Houston-Toronto in 10-player deal

SAN DIEGO, July 20 (UPI) -- The Houston Astros sent pitchers J.A. Happ, Brandon Lyon and David Carpenter to the Toronto Blue Jays in a 10-player trade Friday.

In exchange for the three pitchers, the Blue Jays dealt away pitcher Francisco Cordero, outfielder Ben Francisco, four minor leaguers and a player to be named later.

"This is a very good deal for us," said Astros General Manager Jeff Luhnow in a statement Friday. "Once again we are adding depth to our minor league system with quality young players. We really feel this will help us moving forward and are extremely excited about the players we've added to our organization."

The Astros are 34-59 this season -- the worst record in the major leagues -- and are looking toward the future. Toronto is in last place in the American League East but only two games under .500 and still hopeful of a playoff spot.

Happ is 7-9 this season with a 4.83 earned run average while Lyon is 0-2 with a 3.25 ERA and Carpenter is 0-2 with a 6.07 ERA.

Cordero, a reliever, is 3-5 with a 5.77 ERA. Francisco, who's appeared in 27 games in 2012, is hitting .240 with two runs batted in.

The minor league players involved in the deal are pitchers Asher Wojciechowski, Joe Musgrove and David Rollins and catcher Carlos Perez.