After letting Jorge De Leon go on a waiver claim, the Astros have cleared three additional roster spots with a series of moves today. As the club announced in a press release, it has declined its option over reliever Matt Albers and outrighted first baseman Jesus Guzman and lefty Rudy Owens. According to the team, Houston’s 40-man roster now has four vacancies, though it would appear from this list that it stands at 37 (with Albers still technically on the 60-day DL).
Albers, 31, will head back to the open market after an injury-shortened 2014 campaign. He allowed only one run in his ten frames on the year, striking out eight and walking three batters, but shoulder troubles ended his season. Houston had signed him to a one-year, $2.45MM deal that included the option. The Astros elected to pay a $200K buyout rather than taking on the $3MM option price.
Guzman, 30, continued to see his star fade after showing some promise earlier in his career with the Padres. He hit just .188/.272/.248 at the major league level. The 26-year-old Owens, meanwhile, had his first big league start but posted a 4.33 ERA in 135 innings at Triple-A, striking out 6.9 and walking 2.2 batters per nine.
Albers and Crain were on the 60-day DL, so the Astros are left with 2 players on the 60-day DL. (Josh Zeid, Jose Cisnero)
Press release:
“With today’s moves, the Astros now have 36 players on the 40-man roster with four players on the 60-day Disabled List.”
Oh, I understand. Crain and Albers have not officially filed for free agency and they are still under contract with the Astros until the end of the World Series.
Albers is still on the 60-day DL; he hasn’t officially filed for free agency yet. He, Crain, Cisnero and Zeid are still there. However, with the loss of De Leon, Owens, and Guzman, there are only 3 open spots on the 40-man roster… unless the Astros made another move that wasn’t publicly announced?
See above … I don’t know, but that’s what the team says. Guess they could have miscounted, but you’d think this would have been vetted …. ?
You’d be surprised at the number of times the media relations department doesn’t have the 40-man roster count right. The baseball information people don’t necessarily send every move down to them. Between them and the websites (which are NOT run by the teams), there are often roster discrepancies that need to be resolved.
Not really surprised, just trying to excuse my inclusion of that tid-bit in the post.
But I’m going to edit to note the discrepancy.
Not your fault, Jeff. You’re just reporting what they said. FYI, if you go to the Astros website and do a count on the 40-man roster taking those moves into account, it’s 37, not 36. :)
Ha, I know.
Yeah I went and looked and added mention of that.
Hey Jeff, I just got confirmation from the Astros that their 40-man roster is, in fact, at 37 and that there was a mistake in the press release. Nice to know I can still add! :)
Thanks, glad I listened to you, haha.