Trade: Houston gets Valverde

The Houston Astros traded away Dan Wheeler last season, and Brad Lidge this offseason. They completed the dismantling of their bullpen this weekend by trading Chad Qualls, along with Chris Burke and Juan Gutierrez for Jose Valverde.

The 28-year old Valverde had a great season in 2007, notching 47 saves for the Diamondbacks with a 2.66 ERA. Always known to possess the talent, he proved that he can be consistent and have a closer’s mentality. He’s got some pretty filthy stuff, and throws hard. There were some whispers this offseason that Valverde wanted a max contract extension (despite still being in his arbitration years), which he and his agent subsequently denied. To me, this sounds like Arizona taking advantage of this as an excuse to unload a player with a possible attitude problem. It could still work out for Houston, so we’ll table that for now. I do worry a little about Houston’s bullpen going forward.

The Diamondbacks are expected to promote young Tony Pena to the closer’s role in 2008, and having Qualls in there with him certainly can’t hurt. Pena is unproven, yes. But remember that GM Josh Byrnes comes out the sabermetric school of “anyone can close”. Besides, manager Doug Melvin changes the closer every couple of weeks just to keep people on their toes. Burke will provide a good bench presence, and Gutierrez hasn’t embarrassed himself at any level, despite being pretty young.