That trade made too much sense for me to not happen, but obviously HOU saw the Duran wiring on the wall.
When I look at Brez's moves and how he has transformed the pitching pipeline, I have to think he wasn't alone in thinking the foundation he was handed and tweaked was just not all that good. Most of us, even Fred, expected more wins in 2026 than 2025, yet we stand in judgement over Brez with many saying he should be fired, he sucks or worse.
I guess we'd be fore firing ourselves, too, because what almost all of us wanted have sucked worse than Contreras, Suarez and Gray. Remember the long threads on Gray not being a #2? Hell, he's been a #1, so far! Contreras was downplayed due to his age, but he's doing better than every available bat except Schwarber. Choosing a pitcher (Suarez) over a big bat was and still is a legit debate, but who can argue that adding Suarez was a bad signing, at least in isolation? To me, in hindsight, had we known we'd be adding Gray and Suarez, we would and should not have traded for Oviedo. I'm not pretending that package would land us a big bat, but we might have added to it and gotten one.
BTW, HOU still needs an OF'er, but I'm pretty sure it's still not Duran.