Working on a contract that expires at the end of this season means every move Dana Brown makes as Houston Astros general manager will be inspected closely.
Since taking over the job in January 2023, Brown has stayed busy, making 40 trades. Fifteen of those deals have been minor with the return on one side or the other simply involving cash. However, he’s taken some big swings and come up a winner like when he brought back Justin Verlander at his first trade deadline and then had the foresight to get Yusei Kikuchi into the Astros’ pitching system at the 2024 deadline.
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He’s also whiffed, especially in this past offseason. Although it’s best not to judge trades too quickly, swapping Mauricio Dubón for Nick Allen and giving up two prospects for Mike Burrows, who has struggled mightily, are both looking like bad ideas.
With the trade deadline approaching on Aug. 3, Brown – and perhaps Astros owner Jim Crane – must make a decision if the Astros, who are still six games below .500 but just 3.5 games out of first place in the American League West, should be buyers or sellers.
When he’s been a buyer, Brown has proven to be able to convince teams to take prospects that haven’t come back to haunt the Astros, but is the team willing to roll the dice again?
After going through all 40 of Brown’s trades with the Astros, here is a ranking of his five best and five worst:
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The trade (Aug. 1, 2023): Acquired Justin Verlander from the Mets for minor-league outfielders Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford.
At Dana Brown’s first trade deadline as general manager, he traded away the team’s Nos. 1 and 4 prospects in Gilbert and Clifford, respectively. It was worth it. Verlander was excellent to close out the 2023 season, going 7-3 with a 3.31 ERA after the trade, then posted a 2.95 ERA in three postseason starts. Gilbert, who looked like he had star potential in the Astros’ system, has since been traded to the San Francisco Giants and the 25-year-old is hitting .215 with a .643 OPS in 117 games over his past two seasons in the big leagues. The 23-year-old Clifford has yet to make it to the big leagues and is hitting .192 with 16 home runs at the Mets’ Triple-A team in Syracuse.
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The trade (July 29, 2024): Acquired Yusei Kikuchi from the Blue Jays for Joey Loperfido, Jake Bloss and Will Wagner to Blue Jays for Yusei Kikuchi
Giving up three players for Kikuchi seemed like a steep price, but Kikuchi helped push the Astros to the 2024 playoffs, going 5-1 with a 2.70 ERA in 10 starts. As for the return, well it hasn’t looked too costly. Loperfido didn’t impress in his time in Toronto and eventually was traded back to the Astros. Wagner, who turns 28 at the end of the month, currently is with the Padres’ Triple-A team after hitting .256 (9-for-35) in limited at-bats spread over the past three seasons in the big leagues. Bloss has yet to pitch in the majors for the Blue Jays, undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2025, then suffering a shoulder injury this summer as he attempted to return.
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The trade (Dec. 13, 2024): Traded Kyle Tucker to the Cubs for Isaac Paredes, Cam Smith and Hayden Wesneski
Trading a young superstar is never a good idea, but Brown did about as well as he could. With Tucker having just one more year left before hitting free agency where he would get a four-year, $240 million offer from the Dodgers that Houston never would have matched, the Astros decided to trade him before he could leave as a free agent. Playing for the Cubs in 2025 and the Dodgers in 2026, Tucker has hit .256 with 29 home runs and a .785 OPS over 230 games. The Astros’ return in the trade have combined to top Tucker’s 5.2 WAR in that time with Paredes hitting .256 with 32 home runs and a .790 OPS over 197 games. Wesneski started just six games for the Astros before having Tommy John surgery, although he’s expected to return this season. Smith was thought to be the centerpiece of the deal, but he’s struggled, hitting .225 in his first two seasons in the big leagues, but he’s only 23 and still has four more years of team control.
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The trade (July 31, 2025): Acquired Carlos Correa from the Twins for minor-league pitcher Matt Mikulski
This was a no-brainer. The Twins desperately wanted out of Correa’s contract, which still had $92 million over three years remaining, and Brown was there to pounce. All he had to give up was minor-leaguer Mikulski, who the Twins ended up releasing at the end of the year. Even with an injury costing Correa most of the 2026 season, he’s still hit .286 with nine homers and a .786 OPS over 83 games since returning to the Astros. The trade is a win, because the Astros gave up virtually nothing, but how Correa contributes compared to the money being allocated to him will determine how big of a win it is.
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The trade (July 28, 2023): Acquired Kendall Graveman from the White Sox for Korey Lee
This actually is a trade that didn’t work out the way either expected. Astros fans were concerned about Brown giving up on Lee, a former first-round pick, but the catcher, who turns 28 later this month, has yet to prove he’s a big-leaguer. He hit .195 in parts of three seasons with the White Sox and has spent all of this year at Triple-A Charlotte. Graveman was really good down the stretch for the 2023 Astros, posting a 2.42 ERA in 23 relief appearances, but a shoulder injury kept him out of the postseason and sidelined him for all of 2024. Had Graveman been healthy for the 2023 playoffs, the Astros, who came a win shy of reaching the World Series again, could have pointed to this deal as an all-timer.
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The trade (Nov. 19, 2025): Traded Mauricio Dubón to the Braves for Nick Allen
Astros fans will have a hard time getting over this one. The Astros and Braves basically swapped utility players, although Allen had the benefit of being much cheaper, while Dubón, who makes $6.1 million compared to Allen’s $1.4 million, can become a free agent after this season. Dubón has hit .265 with a career-best 10 home runs and a .731 OPS. Allen, meanwhile, has hit .239 with a .591 OPS.
The trade (Dec. 19, 2025): Sent aways prospects Jacob Melton and Anderson Brito in three-team deal for Mike Burrows
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This is the type of move a general manager operating on a budget makes, but, at least so far, it looks like the evaluation of Burrows could be wrong. Burrows was coveted because he looked promising as a rookie with the Pirates, posting a 3.94 ERA over 96 innings. More importantly, he’s only 26 years old and can’t become a free agent until 2032. That’s all good, but he’s pitched so poorly for the Astros, he was optioned to Triple-A with a 4-9 record and a 5.99 ERA before the team nullified that demotion by placing him on the injured list with elbow neuritis. It’s still too early to judge what the Astros gave up, but the 25-year-old Melton is hitting .275 with an .897 OPS and 20 stolen bases at Triple-A, which likely would have been enough to earn him a big-league spot in Houston. The 22-year-old Brito has a 3.34 ERA in eight starts at High-A. Melton and Brito are ranked as the Rays‘ Nos. 5 and 7 prospects, respectively.
The trade (Feb. 13, 2026): Traded Jesús Sánchez to Blue Jays for Joey Loperfido
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This was another move that helped clear payroll, getting rid of Sánchez’s $6.8 million salary in favor of Loperfido, who hasn’t even reached arbitration yet. Brown has said the Astros’ biggest need is a left-handed hitting outfielder. Well, that was Sánchez, who was not good after the Astros acquired him at the 2025 trade deadline. However, Sánchez, who still has one more year left of salary arbitration, is hitting .274 with a .753 OPS with the Blue Jays. Loperfido, meanwhile, is currently at Triple-A after hitting .216 with a .647 OPS in 39 games with the Astros this season.
The trade (July 3, 2026): Traded Tom Cosgrove to Nationals for cash
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This trade is only two weeks old, so it may not be anything, but the Astros need someone in the bullpen aside from Josh Hader who can get outs. They had veteran lefty Cosgrove at Triple-A Sugar Land, but sent him to the Nationals for just cash. Washington almost immediately stuck him in its big-league bullpen and the lefty has made four scoreless appearances so far.
The trade (Jan. 30, 2026): Acquired Kai-Wei Teng for minor-leaguer Jancel Villarroel and future considerations
It’s too early to fully judge this one because Teng was excellent… until he wasn’t. In 24 appearances – including 10 starts – Teng has posted a 4.21 ERA and is expected to return to the bullpen when he comes off the injured list, which he landed on with a knee strain at the end of June. The issue with this trade isn’t Teng, but what kind of player Villarroel will become. The 21-year-old catcher currently is hitting .304 with an .856 OPS in 177 at-bats at High-A. He has a long way to go to reach the majors, but those numbers are promising. If he doesn’t make it, then this trade will be just fine for the Astros, but there is a risk there.
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This article originally published at Dana Brown has made 40 trades as Houston Astros general manager. Here are his 5 best and 5 worst..
