Deal details: Houston Astros acquire LHP Yusei Kikuchi from the Toronto Blue Jays for RHP Jake Bloss, OF Joey Loperfido and IF Will Wagner
The Blue Jays appear to be bowing to the inevitable and trading off their impending free agents, this time sending off disappointing starter Yusei Kikuchi to the Astros for a three-player return that might be the best value any seller has received so far at the deadline. Houston certainly could use some starting pitching depth, but this might have made it harder for them to acquire anything else they’ll need.
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Kikuchi is a little more than a replacement-level starter at this point, even with strong strikeout (26.2 percent) and walk (6.0 percent) rates, because the contact he allows is … well, it’s not great, Bob. He’s allowed an average exit velocity of 90.7 mph this year, and a 90th percentile EV allowed of 105.5 mph. Fully a quarter of the balls batters have hit off of him, fair or foul, have left the bat at 100 mph or more.
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He’s had particular trouble keeping right-handed batters in the park, as they’ve hit 14 of the 17 homers he’s allowed and are slugging .441 against him, which could be a problem with the Crawfish Boxes in left field in Houston.
The Astros have been surging in the standings but they are desperate for starting pitching, so I understand the impetus to get Kikuchi, but I’m not sure he moves the needle much for them.
Toronto picks up the guy Kikuchi is replacing in Houston’s rotation, right-hander Jake Bloss, drafted in 2023 out of Georgetown. He’s had mixed results in three big-league starts, giving up some hard contact of his own on his high-spin four-seamer, missing more bats with the curveball and sweeper while also using a true slider and changeup.
Lefties gave him some trouble last year and they have destroyed him in the majors so far, going 11-for-29 with two homers and just four strikeouts so far (small sample caveats apply). He has to use that changeup more, clearly, and I imagine the Jays will tweak his pitch mix to at least give him a better chance against lefties and to keep the ball from ending up in the bleachers. He has fourth/fifth starter upside.
Joey Loperfido was the Astros’ No. 6 prospect coming into the year and earned a promotion with a .272/.365/.568 line in Triple A, but, hey, big-league pitchers are better than Triple-A guys, and he’s going to have to work through some stuff after striking out 36.4 percent of the time so far in the majors. He’s a 55 runner who might be able to stick in center, with fringe-average power that probably makes him an extra outfielder if he has to move to a corner. He’s better than the small major-league sample implies, though.
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Will Wagner turned 26 on Monday, the day of the trade, and Toronto should give him the present of a major-league debut. He’s hitting .307/.424/.429 in Triple A and he can definitely hit, although he needs to loft the ball more to turn some more of those hard-hit groundballs into line drives. He’s at least a quality bench bat who can back up third, second, and first, but I’d like to see if a new organization can get him to drive the ball more and maybe turn him into a regular.
That’s three players with some sort of upside for a two-month rental of a pitcher who was replacement-level by bWAR. I’ll take that deal every day of the week.
(Top photo of Kikuchi: Dan Hamilton / USA Today)
