Houston unexpectedly acquired ace pitcher Zack Greinke from Arizona on Wednesday before MLB's trade deadline, and he's excited to get started with the Astros.
Greinke, 35, gave the Astros a glowing review Friday at his introductory news conference and revealed what he's looking forward to with his new team.
"Probably just being able to watch them play every day," Greinke said, "and just being able to be around some really good players and some talented athletes with a lot of baseball knowledge.
"And I think anytime you're on a new team, but especially a team like this, there's a lot of learning you can do. I think they'll be more fun to watch than your average team, so that will be nice, too, watching good baseball."
Greinke, a former Cy Young Award winner in his 16th season, is 10-4 this season and posted a 2.90 ERA in 23 games with the Diamondbacks.
While Arizona had a solid collective pitching, Greinke will now join a team with the third-lowest team ERA (3.75) in baseball. The Astros arguably have the best rotation in baseball now and have become the favorites to win the 2019 World Series since landing the six-time All-Star.
"It's up there," Greinke said. "There's some other good ones, though. I haven't seen the American League much, but there's some good ones in the National League, that's for sure."
Houston was already one of MLB's best hitting teams, and now it has Greinke, Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole in its rotation.
Needless to say, the Astros should feel great about their last-minute haul.
"He's one of the best pitchers in the league," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. "And he joins a couple of guys, really a handful of guys that are really good. He's a very interesting guy. He's evolved as a pitcher. He's a creative pitch-maker with elite stuff and a cerebral approach that is arguably second to none in the big leagues."
Houston enters Saturday atop the American League West with a 71-40 record.