed at replacement level with four different clubs, while Joe Smith followed a solid finish to the 2021 season in Seattle by posting a 4.61 ERA with Minnesota before retiring.
That’s not much to give up for four relievers who combined for a 2.39 ERA over three postseason runs, plus a primary catcher who has already been worth 8.8 bWAR in his first 450 major league games.