The Houston Astros Didn’t Live Up to Their Promise To Buy

The Houston Astros entered the trade deadline on a tear, winning 11 of 12 to assume first place in the AL West and establish themselves as surefire buyers after months of making that declaration.

Astros general manager Dana Brown said as early as June that Jeremy Peña and Christian Walker weren’t for sale, and he was rewarded for that vote of confidence by the team he assembled.

Despite a GM with his mind set on adding for months, even when the team was struggling mightily, there weren’t many players added to this roster. There’s just one new Astro after the Aug. 3 deadline, and all he had to do was walk across the field.

In a vacuum, Daulton Varsho is a solid addition to a postseason team. He was an especially good fit for the Astros as a left-handed outfielder who’s an above-average to elite defender in center field and a rental. In terms of fit and price, he’s perfect.

Even in the midst of a down year, Varsho is sporting a serviceable 91 wRC+ with seven home runs and nine stolen bases in 100 games. He’s owed a shade over $3 million the remainder of the season.

Then, context sets in.

For one, the return was Spencer Arrighetti. Arrighetti has had his struggles lately, throwing to an 8.34 ERA over 41 innings in June and July. Yet, he is still a starter with good strikeout stuff and 3.5 years of team control remaining. Plus, he was critical to getting Houston through the Hunter Brown-less months above water.

Arrighetti certainly lost some trust among fans and some value around the league with his poor performance of late, so maybe dealing him was acceptable.

Then comes the rest of what happened… which was nothing.

Yes, there was the proposed Trevor Larnach-for-Bryan Abreu trade that was allegedly nixed by Astros owner Jim Crane, but that likely would’ve replaced the Varsho deal.

Houston instead opted for the “getting injured players back is like a trade” approach. There were no pitching reinforcements, nor any bats to deepen the bench.

The Astros recently got Ronel Blanco and Hayden Wesneski back from injury, and both have had varying results.

Blanco has a 7.36 ERA in 14.2 innings, and Wesneski has a 3.86 ERA in 11.2 frames. Add in that Cristian Javier is back in the rotation with his 6.59 ERA and Tatsuya Imai is in the bullpen with a 5.55 ERA, and it puts a lot of pressure on Brown and Peter Lambert to be amazing.

The Astros didn’t have a great system to trade from, and teams had to be willing to deal starting pitching to make an upgrade. With the Royals holding onto Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo and the Reds keeping Brady Singer, the market was seemingly limited outside of who was traded.

But how much would it have cost to pry Shane Bieber from Toronto, Tomoyuki Sugano from Colorado or even Zack Littell from Washington? All three have been reliable in their own ways over their careers and could be rejuvenated by moving to a first-place team.

Then a bullpen addition or two would’ve been nice, because what contender couldn’t use an extra reliever? Josh Hader has been incredible again, Abreu has turned it around after a dreadful start to 2026, Steven Okert has been nails as a lefty and Bryan King, AJ Blubaugh and Enyel De Los Santos have all had quality seasons. Bennett Sousa has also come back for the ‘pen.

Still, there were lots of relievers dealt, and a few controllable arms that teams held onto. There were some shots the Astros could have taken to cover for any potential injuries. The bullpen wasn’t an essential need for Houston, but failing to add a reliever feels like a missed opportunity given the team’s lack of other additions.

Houston is in a fine spot right now, but the American League was wide open before the deadline, and the Rays, Yankees, Red Sox, White Sox and Guardians all made varying levels of improvements to their rosters. The Astros just didn’t do much after talking a big game. It’s time to find out if what they did was enough.