The Astros have designated Ralph Garza Jr. for assignment, according to Chandler Rome of The Houston Chronicle. Rome speculates that this move is to facilitate the activation of Josh James. Before today’s game, general manager James Click told reporters, including Fox 26’s Mark Berman, that James was close to returning. James has shown flashes of excellent for the club over the past few years, especially his 2018 debut, wherein he threw 23 innings with an ERA of 2.35. But since that time, he’s struggled with both inconsistency and injuries, most notably undergoing hip surgery in October of 2020. The Astros made some additions to their bullpen before Friday’s trade deadline, bringing in Kendall Graveman, Yimi Garcia, Rafael Montero and Phil Maton. Getting James back into the fold could further bolster the relief corps as the team gears up for a pennant race. The club is currently atop the AL West, 5 1/2 games ahead of the Athletics.
As for Garza, he made his major league debut earlier this year and has thrown 11 innings out of Houston’s bullpen, with an ERA of 4.09 and a solid strikeout rate of 28.6%, but a poor walk rate of 14.3%. Although those numbers aren’t excellent, Garza is 27 years old and can be optioned to the minors, meaning he could be of interest to a club that just created some vacancies at the deadline.
More from Houston…
- As noted in Mark Berman’s tweet above, Click is hoping that Alex Bregman and Pedro Báez could return by “this homestand, but we’re still assessing.” The Astros are currently on the road, meaning that Click was likely referring to the upcoming homestand from August 5th to 11th. Báez had been a mainstay of the Dodgers’ bullpen until reaching free agency after the 2020 season and signing with Houston. But he’s yet to make his debut for the Astros, largely because of a shoulder injury. Getting him healthy would be helpful for the bullpen, but nowhere near as impactful as the return of Bregman. The third baseman has been one of the best players in baseball in recent years but has missed more than a month with a quad injury. Before being placed on the IL, Bregman had a wRC+ of 120, which is actually his lowest mark since his 2016 debut.
- Michael Brantley left today’s game with “right ankle discomfort”, according to Rome. The 34-year-old outfielder is having an excellent season at the plate, hitting .330/.384/.477, for a wRC+ of 143, which would be the second-best of his career, after putting up a wRC+ of 151 in 2014. After the game, manager Dusty Baker said x-rays were negative and that he didn’t expect Brantley to hit the IL.
First.
Place.
Hanging in there, but the Astros didn’t look particularly good in this series. The Giants prepared for them extremely well.
Just before the season I picked the Rays to win the AL East and get to the WS. Knew they not only had a good team at that time, but that youngsters would be brought up during the season and the FO would make some nice transactions. Everything is playing out so far.
Unless something crazy happens in the next 2 months, I think it’ll boil down the the Rays and Astros. I hope so. That would be a great series to watch. Deep rosters that play smart fundamental baseball.
Agreed. It’s going to be difficult to root against a team that’s played it smart and on a budget. I just hope both teams are healthy so it’s going to be a fair fight.
Astros didn’t play bad vs. the Giants at all. The Giants have very good pitching and play in a big yard and the Astros made it look small. They just got unlucky that the Giants bats were on fire and that Darin Ruf ascended to god status during that weekend.
The GM is plugging Garza in just to showcase him for desperate teams thirsty for a guy with options?
Looks like Garza is total Click bait.
The trading deadline has passed soooo….
That means very little, trades can still happen.
No they actually cannot. There’s no August deadline anymore.
I was hoping this was Matt Garza jr
“flashes of excellent”
* excellence *
Eventually, 3 pitchers will have to bite the bullet in the bullpen with Baez, James, and Urquidy coming back. Abreu will be one. Taylor or Raley will be the second one. I would say both of them, but I’m sure the Astros will want to keep a lefty in the bullpen. Do you shut Luis Garcia down due to season workload?
I don’t like Josh James either. Bullpen should be Pressley, Graveman, Garcia, Baez, Maton, Javier, and Urquidy.
Blake Taylor had a 2.18 ERA last year, this year it’s almost double. I think he lies somewhere in between, which is a good reliever. I like Stanek a lot, but like James, his stuff and results are far apart.
I figure Urquidy returns to the rotation considering the success he’s had, relegating Garcia to the pen. James showed great promise early on but he walks so many.