Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic calls the current situation untenable.
MLB Insider Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic believes the Astros must trade 3B Isaac Paredes and get a lefthanded hitting outfielder.
It’s a great idea in theory, one Astros GM Dana Brown has been trying to execute for several months. There’s just one slight problem with the plan: another team
has to have a player you want and they have to be willing to trade them to you for Paredes.
Who knew such a small problem would be such a thorn in the Astros’ side in trying to make a deal?
Entering the offseason, there seemed to be two deals that made a ton of sense for the Astros to make:
- trade Christian Walker to the Mets for SP Kodai Senga.
- trade Isaac Paredes to the Red Sox for Jarren Duran.
They did neither.
Instead Senga is buried as the Mets’ 5th/6th starter and talks between the Red Sox and Astros are dead (at least for now) as Rosenthal said the two clubs haven’t been in recent contact.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7081393/2026/03/03/houston-astros-dana-brown-isaac-paredes-trade/
Key snippets from Rosenthal’s article:
The necessary move is to trade third baseman Isaac Paredes for a left-handed-hitting outfielder, an idea the Astros have discussed most thoroughly with the Boston Red Sox, according to people briefed on the discussions. Talks stalled, however, and the clubs have not been in recent contact.
The Red Sox, even after acquiring Caleb Durbin from Milwaukee, still look like the best fit for Paredes — they could play him at third and Durbin at second without needing to rely on Marcelo Mayer. The Astros are not getting back Wilyer Abreu, whom they traded in 2022 for catcher Christian Vázquez. A deal constructed around Jarren Duran should remain within reach. By moving Duran, the Red Sox would create DH at-bats for Masataka Yoshida and eventually Triston Casas, who could return in May from a ruptured patellar tendon in his left knee.
The problem is that the Red Sox’s trade for Durbin improved their negotiating position while weakening the Astros’. Brown, then, might need to get creative, possibly involving a third team, possibly pivoting from the Red Sox entirely.
Now, I don’t fully understand why the Astros are allegedly so averse to a player like Duran in LF, who has led the AL in triples back to back years (27 total) hit over 40 doubles back to back years, hit 37 HRs in that span as well as stolen 58 bases. He seems like a pretty good offensive player. He also graded out with 11 defensive runs saved last season in LF per baseball reference, although statcast graded him at -5 outs above average.
Duran also makes $7.7M this season (so less than Paredes) and has 2 years of team control. Duran is also the OF the Red Sox were looking to move. The Astros were set on their former prospect Wilyer Abreu, whom the Red Sox have no interest in parting with.
As you look around the league, there aren’t a lot of quality lefthanded hitting OFs that are either available or on teams that would be willing to make a deal for a player like Isaac Paredes, who is a win now type of offensive impact player making $9.35M this season.
So if the Astros can’t find the deal they feel gives the equivalent value for Paredes, is it time to pivot to trading Walker?
Now, there has been little interest in Walker this offseason, partly because he’s coming off a down season (although a solid 2nd half) and partly because of the remaining 2 years and $40M on his contract.
I don’t know how much the Astros would be willing to eat on his deal, but the longer they wait to pull a deal to clear the logjam in the infield, the less leverage they are going to have unless they decide to wait out injury – a risky proposition because there is no guarantee a team that suffers an injury will still make a trade.
If the Astros value Paredes as much as they claim to, and they can’t get what they think is the right value, then they should pivot to dealing Walker, and be flexible on the money they have to eat. Maybe it’s half. Maybe its 75%.
The Padres don’t have a real 1B, they currently have a left fielder listed at 1B on their depth chart. They looked into acquiring Nolan Arenado and playing him at 1B. Clearly, Walker would be a better option than Arenado. Just at what price point for the Astros (salary pay down) and the Padres (return).
About a month ago, David Schoenfield of ESPN had posited a trade idea of Walker to San Diego in exchange for RP Bradgely Rodriguez.
From Schoenfield’s article: This would be an alternate trade option to Paredes for Houston, with him then playing first base. Walker didn’t have a good first season in Houston, his OPS+ slipping from 120 to 97, although he hit 27 home runs and Statcast still viewed him as a plus defender at first base. (Other metrics weren’t as generous, but Walker won three straight Gold Gloves from 2022 to 2024, so I would be more inclined to go with the Statcast evaluation.)
After finishing 28th in home runs in 2025, the Padres need more power, and with Walker at first, they can slide Jake Cronenworth on a full-time basis over to second base. The current alignment doesn’t project well, with the Padres ranking 28th in FanGraphs’ projected WAR at first base (a mix of Gavin Sheets and Cronenworth) and 20th at second base (a combo of Cronenworth and Sung-Mun Song). Rodriguez is a big-league ready reliever who can help a Houston bullpen that is a little thin from the right side beyond Bryan Abreu, and while the Astros would have to pay down some of the $40 million owed to Walker the next two seasons, trading him would still clear some payroll to make another move.
Rodriguez isn’t currently listed on the ESPN Depth Chart for the Padres, but he finished 2025 as the Padres #6 prospect. He throws a high 90s fastball that can touch 101, and a devastating change in the mid-to-high 80s. If Josh Hader were to be out for an extended time, Rodriguez has the kind of stuff to be the bridge to Abreu, and he’s only 22 (and CHEAP!).
The Astros may not want to pay down however much of Walker’s contract to get a deal done, but in a case like this, they should be open to paying down as much as $14M per year. A fireballing young RHP in the pen is exactly one of the deficiencies in their roster.
Now maybe that deal isn’t available – but it’s the kind of deal they should be looking for when moving Walker.
While it doesn’t address the lefthanded OF situation, it does address another need on the roster, it gets Paredes in the lineup every day, and I think giving Zach Cole an opportunity is something the team should be heavily considering.
If Joey Loperfido has truly made adjustments in his swing that have garnered improved results as Dana Brown said when they re-acquired him in trade, I have no issue in giving him a chance either.
If Cam Smith shows he isn’t ready, then give him the season in Triple-A he should have gotten last year. That would give the Astros two lefthanded bats in the corners who are both plus defenders with big arms., it keeps Yordan primarily at DH, and gives the Astros one of the best defensive outfields in the game. It’s a lot easier to survive with guys like Shay Whitcomb or Zach Dezenzo as 4th/5th OF guys (who can also play some IF for you as well) who play the short side of a platoon. It’s not hard to get a righthanded hitting platoon OF either, they are cheap and readily available.
As the spring goes on and the Astros leverage in dealing Paredes wanes, the more I would be inclined to eat the money and move Walker.
A lesser return for Walker means paying less down, but the right return for Walker, I think Houston should consider paying as much as 70% of Walker’s deal.
They’ve backed themselves into this corner. I’d rather buy my way out than surrender one of my better hitters on a discount.
Would you rather the Astros move Walker at this point? Let us know in the comments below.
