Brewers trade Carlos Gomez and Mike Fiers to the Astros for four prospects

The Milwaukee Brewers have actually traded Carlos Gomez, it looks like. The Houston Astros are acquiring both Gomez and starting pitcher Mike Fiers for four prospects: Brett Phillips, Domingo Santana, Josh Hader and Adrian Houser.

Gomez was very nearly traded to the New York Mets on Wednesday night for pitcher Zack Wheeler and infielder Wilmer Flores, but that deal fell through in part to Gomez's medical record and in part to the Mets wanting the Brewers to include money or a draft pick in the deal.

However, the Astros might be an even better trade partner for the Brewers for two reasons: The first is Houston having one of the best farm systems in baseball, the second that their is an arms race going on in the American League with the Blue Jays acquiring David Price and Troy Tulowitzki and the Royals getting Johnny Cueto and Ben Zobrist.

The Astros now have acquired Gomez and Fiers alongside Scott Kazmir to keep up. Gomez will, of course, immediately slot into center field for Houston while Fiers likely joins the back end of their rotation.

Gomez first broke out a bit in 2012 when he posted a 768 OPS over 137 games with his defense -- that great, great glove -- shining as bright as ever. That led the Brewers to give him a contract worth just over $28 million for four years, a contract that still runs through 2016. Gomez then went out in 2013 and shone brighter than ever with a .284/.336/.506 line, 24 homers, and 40 stolen bases. That performance earned him his first All Star nod.

He returned to the All Star Game in 2014, a year during which he batted .264/.356/.477 with 23 homers and 34 stolen bases. In 2015, Gomez has seen his offensive numbers dip a bit, batting just .266/.332/.429 this season.

Fiers, meanwhile, has looked good this year with a 3.89 ERA and 3.79 FIP. After a rough start, he's been extremely effective the past few months. Though he's already 30, Fiers won't be a free agent until after the 2019 season. Trading him opens up the opportunity for the Brewers to keep Taylor Jungmann in the rotation alongside Wily Peralta, Jimmy Nelson, Matt Garza and Kyle Lohse.

In return, the Brewers are getting a pretty good haul. Phillips, an outfielder, was recently named the Astros top prospectby Baseball America. In 97 games this year between High-A and Double-A, he's batted .320/377/.548 with 16 homers and 15 stolen bases as a 21-year-old.

Santana, 22, has seen a small bit of time in the majors already and was named the #71 prospect in the country pre-season by Baseball America. In 75 games for Triple-A this year, Santana has hit .320/.426/.582 with 16 homers.

Hader, a starting pitcher, was named the seventh-best prospect in the Astros system pre-season by John Sickels, who rated him a B prospect. He has a career 2.97 ERA and 9.7 K/9 in the minors and is 21 years old. Houser is also a pitching prospect who has put up big strikeout numbers but has had trouble keeping runs off the board.

More on all those players later. But it looks like it's actually happening this time: Carlos Gomez isn't a Brewers player anymore, and now neither is Mike Fiers. What a crazy couple of days.