Astros southpaw Framber Valdez hasn’t pitched in the majors this season on account of a broken finger, though he did return to throwing from flat ground Thursday, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. While general manager James Click called Thursday’s session a “tremendous step forward” for Valdez, there still isn’t a clear timetable for a potential 2021 debut. Valdez broke out last season with 70 2/3 innings of 3.57 ERA/3.23 SIERA ball, an elite 60 percent groundball rate, and terrific strikeout and walk percentages of 26.4 and 5.6, respectively.
More injury-related items from Houston and a couple of other American League teams…
- Angels right-handed reliever Luke Bard will undergo season-ending hip surgery, Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic was among those to report. He’ll need six to eight months to recover from the procedure. Bard was already set to miss a significant amount of time this season, as the Angels sent him to the 60-day injured list shortly before the campaign began. Although the 30-year-old’s high spin rate has made him a potential breakout candidate since he debuted with the Angels in 2018, he has only managed a 5.05 ERA through 66 innings – including 5 1/3 frames in 2020.
- The Blue Jays hope lefty Robbie Ray will return to the rotation this week, according to Gregor Chisholm of the Toronto Star (via Twitter). The southpaw threw 63 pitches in a simulated game yesterday. The last hurdle to clear is just seeing how he feels over the next couple of days.
- The Athletics placed infielder/outfielder Chad Pinder on the IL because of a left knee sprain, but it appears he’ll sit out for a lot longer than the 10-day minimum. Pinder is is week to week and not participating in any baseball activities, per Martin Gallegos of MLB.com. The 29-year-old opened the season as one of the Athletics’ main outfielders before going down, and they’ve since used Ka’ai Tom, Stephen Piscotty, Tony Kemp and Seth Brown in the corners to help fill the void.
- Astros reliever Enoli Paredes left their game Thursday with a trainer, Rome tweets. The righty exited after throwing just three strikes out of 13 pitches and walking the only two batters he faced. Control has been a problem in all three appearances this year for Paredes, who has walked six hitters in 1 1/3 innings. Paredes also put up a below-average walk rate of 12.2 percent in his rookie year in 2020, but he still notched a 3.05 ERA (with a much less inspiring 4.63 SIERA) over 20 2/3 frames. [UPDATE: Paredes “did something to his side,” manager Dusty Baker said (via Rome). The Astros should know more Friday.]
I really wish the Astros went after another solid starting pitcher and another solid reliever this past off-season.
6-1 start and you’re whining?
How was I whining?
goastros makes a solid point, after grenkie who do the astros really have, and i’m a big fan of grenkie but asking him to carry the staff at his age is asking a lot.
Exactly. The Astros are off to a great start, but a lot of their pitchers have only been in the league for 3 years or so, IE Josh James. You’re lying if you don’t think a Brad Hand would’ve improved their bullpen or a Jose Quintana would’ve helped the rotation in the long run. Also, McCullers is coming off of Tommy John surgery.
The rotation is fine.
Grenkie
McCullers
Urquidy
Valdez
Oderizzi
That’s a very solid starting 5 with Javier able to give quality starts in a pinch.
I do wish they would have signed a closer, but that is about all they needed.
We’ll see. Pedro Baez can function as a closer.
@takeitback I’m pulling for grenkie but asking him to be the ace and carry the staff is asking a lot at his age.
Hand yes, Quintana no.
McCullers had TJ surgery two and a half years ago. He’s good.
He’s off to a good start so it would seem.
They did. His name is Jake Odorizzi
Veterans additions Odorizzi, Baez, Stanek, Joe Smith, Josh James, Pruitt
Rookies Scrubb, Taylor, Paredes, Raley,
Most of these guys are just young or unknown by the masses.
It doesn’t mean they aren’t good.
We had Cishek, but he opted out because the young talent didn’t give him the playing time to achieve his bonuses.
The Astros’ let Cishek go to the Angels.
A’s need Chat Pinder’s versatility so much. Hopefully, the start of this season is just a fluke so Oakland can start rebounding and be the competitive, talented team we all know of.
A’s injuries are like the energizer bunny. They keep going and going and going and…
Sounds like the Astros last year
Hi Connor & TC,
Can both of you fix the sentence of the word ‘is’ between ‘Pinder’ & ‘week to week’? It was twice in the sentence. Can you please fix it? Thank you!
“Pinder ‘is is’ week to week and not participating in any baseball activities, per Martin Gallegos of MLB.com.