The Astros are sending right-hander Charlie Morton to the 10-day disabled list with a lat strain, per Brian McTaggart of MLB.com (Twitter link). There’s no timetable for Morton’s return, and the club will recall righty Jordan Jankowski to take his place for now.
The DL is nothing new for Morton, who has had durability issues throughout his career and missed nearly all of last season as a member of the Phillies on account of a torn hamstring. Health concerns didn’t stop the Astros from handing Morton a two-year, $14MM contract in free agency last offseason, though, and the results have been encouraging – injury notwithstanding. The 33-year-old has been the Astros’ third-best starter, trailing the ace-caliber efforts of Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers, with a 4.06 ERA, 10.14 K/9, 3.59 BB/9 and a 51.3 percent ground-ball rate in 57 2/3 innings. Morton’s solid output has come thanks in part to a notable increase in velocity, as he’s now averaging 96-plus mph on his fastball – up from 95 in 2016 and the 92 to 94 range in previous years.
For now, though, Morton’s campaign will come to a halt, and it could be a for a while if others’ lat strains are any indication. To cite recent examples, Athletics righty Sonny Gray didn’t make his season debut until May 2 after suffering a lat strain in early March, and Angels reliever Huston Street hasn’t pitched yet this year after succumbing to a lat strain around the same time as Gray. Meanwhile, a more severe injury (a torn lat) has shelved Mets ace Noah Syndergaard for a few weeks and will keep him out until after the All-Star break.
Before losing Morton, the Astros were set to at least temporarily demote the scuffling Mike Fiers from their rotation in favor of Brad Peacock. Now, those two could be in line to join Keuchel, McCullers and Joe Musgrove in the starting five for the foreseeable future (alternatively, the Astros could move reliever Chris Devenski to the rotation, but that would take away an elite bullpen weapon). Unfortunately for Houston, top Triple-A options Francis Martes and David Paulino have started slowly this year, and Brady Rodgers underwent Tommy John surgery earlier this month. At the big league level, mid-rotation starter Collin McHugh has missed the entire season with an elbow injury and won’t return anytime soon. On the bright side, the 34-16 Astros have built a whopping nine-game lead in the American League West. As such, it’s unlikely they’ll make any major moves to bolster their rotation with the trade deadline still two months away.
This always seemed inevitable, but his production has been good. At least we have Fiers. I’m not a Fiers fan, but he’s at least capable.
I want to see Fiers stay in the rotation because I want to see if he can break Blyleven’s record for most home runs allowed.
This isn’t good as a lat strain will likely sideline him a few weeks. I think a trade might become a need. Maybe like Alex Cobb?
No sense in that with an injury like this. No reason to give up what it takes to get him just to create a log jam in 6 weeks.
Devenski would be terrific in the rotation
Pretty sure he’s never made 30 starts in his entire career. Decent start but I’ll believe it when I see him put a full season together. He was very frustrating to watch in Pittsburgh.
I like your name. I think Camels_Hole35 woulda been good too. but yours makes more sense
I honestly think the Astros are using the DL to give the rotation a breather.
I would agree except that if they were going to that for Morton, they wouldn’t have demoted Fiers a couple of days ago.
I think its psychology to make the other teams think that they’re going through a rough patch. They got swept by the Indians and now they’re signing of Charlie Morton finally hits the DL. We’ll see hopefully it’s a short stint.