Astros Trade Rumor And Transaction Round Up: Bud Norris and IFA

Here are some of the things we saw on Thursday.

More Bud Norris rumors

Until a deal is made we're going to get little tidbits of information here and there. One tidbit Ken Rosenthal had in his Thursday column was that the Cardinals are not actively pursuing Bud Norris.

The other thing to note about the column is that the Atlanta Braves lost Tim Hudson for the rest of the season on this gruesome play:

Hudson has a 3.97 ERA on the season in 131.1 innings pitched, but that comes with a 3.45 FIP and a 3.58 xFIP. It's a huge blow to a Braves pitching staff that also recently just lost Paul Maholm to a wrist injury. What this means to us as Astros fans is that there's another possible suitor for Norris' services. The Braves currently lead the NL East with a 57-45 record and have a seven and a half game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Late Thursday night, Jon Morosi of Fox Sports tweeted out that the Braves are actively pursuing Norris.

Peter Gammons tweeted out that the Red Sox had a scout at Norris' most recent start, which is noteworthy because Chris Cotillo of MLB Daily Dish, our sister general baseball news site, had these three tweets during the Astros game Thursday night:

POSSIBLE trade involving #Astros Marwin Gonzalez, nothing confirmed. Stay tuned.

— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) July 26, 2013

Marwin Gonzalez was scratched from AAA lineup before gametime, but has been coaching 1st. #Astros

— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) July 26, 2013

Asked someone close to Marwin Gonzalez if a trade had gone down and got "I have not heard anything". If injury, source would know. #Astros

— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) July 26, 2013

About an hour after the game we get this tweet:

Rumor was floating around that the #Astros had called up Asher Wojciechowski. Not true, but something seems to be brewing with Marwin Gonz.

— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) July 26, 2013

Marwin Gonzalez is the last name we expected to see in trade discussions but it's possible that he may be part of a Bud Norris deal.

My guess would be that the Astros are at least talking to the Red Sox about potential deals. Whether or not anything comes of it is another story.

Astros snag Baseball America Top 30 International Free Agent

Yesterday Ben Badler reported that the Astros had signed Dominican shortstop Wilson Amador, BA's 24th ranked prospect. He signed for $400k, which is down from the original agreed upon $875k deal. Apparently, there was some issues with medicals, which is what got the Astros a discount on Amador.

Here's what Badler had to say about Amador:

Amador, 16, is 6-foot-1, 160 pounds and had shown inconsistent tools prior to July 2 after recovering from a couple of injuries to his throwing arm and hamstring, but at his best he’s shown above-average speed and arm strength while still learning to play a more controlled game. A righthanded hitter, Amador played in the International Prospect League and trains with Juan Herrera, who is known as "Mon."

This is the Astros biggest splash into the International Free Agent market to date.