As of late, the Astros have looked like they could use bullpen help. And of course, there’s the long-standing need for a lefty, which, granted, hasn’t been a debilitating problem or anything the last few years, but it would still be nice to have a shutdown lefty to go with all of the righties, you know?
And conveniently, the team that was in last place in the NL West had a really good left-handed closer that they were almost certain to trade! And even if that fell through, they had a second pretty good lefty they could potentially send to Houston instead!