Houston Astros trade Wilton Lopez to Colorado Rockies for starting pitcher Alex White - MLB News
The Houston Astros made their first move of the Winter Meetings by trading reliever Wilton Lopez and a player to be named later to the Colorado Rockies for starting pitcher Alex White and a Minor League pitcher in exchange on Tuesday.
Jeff Luhnow, the general manager of the Astros was confident that White will be an important part of the Houston ball club for some time to come. "We believe he's a pitcher who's capable of being a big part of our organization, not only for the next year
but a long time to come," Jeff said.
Alex had a split season between Triple-A Colorado Springs and the Colorado Rockies. He pitched in 23 games, posting a 2-9 win-loss record and had a 5.51 ERA. He was a starting pitcher in 20 games and pitched a total of 98 innings. His record in the Minor
League was better and had a 3-4 record with a 3.71 ERA.
Jeff praised the efforts of Wilton Lopez for the ball club and said that it was a loss for the team to let him go. "Wilton Lopez had been a big part of our organization for the last few years and it's definitely a loss for us from that perspective," Luhnow
said. "He was our closer at the end of the year and he was a very effective reliever."
Luhnow concluded that the team is in need of starting pitchers and that was the motivation behind trading Wilton. They had tried to trade him a few days back to the Philadelphia Phillies but the deal fell through.
Lopez pitched in 64 games for the Astros in 2012 season. He posted a low 2.17 ERA and had a 6-3 winning record. He had the lowest ratio of walks-per-nine-innings in all National League relievers with 1.09. During the 2012 season he managed to save 10 games,
a career high for Wilton.
The Houston Astros have a few relievers available but Jeff Luhnow has hinted at the club adding some more to the existing lot. It will be interesting to see how the team benefits from trading a reliable pitcher for a relatively less successful starting pitcher.
Tags: