4 Trade Candidates Emerging for Last-Place Astros

The Houston Astros are in a very unfamiliar spot this season: last place in the AL West Division (at least, tied for last heading into play on Thursday). With a 12-20 record and sitting dead last in all of baseball in team pitching, the Stros could be looking at selling at the trade deadline for the first time in over a decade.

With that, let's have a look at four emerging trade candidates from the Astros roster:

Christian Walker, 1B

The slugging first baseman is having a renaissance season at the age of 35, with a .959 OPS, a .299 average, and seven homers and 23 RBIs in 30 games. Houston would love to get off of the $20M they would still owe him in 2027. He's on pace for his 5th straight season of 25+ homers, and he'd certainly come in handy for a team in a pennant race.

Bryan Abreu, RP

The 29-year-old high-leverage reliever is off to an absolutely dreadful start to the 2026 season, with a stunning 12.96 ERA through 8.1 innings pitched. But he's held opponents scoreless in three of his last four outings (with one klunker thrown in between), and has been an elite late-inning arm for the previous four seasons in Houston. He has a career 2.90 ERA and 12.3 strikeouts per nine.

Enyel De Los Santos, RP

The temporary closer while Josh Hader is out is not an elite pitcher by any means, but his high-leverage use could interest some teams.

Lance McCullers Jr., SP

The 32-year-old was once one of the more promising arms in the Astros rotation, but injuries wiped out over three seasons for McCullers, and he's still trying to regain his form. His season-opening start of seven innings of one-run ball with nine strikeouts gave a tantalizing glimpse of what he can do, if healthy. His numbers have dropped off since then, but some team might be willing to see if they can get him back to the All-Star form of much earlier in his career. He's not ancient, after all, at just 32.