Why Trading Josh Hader Was The Biggest Mistake In Astros History
Josh Hader is back with the Astros but I want to take you on a trip down memory lane. Sometimes the butterfly effect in sports is crazy and I just want to bring one particular thing to your attention. Josh Hader was once a prospect in the Astros’ system and was shipped out of town prior to making his big league debut. Trading him away might have been the most costly mistake in franchise history.
Hader was traded to Milwaukee in the Carlos Gomez trade way back in 2015. There is so many layers to this trade but I’m going to break it down as simplistic as I can.
A: Gomez was terrible with Houston. In 126 career games with the Astros, Gomez slashed .218/.284/.318 with nine homers. A 72 OPS just ain’t it.
B: Milwaukee received Adrian Houser, Domingo Santana, and Brett Phillips along with Hader. All four reached the majors. Santana and Phillips were more so depth pieces but even a guy like Houser is a nice organisational arm posting a career 4.00 ERA in seven MLB Seasons. The depth pieces alone weren’t worth giving up for Gomez.
C: Mike Fiers was also traded to Houston as part of that deal. It was hard to see this coming at the tie but Fiers proved to be the ultimate devil in disguise. Fiers had a 4.59 ERA in three years with Houston. That was his worst ERA number out of any of the four teams he pitched with.
Except that’s not the crux of the real story. Fiers ended up being the guy who ratted out the organization in the sign-stealing scandal. If Fiers never plays for the Astros, I genuinely don’t think this scandal ever comes to light. If it does, it doesn’t reach the levels that it did. Fiers was the rat that MLB needed.
For the record, everyone should hate that guy but that’s a story for another day.
You see, it wasn’t just a mistake to trade Hader. Trading Hader also brought in the ultimate devil in disguise that cost the franchise several draft picks that set the franchise back. I’m just glad the universe has righted itself and Hader is finally back with the Astros. A place where he should have been pitching the whole time.
What’s funny is the guy who traded him away (Mike Elias) now works in Baltimore. The same team that selected Hader in the 19th round of the 2012 MLB Draft. Now that’s some cheese…
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