So, running it all down:
1981: Acquired Phil Garner for Johnny Ray, Randy Niemann and Kevin Houston
1986: Acquired Davey Lopes for Frank DiPino
1986: Acquired Danny Darwin for Don August and Mark Knudson
1998: Acquired Randy Johnson for Freddy Garcia, Carlos Guillen and John Halama
2001: Acquired Pedro Astacio for Scott Elarton
2001: Acquired Mike Williams for Tony McKnight
2004: Acquired Carlos Beltran for Octavio Dotel, John Buck and cash
2006: Acquired Aubrey Huff for Ben Zobrist and Mitch Talbot
2008: Acquired Randy Wolf for Chad Reineke
2015: Acquired Scott Kazmir for Jacob Nottingham and Daniel Mengden
2015: Acquired Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers for Josh Hader, Adrian Houser, Brett Phillips and Domingo Santana.
12 notable stretch-run acquisitions:
* Two absolute stars (Johnson, Beltran)
* Two solid, long-term contributors (Garner, Darwin)
* Seven solid, if not spectacular, additions (Lopes, Astacio, Williams, Huff, Wolf, Kazmir, Fiers)
* One flop (Gomez)
22 players traded away:
* Four were young players who had long, all-star-ish careers (Johnny Ray, Freddy Garcia, Carlos Guillen, Ben Zobrist)
* Four were young players who had long, but average careers (Mark Knudson, John Halama, Scott Elarton, John Buck)
* Two were veterans who had several more productive years after the trade (Frank DiPino, Octavio Dotel)
* Six had little or no big-league time after the trade (Randy Niemann, Kevin Houston, Don August, Tony McKnight, Mitch Talbot, Chad Reineke)
* Six, the jury is still out on: (Jacob Nottingham, Daniel Mengden, Josh Hader, Adrian Houser, Brett Phillips and Domingo Santana)
Obviously trades from 30+ years ago have virtually nothing to say about today's landscape, and you can certainly call this a small sample size. But overall, the Huff/Zobrist trade is probably the only one Houston got truly burned on, so far. The others have generally been fair trades -- short-term value for long-term possibility, with some of it panning out and some of it not. For me, at least, that provides some encouragement to go for it if a good-looking deal is there.
[Updated to add the Darwin trade.]
