Lance McCullers is on the move, and his run with the Houston Astros is ending after a career that started with the organization and stretched all the way back to the No. 41 pick in the 2012 MLB Draft.
According to The Athletic's Chandler Rome, McCullers is being traded to the Milwaukee Brewers. That closes the book on a Houston tenure that began when the Astros drafted him out of Jesuit High School in Tampa, Florida, and eventually saw him debut in the majors at 21. He’s 32 now.
The move comes with McCullers in a rough stretch this season. He has posted a 6.86 ERA in eight starts, a far cry from the overall body of work he built in Houston. Over his career, McCullers has gone 53-40 with a 3.85 ERA, and despite the injury issues that followed him along the way, he still made an All-Star Team and won two World Series with the Astros.
For Houston, the trade reads as a sign that this season may not finish the way the club had hoped. McCullers is in a contract year, so he’ll hit free agency after the season, and moving him now gives the Astros a chance to get something back instead of letting him walk.
Milwaukee is taking the opposite bet: talent over recent results. McCullers hasn’t looked like his peak version in some time, but that version was always dangerous. If the Brewers can get anything close to that out of him - even if it comes from the bullpen - they add another high-octane arm for October.
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