Astros trade for Yusei Kikuchi from Blue Jays

HOUSTON (SportsRadio 610)- With the trade deadline approaching, the Astros made a move to bolster their injury-riddled starting rotation by acquiring left-hander Yusei Kikuchi from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for Jake Bloss, Joey Loperfido, and Will Wagner.

Kikuchi, 33, is 4-9 this season in 22 starts with a 4.75 ERA. He has struck out 130 batters in 115.2 innings and will provide a boost to a team with seven starters currently on the injured list.

Talks between the Astros and Blue Jays started more than 10 days ago, and while he admitted the price was high, Astros general manager Dana Brown said he had to add a starting pitcher.

"There were names of pretty good arms coming off the board," Brown said. "Ultimately, you don't want to get caught not doing anything to help the major league team get back to the postseason, and so I feel like the later it gets sometimes the higher the price can get."

While Kikuchi's ERA is elevated from the 3.86 number he posted last season, his strikeout rate has increased to 26.2 percent from 25.9 percent, and his walk rate has decreased from 6.9 percent to 6.0 percent, and his FIP is more than a run higher than his ERA.

"What I'm excited about is just to get him with our pitching department and make some adjustments to how he pitches, how he can be more efficient, but this stuff is really good," Astros manager Joe Espada said. "It's plus stuff. "He's been successful in the (American League) East there for a while, so we are really excited to have him."

An All-Star with Seattle in 2021, Kikuchi is in the final year of a three-year, $36 million contract.

Bloss, the Astros third round pick of 2023 draft, and their ninth rated prospect according to MLB.com was slated to start Monday's game against the Pirates. He went 0-1 in three starts with a 6.94 ERA after being called up from Double-A Corpus Christi in June.

Loperfido, 25, slashed .236/.299/.358 in 38 games after joining the Astros Major League roster in April. The Astros 7th round draft pick in 2021 entered the season as the team's 6th best prospect by MLB.com.

Wagner, the son of former All-Star Billy Wagner, slashed .307/.424/.429 in 70 games for Triple-A Sugar Land this season. The Astros 18th round pick of the 2018 draft turned 26 years old on Monday. MLB.com rated him as the Astros 13th best prospect.

"In order to get a major league starter with that type of arm you're gonna have to give up some pretty good players," Brown said. "That hurt, and it's pretty difficult to give up young talent, but at the end of the day we're trying to really stabilize our rotation so that we can get back to the postseason."

Though the price was high, Brown accomplished his top goal of adding a starting pitcher before Tuesday's 5:00 pm trade deadline, and he signaled late Monday night he may not be done making moves.

"We're still grinding through it. We're still trying to make decisions to, whether it's maybe add another bullpen piece, whether it's trying to maybe add a bat if we could. The main priority was the starter, as I've been saying, because our rotation's beat up."