Angels Trade Hank Conger to Astros for Carlos Perez and Nick Tropeano

The Houston Astros made it official on Wednesday that they had acquired Los Angeles Angels catcher, Hank Conger, in exchange for catcher Carlos Perez and right-handed pitcher Nick Tropeano.

Conger, the fan favorite and backup catcher, will head to the Astros five season with the major league club. One thing special about Conger is his ability to frame pitchers. Here is a link that shows the best pitch framers in baseball, and Conger is fourth on the list. To add some context to that, here is a tweet from Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports.

Conger had this to say about the trade and him joining a young and developing Houston club,

Conger will be a huge loss in that regard, but getting a possible rotation arm back in Tropeano is the most important thing coming from this deal. Tropeano had good numbers at Triple-A last season as he pitched 124 and two-thirds innings, had a 3.03 ERA and struck out nearly eight per nine innings. He also made four starts with the Astros late in the season.

Here is what Tropeano had to say about the trade and his excitement to be in a contending organization,

As for the catcher Perez, he brings depth back to the catching position for the Angels. He doesn’t have any major league experience, but hit .259/.323/.385 at Triple-A last season.

This is my gut reaction but I think this deal works out best for the Angels, more than it does the Astros. The Angels get Tropeano who can be controlled for six years, while Conger is already going into his first year of arbitration. Tropeano is said to have some upside which is good and will in my opinion have a shot at the rotation for 2015. He is the player General Manager Jerry Dipoto was looking for going into the offseason, someone young and controllable and he found him two weeks into the offseason. 

More to follow on both players that the Angels received in the trade.