To get Gerrit Cole, the Astros traded: Colin Moran - 1st round pick Joe Musgrove - 1st round pick plus others To get Justin Verlander, the Astros traded: Daz Cameron - 1st round pick plus others To get Zack Greinke, the Astros traded: Seth Beer - 1st round pick J.B. Bukauskas - 1st round pick Corbin Martin - 2nd round pick plus others Draft picks don't have to see the field to be valuable. I won't mention all the 1st rounders they have starting in the field (4) since the picks they are losing won't be as high in the order as those guys. So to say they can "buy" players is odd given they have signed exactly zero big ticket free agents in this current window (unless you are counting Gurriel and Reddick) https://blogs.fangraphs.com/how-they-were-acquired-the-houston-astros-alds-roster/