Astros acquire pitcher Nick Robertson in one-for-one deal
The Astros and Blue Jay agree to an agreement in an early season trade, swapping pitchers
With four games played in the 2025 Houston Astros so far this season, there have been some ups and downs for the team. With a 2-2 record after winning the series against the New York Mets and dropping the first game of the San Fransisco Giants series, the team has shown early that they can keep up with the best, but GM Dana Brown wants even more.
Early Tuesday, the Astros announced they agreed to a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays, sending minor league pitcher Edinson Batista up north in exchange for right-handed reliever Nick Robertson.
Batista, who’s been with the Astros since 2019 when he joined the clue at 17-years-old, is currently in High-A with the Asheville Tourists where he has yet to make an appearance. He is coming off a 2024 season where he finished with 26 appearances (16 of them starts and four of them finishes) and a 5.01 ERA. That comes after an even more rough 2023 where he finished with an ERA over 10.
In return, the Astros get a 26-year-old righty who has been bouncing up and down from the Major and Minor leagues since being drafted in 2019. In his short time in the bigs, in his career, he has a 5.30 ERA in 27 games (13 of them being finishes).
Despite the small sample side, he has improved year by year in his short time in the bigs. After finishing 2023 with a 6.00 ERA in nine games, he finished the 2024 season with a much better 4.05 ERA in nine appearances, striking out 14 in 13.1 innings of work and only walking two.
One of the bigger upsides to Robertson is he is on just his first year of arbitration, meaning the team will have control of him for the next three years. He will start out the year in Triple-A Sugar Land, but a spot on the roster will soon be made available for him when the team moves starting pitcher Christian Javier to the 60-day injured list.
