Dana Brown: Astros listening to offers on ‘anybody’

Dana Brown: Astros listening to offers on ‘anybody’

The 2025 Winter Meetings kicked off Monday in Dallas, Texas, and Houston Astros general manager Dana Brown was very open about listening to offers for all players, including a pair of stars in outfielder Kyle Tucker and starter Framber Valdez.

“We’ll listen on anybody. We’re not trying to aggressively move anybody out the door… If it doesn’t make sense, we wouldn’t do it,” Brown said, according to Matt Kawahara of The Houston Chronicle. “So it really would have to make sense. Because right now we’re a good team and we’re not motivated to move any of these guys.”

This doesn’t mean that either is on the trade block, however.

Though both Valdez and Tucker will be entering the last years of their respective deals; Valdez is projected to make $18.8 million in arbitration while Tucker is projected to make $16.7 million, according to Spotrac.

There’s a world where the Astros part with at least one of those two players before the season, but I don’t expect that to be the case. Tucker is coming off an injury-riddled 2024 season (shin), playing just 78 games with a .289/.408/.993 slash line. He still crushed 23 home runs with 49 RBIs in 78 games (339 PAs)–equating to a 41-homer, 87-RBI pace per 600 plate appearances.

He’s going to be entering his age-28 season and is an elite defender and base runner. Tucker isn’t going to be as wanted as Juan Soto, but he’s expected to headline next year’s free agency class along with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., assuming both don’t sign extensions this winter.

Valdez would immediately be one of the more coveted arms in the market if he was traded. He’s as consistent as consistent will come. Valdez doesn’t have the swing-and-miss stuff that prototypical aces do, but he’s excellent at keeping the ball in the ballpark and is a premier innings eater.

It shouldn’t be contingent on just one player, but I am guessing Houston’s order of operations would change depending on Alex Bregman‘s decision. The Astros don’t have a good farm system and could capitalize on the current market by slightly re-tooling and recouping assets if they don’t plan on re-signing either player.

Some general managers aren’t shy during the Winter Meetings. Others are more meticulous with their words, but it doesn’t appear that Brown and Co. are heading into 2025. They’re not going to give guys away for anything, so I’ll be very interested to see how these talks develop throughout the offseason.

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