Carlos Gomez, Mike Fiers to Astros: Latest Trade Details, Comments and Reaction

The Milwaukee Brewers have traded Carlos Gomez for the second time in less than 24 hours. The Houston Astros announced they acquired the outfielder and starter Mike Fiers on Thursday in a trade that sent pitchers Josh Hader and Adrian Houser along with outfielders Brett Phillips and Domingo Santana to Milwaukee.

CBS Sports' Jon Heyman initially reported the move. 

"I’m ready physically, mentally to come to Houston and give everything I have to so we can be something special," Gomez said, according to Brian McTaggart of MLB.com.

Gomez also took to Instagram to thank the Brewers' fans:

Wednesday night, Gomez looked like he was on his way to the New York Mets. However, ESPN's Adam Rubin and Kieran Darcy reported the Mets got cold feet because of health concerns around Gomez's hip. Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel countered that financial reasons were behind New York's decision to abandon the deal.

As a result, teams had a second chance to land Gomez, and the Astros pounced. Bleacher Report's Scott Miller envisioned an almost-nightmare scenario for the Mets:

"It's very simple," Mets GM Sandy Alderson said, via Mike Vorkunov of the Star-Ledger "Our doctors felt the health risk was too great. Houston's doctors apparently feel otherwise. That's it."

“They did their homework," an Astros official said, via Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports.

This is Houston's second major trade ahead of Friday's 4 p.m. ET deadline after it acquired Scott Kazmir from the Oakland Athletics on July 23.

Coupled with the Kazmir trade, adding Mike Fiers will strengthen Houston's pitching staff. He's 5-9 in 21 starts with a 3.89 earned run average. At the very least, the 30-year-old could be a solid replacement for Scott Feldman at the back of the rotation.

According to Haudricourt, the Astros identified Fiers as a key to making the trade happen:

Between this move and the Kazmir trade, Passan is a big fan of what Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow has pulled off so far:

Rosenthal wondered what kind of indirect impact this trade could have before the deadline:

It will be interesting to see how manager A.J. Hinch juggles his outfield. A trio of Gomez, Colby Rasmus and Jake Marisnick will be excellent for now, but George Springer (fractured wrist) will come off the disabled list at some point.

Although Gomez's numbers have dropped a bit from where they were in 2013 and 2014, he's still hitting .262 with eight home runs and 43 runs batted in.

Historically, he has struggled in Minute Maid Park. According to Baseball-Reference.com, he has a .176 batting average and .250 slugging percentage in 73 plate appearances. Of course, that's across a very small sample size—21 games.

At the very least, this trade should help extend Houston's lead in the American League West. Heading into Thursday, the Astros owned a one-game lead on the Los Angeles Angels.

Sports Illustrated famously proclaimed the Astros as 2017 World Series champions in a June 2014 piece. That title might come a little earlier than expected after Houston added Gomez.

The Brewers' fortunes stand in stark contrast to those of the Astros. Baseball Prospectus' Matthew Trueblood wrote in April that one of Milwaukee's recent failings from a front-office perspective was failing to properly build for the future when the team's competitive cycle neared its end.

Trueblood's first suggestion to begin the rebuild was trading Gomez, who is a free agent after next year.

By getting rid of one of its best players, Milwaukee is replenishing a minor league system that was among the worst in baseball in 2014 but climbed to 19th in Baseball America before the start of this year. The publication also ranked Brett Phillips as the fifth-best prospect in the Astros' system in 2015, while Josh Hader and Domingo Santana sat eighth and 10th respectively.

Phillips is the biggest prize for Milwaukee. He sat 107th in Kiley McDaniels' preseason rankings on FanGraphs. In 97 games across High-A and Double-A, the 21-year-old is batting .320 with 16 home runs and 71 runs batted in.

Ben Badler of Baseball America is extremely high on the outfielder:

This trade obviously makes the Brewers a worse team in the present since Gerardo Parra is quite a step down in center from Gomez.

However, Milwaukee isn't competitive this year, and it almost certainly wouldn't have been next year, either. Rebuilding is never easy for fans, but this was the right move in the long term for the Brewers.