Astros Select Logan VanWey

April 7: Per Matt Kawahara of The Houston Chronicle, the moves are now official. Garcia was transferred to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man spot for VanWey.

April 6: The Astros are promoting right-hander Logan VanWey to the majors, according to a report from Ari Alexander of KPRC2. VanWey’s contract will be selected from the minor leagues and he’ll join the team during their coming trip to Seattle, which begins with a game tomorrow evening. The righty’s first appearance for the Astros will be his big league debut. Alexander reports that right-hander Luis Contreras will be optioned to the minors to make room for VanWey on the active roster. The club will need to make a 40-man roster move to accommodate the addition of VanWey, although this could be easily accomplished by transferring right-hander Luis Garcia to the 60-day injured list.

VanWey, 26, went undrafted out of college and was signed by the Astros out of the Pioneer League, where he made nine starts with the Glacier Range Riders. After being signed by Houston in 2022, VanWey threw eight scoreless innings for the club’s Florida Complex League team but didn’t make his full-season debut until 2023. The right-hander was initially assigned to the High-A level to open the season, but his 3.71 ERA in 17 innings of work combined with a 25.6% strikeout rate was enough to get him a promotion to Double-A. VanWey did even better at the new level, with a 3.00 ERA in 30 innings of work with an amazing 32.5% strikeout rate, though it did come with an elevated 13.2% walk rate.

Nonetheless, VanWey made it to the Triple-A level during his first full season in affiliated ball. While he was torched for three runs in just 1 1/3 innings of work during that first stint with the Astros’ Sugar Land affiliate, he posted far better numbers in a full season at the level last year. In all, VanWey worked 72 2/3 innings across 60 appearances in 2024 with a 3.22 ERA, a 31.5% strikeout rate, and a 12.9% walk rate. While that wildness still stood out as a potential concern, the right-hander’s overall numbers were made all the more impressive by the fact that he was pitching in the inflated offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League; just three pitchers with at least 40 innings of work at the level posted a lower ERA than VanWey for the Space Cowboys last year.

That strong performance earned VanWey the chance to compete for a job in the Astros’ bullpen this spring. He did quite well for himself, with a 1.32 ERA in 13 2/3 frames. His 26.8% strikeout rate was below his usual expectations, but a solid 8.9% walk rate more than made up for that. Even so, VanWey was left off of the club’s Opening Day roster and reported to Triple-A to open the year, where he’s struck out a third of his opponents across four outings. His latest stint in the minors appears to be over for the time being, however, as VanWey will now reportedly head to Seattle to join the big league Astros. Going from an undrafted free agent pitching in indy ball to the majors in just three years is an accomplishment by itself, but now the 26-year-old will be tasked with getting big league hitters out and contributing to an Astros bullpen that has little certainty outside of its dynamic late-inning duo of Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader.

As for Contreras, the 28-year-old righty made his big league debut last year with a brief cup of coffee that lasted just six innings. This year, he’s surrendered two runs in three innings of work but struck out an excellent 46.2% of his opponents in his limited time in the majors since the start of the season. He sports a career 3.65 ERA in 101 frames at Triple-A and will likely be an up-and-down reliever riding the shuttle between the majors and Triple-A for the Astros throughout the year given his high-octane stuff and ability to be optioned to the minors.