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Padres Trade Connor Joe To Reds

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The Reds acquired outfielder Connor Joe from the Padres for minor league reliever Andrew Moore and cash considerations, the teams announced. Cincinnati transferred Tyler Callihan to the 60-day injured list to create a spot on the 40-man roster. San Diego’s roster count falls to 38.

Joe, a San Diego native who attended USD, signed with his hometown team on a $1MM contract during the offseason. He was expected to work as the right-handed half of a left field platoon with Jason Heyward. The Padres tabbed speedster Brandon Lockridge for that role instead, optioning Joe to Triple-A El Paso to begin the season. He was recalled in mid-April and went hitless in nine at-bats. He drew one walk while striking out six times.

The Friars optioned Joe back out last week. He made 16 appearances with El Paso, hitting .267/.405/.350 through 74 trips to the dish. He has yet to hit a home run but has stolen four bases and taken more walks (13) than strikeouts (10). He should have a better path to big league at-bats in Cincinnati. Rece Hinds and Will Benson, each of whom were recalled from Triple-A Louisville this week, are operating as backup outfielders. Starting right fielder Jake Fraley has missed four straight games on account of calf soreness.

Cincinnati did welcome righty-hitting outfielder Austin Hays back from the injured list this afternoon. Their primary corner outfielders, Fraley and Gavin Lux, each hit from the left side. Joe had a productive .251/.353/.418 slash in 363 plate appearances against lefty pitching with the Pirates between 2023-24. He didn’t hit much without the platoon advantage (.230/.314/.382 in 525 PAs), but he’s an affordable bench/platoon player.

This is Joe’s second minor league option year. The Reds can shuttle him back and forth between Cincinnati and Louisville for this season and next if he holds his 40-man roster spot for that long. He’s nearing four years of service time and will be eligible for arbitration for at least two more years if he sticks with the club.

Moore, who is not the former Mariners MLB pitcher of the same name, is a 25-year-old reliever. He was, however, drafted by Seattle in 2021. The Mariners included him alongside Noelvi Marte and Edwin Arroyo as part of the 2022 deadline deal for Luis Castillo. Moore has spent the past few seasons working his way up to Double-A. He combines big strikeout rates with astronomical walk tallies. He did not rank among Baseball America’s write-up of Cincinnati’s top 30 prospects, though Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked him 22nd in the Reds’ system just last week.

Longenhagen wrote that Moore’s fastball/slider combination looked like that of a setup man at his peak, though his velocity has been down early this season. He’d need to dramatically improve his control to pitch above a low-leverage role in either case. Moore walked upwards of 17% of opponents across 46 1/3 Double-A innings last year. That resulted in a 4.47 ERA despite an excellent 32.3% strikeout rate. He has surrendered five runs (four earned) on three hits and eight walks with 12 punchouts through his first 8 2/3 frames this season.

As for Callihan, his IL transfer was an inevitability. He broke his left arm in a nasty collision with the left field wall at Truist Park on Monday. He promptly underwent surgery that’ll prevent him from doing any kind of baseball activities for six to eight weeks. He probably won’t be able to resume his rookie season until August or September at the earliest.

Image courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images.

Latest On Anthony Rizzo

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Back in February, veteran first baseman and free agent Anthony Rizzo expressed a desire to continue his playing career. However, he also expressed frustration over the limited market for his services and the services of other players like him. Rizzo suggested that teams didn’t “want to pay a few million dollars for veterans,” and said he wasn’t interested in signing a contract that would hurt the market for future players in a similar position. Speaking to Ken Rosenthal and Brendan Kuty of The Athletic, he bemoaned “the fact that teams want you to play for basically league minimum. I’m like, you guys are crazy. You’re almost trying to ruin the market for the next guy.”

Rizzo was not credibly connected to any interested teams over the winter. Yet, his comments to Rosenthal and Kuty implied that he had received some interest, just not to the degree he would have liked. That may very well be true, as Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported on Thursday that the Padres pursued Rizzo during the offseason. Specifically, he notes that San Diego was interested in Rizzo before pivoting to Jason Heyward instead.

Heyward and Rizzo don’t fill the same niche – Heyward is an outfielder, while Rizzo plays first base – but they are both 35-year-old left-handed batters. Still, the fact that the Padres signed Heyward wouldn’t have precluded them from signing Rizzo from a positional fit/roster-building standpoint. After all, they still needed a DH, and they ultimately signed another lefty batter, Gavin Sheets, to fill that role. What’s more, Sheets actually has a higher guaranteed salary than Heyward, even though he initially joined the team on a minor league deal; Sheets is making $1.6MM this season, while Heyward is guaranteed $1MM. If the Padres were hoping to sign him in that same price range, Rizzo’s February comments make clear he wouldn’t have accepted. And regardless, if San Diego ever made Rizzo a formal, guaranteed offer, it clearly wasn’t the kind of offer the veteran first baseman was seeking.

San Diego would have made an interesting fit for Rizzo. While he is best remembered for his years with the Cubs, he made his MLB debut for the Padres in 2011. Twelve years later, it was in a game against the Padres that Rizzo suffered the injury that led to his post-concussion syndrome diagnosis. Entering that game, Rizzo had an .823 OPS and a 131 wRC+ through his first 231 appearances with the Yankees. From that day onward, he produced a .590 OPS and a 70 wRC+ in 139 contests. So, for both of those reasons, it would have made for a nice story if Rizzo had bounced back with the Padres.

As time goes by, it becomes less and less likely that Rizzo will return to the majors, especially if he remains adamant about signing for much more than the league minimum salary. Theoretically, the Red Sox are a good fit for Rizzo after Triston Casas ruptured his left patellar tendon, likely ending his season. They have already made it clear that neither of their top prospects, Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer, will move to first base, nor will Rafael Devers. That leaves Romy Gonzalez (career .672 OPS, 82 wRC+) as the primary first baseman, and he, too, has been dealing with a minor back injury after a collision at first base on Wednesday. Ultimately, the righty-batting Gonzalez might be a fine fill-in against left-handed pitching, but the Red Sox could use another lefty bat with Casas and Masataka Yoshida both on the IL. Nevertheless, Heyman notes that a reunion between Rizzo and the Red Sox – it was Boston who drafted him before trading him to San Diego – does not “seem to be in play.”

Some contending clubs that have struggled against right-handed pitching and could make room for Rizzo in a part-time role at first base or DH include the Rangers, Blue Jays, and Royals. However, there is no reporting to suggest that Rizzo has received interest from any teams since the start of the season.

White Sox To Select Tim Elko

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The White Sox are selecting first baseman Tim Elko onto the big league roster, reports Vinnie Duber of The Chicago Sun-Times. He’ll be in line for his MLB debut tomorrow against the Marlins. Chicago’s 40-man roster is at capacity, so they’ll need to make corresponding active roster and 40-man moves.

Elko has never gotten much prospect fanfare, but his minor league production has certainly warranted a promotion. The right-handed hitter is out to a monster .348/.431/.670 slash over 31 games with Triple-A Charlotte. He has already hit 10 homers and six doubles in 130 plate appearances. He’s tied with Otto Kemp for the Triple-A home run lead. Among hitters with 100+ trips to the plate, only Carson McCusker has a higher OPS.

The 6’3″, 250-pound Elko has been a productive power bat dating back to his college days at Ole Miss. He nevertheless signed for a minuscule $35K bonus as a 10th-round draft pick in 2022. Scouts viewed him as an organizational depth type because of his defensive limitations and lofty swing-and-miss rates. Those are still present, though Elko has made slight improvements to his plate discipline this season. He’s drawing walks at what would be a personal-best 11.5% clip. That comes alongside an alarming 28.5% strikeout rate.

It’s a difficult profile to pull off, one that major league pitchers tend to exploit. Still, the Sox have scored the fourth-fewest runs in MLB. They’ve received a combined .215/.273/.356 slash from their first basemen and designated hitters. There’s little reason not to give Elko an opportunity to try to continue to defy expectations.

Andrew Vaughn has worked as the primary first baseman. The former third overall pick has posted middling numbers for the majority of his career. He entered play tonight with a dismal .186/.223/.293 line. A homer in his first at-bat will boost that a little bit, but it’s increasingly difficult to see Vaughn emerging as a legitimate trade chip for GM Chris Getz and company.

He’s playing on a $5.85MM arbitration salary and looks much more like a DFA or non-tender candidate than someone who could net the Sox a prospect of any regard. They haven’t had a set DH, so Vaughn and Elko could coexist in the same lineup, but it’s fair to wonder how much more runway Vaughn will have as an everyday player.

Poll: In-Season Managerial Changes

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The Pirates fired manager Derek Shelton yesterday, bringing his five-plus year tenure as the organization’s manager to an end. That tenure didn’t exactly have many highlights, as the Pirates never won more than 76 games in a season under his guidance and he leaves the manager’s chair with a 306-440 record overall. For a job as nebulous and difficult to evaluate from the outside as that of a big league manager, there are few options other than viewing a club’s record as a reflection of the manager’s job performance.

All of that is to say that replacing Shelton with Don Kelly in the dugout is not necessarily a shocking or controversial decision for the Pirates. After years of failure including a disappointing 2024 season where they finished with an identical record to 2023 despite adding Paul Skenes and Jared Jones to the rotation, Pittsburgh was surely hoping for a big year in 2025. It’s a long season, but things haven’t worked out that way so far: the club has gone 12-26 so far and is currently riding a seven-game losing streak with just three series wins total this year.

With that being said, it’s difficult to argue that even a Hall of Fame-caliber manager would be able to turn this club around. The Pirates had an extremely quiet offseason that saw them enter the season having spread just $22MM in spending across seven free agents this winter. Perhaps if Skenes was being complemented with above average regulars like Teoscar Hernandez and Gleyber Torres instead of role players Tommy Pham and Adam Frazier, the team would be in a better position and Shelton would still be employed.

Zooming out from Shelton’s specific situation, in-season firings for managers have become increasingly rare over the years. Rather famously, the 2022 season saw four managers get fired with more than a month of baseball left to play. The Rangers fired Chris Woodward in mid-August. The Blue Jays fired Charlie Montoyo in mid-July. The Phillies and Angels both fired their managers (Joe Girardi and Joe Maddon, respectively) by the end of the first week of June. Two of those four teams went on to make the postseason, although it should be noted that Toronto had a winning record and was in playoff position when Montoyo was dismissed.

For every firing like that of Girardi, which occurred when the Phils were just 10-18 before they eventually turned things around and made it to the World Series under Rob Thomson, there’s several that do not change the outcome of the season. Prior to the successes of Thomson and John Schneider in 2022, the last team to make the playoffs after firing their manager was the 2009 Rockies. On the other hand, the Orioles and Royals in 2010 both improved significantly after hiring Ned Yost and Buck Showalter midseason. Though neither of those teams made the playoffs, Showalter led Baltimore to the postseason in his second year as manager while Yost eventually led the Royals to back-to-back World Series appearances in 2014 and ’15. The Mariners’ season turned around last year following Scott Servais’ dismissal in favor of Dan Wilson, and Seattle currently holds the second-best record in the American League.

Perhaps, then, the argument for making an in-season managerial change is that it offers your new manager an opportunity to get comfortable in the role in a season that’s already had its expectations diminished by a poor start under the previous manager. There could certainly be value in that, as well as the opportunity to give an internal candidate a sort of trial run in the dugout before weighing external candidates during the offseason.

On the other hand, one could argue that if a club lacks the confidence in their manager to stick with them for more than a month of poor performance from the team, then that club should have simply made a managerial change the prior offseason so that the team would be led by the organization’s ideal person for the job from the very start of the season.

Where do MLBTR readers fall when it comes to this debate? Are in-season managerial changes a good practice that brings about positive change within the organization and can spur teams to success, or are they largely meaningless moves meant to demonstrate urgency that would have been better demonstrated during the previous offseason? Have your say in the poll below:

Fantasy Baseball: Dealing With Early Anchors

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Hello, friends.

Ahh, it's almost officially time; I can feel it, deep in my plums.

No, I'm not talking about the time of year when the Chicago White Sox are officially eliminated from playoff contention. Give them some credit, that's still weeks away. Colorado, on the other hand, is officially on the clock.

No, I'm talking about the day when everything, for almost everyone, officially matters. We're so close to Stabilization Day, I can almost taste it.

But, unfortunately, Tom Tango didn't see his shadow last week -- we'll just have to wait a little longer.

Until then, let's talk about what people seem to be most concerned about -- at least according to the questions in our weekly chats (every Thursday at 11 am Central).

Why is *insert name of player drafted in the first five rounds* hurting me so much, and what can I do to get revenge on their horrible, rotten souls*?

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Blue Jays Select Michael Stefanic, DFA Dillon Tate, Place Andrés Giménez On IL

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The Blue Jays announced that they have placed second baseman Andrés Giménez on the 10-day injured list with a right quad strain. Infielder Michael Stefanic had his contract selected from Triple-A to replace Giménez on the active roster. In a corresponding move to open a space on the 40-man, right-handed reliever Dillon Tate was designated for assignment.

Giménez exited Wednesday’s game against the Angels early after hurting himself while running to first base on a bunt hit. He sat out the series finale on Thursday, so his IL placement is retroactive to May 8. The second baseman has struggled at the plate so far in his first season with the Blue Jays. Still, he has offered value with his Gold Glove-caliber defense and strong baserunning. Needless to say, his glove and his legs will be missed for however long he is out. As of right now, it’s hard to say how long that will be; the severity of his strain has not yet been made clear. In Giménez’s place, Ernie Clement will most likely get the bulk of the starts at second base.

Stefanic signed with the Angels as an undrafted free agent in 2018 and made his big league debut for L.A. in 2022. He appeared in 90 games for the Angels from 2022-24, seeing time at both second and third base. The infielder slashed .232/.317/.275 with a 72 wRC+ in 264 trips to the plate. Stefanic elected free agency last fall after he was outrighted off of L.A.’s 40-man roster, and he quickly latched on with the Blue Jays, signing a minor league pact in November. He has continued to mash at Triple-A Buffalo, much like he did as a minor leaguer in the Angels’ system. So far this year, he hit .319 with an .826 OPS and a 142 wRC+ prior to his call-up.

The Blue Jays claimed Tate off waivers from the Orioles in September 2024. He was a dependable middle reliever for Baltimore from 2020-22, pitching 158 innings with a 3.65 ERA and a 3.62 SIERA. However, he missed the 2023 season with a right elbow flexor strain and has not looked nearly as effective since his return. He pitched particularly poorly in his five appearances for Toronto this season, giving up three runs on seven hits and six walks in 5 1/3 innings of work.

A’s Designate Noah Murdock For Assignment

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The A’s designated Rule 5 pick Noah Murdock for assignment, relays Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. Righty Elvis Alvarado was recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas to take his spot in the bullpen. Alvarado is already on the 40-man roster, so the move drops their count to 39.

Murdock, 26, was the fourth player selected in last winter’s Rule 5 draft. (The A’s had the fifth pick, but Colorado passed at #2.) The A’s took the reliever out of the Kansas City farm system. Murdock divided his 2024 season between Double-A Northwest Arkansas and Triple-A Omaha. He worked to a 2.22 earned run average over 24 1/3 innings at the former level. Murdock posted a 3.76 ERA through 38 1/3 frames in Triple-A. He combined for a 27% strikeout rate and a huge 59.7% ground-ball percentage, though that came with an alarming 15.4% walk rate.

The 6’8″ righty broke camp and has made his first 14 big league appearances. They haven’t gone well, as he’s been blitzed for 25 runs across 17 1/3 innings. The free passes have remained far too problematic. Murdock has walked 20 batters and hit two more among the 98 he has faced. The grounder rates that have been his calling card in the minors haven’t been there against big league competition. Murdock posted a 42.6% ground-ball percentage and a 21.4% strikeout rate — both decent numbers but not nearly enough to offset the free passes.

Teams must keep their Rule 5 picks on the major league roster or injured list for the entire season to gain their long-term contractual rights. The A’s are out to a solid 20-18 start and at the very least look like a fringe Wild Card contender. They decided they could no longer afford to devote a middle relief spot to a pitcher who was struggling to such an extent.

The A’s will trade Murdock or, much more likely, place him on waivers in the next few days. That’ll give the rest of the league an opportunity to acquire him, though they’d assume the same Rule 5 obligations if they do so. If Murdock clears waivers, the A’s would need to offer him back to the Royals for $50K. (Teams pay the former club $100K when they make a Rule 5 pick.) Kansas City would not need to put him on the 40-man roster and could return him to the minor league ranks, probably back in Omaha.

Alvarado receives the first major league call of his career. The 26-year-old righty signed a split major league contract with the Pirates at the start of the offseason. He didn’t last the entire winter on Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster, but the A’s claimed him off waivers in January. He’s out to a decent start in Las Vegas, tallying 15 2/3 frames of eight-run ball in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He has recorded 22 strikeouts against four walks while picking up five saves in 14 appearances. His fastball is averaging a blistering 99 MPH. Alvarado has been prone to walks for most of his career, but he’s a power arm with a track record of missing bats in the minors.

Angels Select Shaun Anderson, Transfer Ben Joyce To 60-Day IL

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The Angels made several roster moves this afternoon, selecting Shaun Anderson’s contract and recalling Matthew Lugo from Triple-A. To make room on the active roster, they optioned Ryan Johnson to High-A and placed Gustavo Campero on the 10-day injured list. In addition, they made room for Anderson on the 40-man roster by transferring Ben Joyce to the 60-day IL.

Anderson, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Angels over the offseason. From 2019-22, the right-hander threw 135 2/3 innings over 63 games (16 starts) for five different teams: the Giants, Twins, Orioles, Padres, and Blue Jays. He struggled to limit baserunners or to strand them, pitching to a 5.84 ERA and 5.24 SIERA. He then spent the first half of the 2023 campaign as a starter for the Kia Tigers of the KBO. He pitched well, putting up a 3.76 ERA and 3.83 FIP in 14 starts, but lost his job halfway through the season to another former big leaguer, Thomas Pannone. After finishing out 2023 in the Phillies’ minor league system and briefly playing in the Mexican League in early 2024, Anderson returned to the majors, pitching for both the Rangers and Marlins last season. It didn’t go well. He gave up 19 runs (15 earned) over 16 1/3 innings, striking out just 10 of the 85 batters he faced. Nevertheless, the Angels saw something to like in his arm. He has a 5.06 ERA and 5.77 FIP in seven starts at Triple-A this season, and he will presumably offer a bit of depth to a bullpen that has been something of a disaster as of late.

Lugo, 24 today, was added to L.A.’s 40-man roster over the offseason to protect him from the Rule 5 draft, but this marks his first promotion to the major leagues; he’ll be making his MLB debut as soon as he gets in a game. A second-round pick by the Red Sox in 2019, he was traded to the Angels ahead of the deadline last summer as part of the return for Luis García. Interestingly, he is now the third player from that seemingly minor trade to appear for the Angels, following first baseman Niko Kavadas and right-handed reliever Ryan Zeferjahn, who is currently in the big league bullpen. Initially an infielder, Lugo started playing the corner outfield in 2023 and ’24 and has exclusively played center field this season. He is struggling at the plate this year, with just a .656 OPS and 66 wRC+, but he showed impressive power last season, posting a .291 isolated power between Double and Triple-A. With Campero injured, he’ll take over as the backup outfielder on the bench.

Campero, 27, made it into just five games for the Angels this season before injuring his ankle during an at-bat. He has been placed on the 10-day IL, retroactive to Wednesday, with left ankle inflammation. The fact that the injury has been diagnosed as inflammation seems to be a good sign that Campero won’t miss too much time. While he has a .605 OPS and 71 wRC+ in 18 big league games, he has crushed minor league pitching throughout his career. With Mike Trout on the IL, the Angels are short on outfield depth, so they’ll hope Campero can get back on the field before too long.

Johnson, 22, was yet another prospect the Angels promoted shockingly quickly. The team took him in the second compensatory round of the draft (74th overall) just last summer, and he made his big league debut on Opening Day 2025. There’s no doubt he has promise, as evidenced by his 3.35 SIERA and 3.60 xERA through 14 appearances. However, he has also given up 15 runs (12 earned) on 24 hits, including six runs and nine hits in his last four appearances. There’s no doubt he could benefit from some time in the minor leagues. It’s not every day that you see a player optioned from the big leagues all the way down to High-A, but then again, it’s not every day you see a player debut in the majors before he’s pitched a single game in the minor leagues.

Last but certainly not least is the news about Joyce. The 24-year-old with a triple-digit fastball has not pitched in over a month. In mid-April, he went on the 15-day IL with what the Angels initially believed to be relatively minor shoulder inflammation. The team hasn’t offered an update, but he is now ineligible to return for another month. In other words, no matter what, the word “minor” is no longer an accurate descriptor of his injury. According to Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register, Joyce tried to throw earlier in the week, but his shoulder “still didn’t feel right.” He will go for further evaluation next week. The Athletic’s Sam Blum adds that Joyce is “obviously concerned,” though Blum stresses the point that there will not be a formal update until Joyce meets with a doctor. It’s always concerning to hear that a hard-throwing young pitcher has suffered a setback, but the Angels will hope their promising fireman can avoid surgery and get back on the bump later this season.

Angels, Buck Farmer Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Angels have agreed to a minor league contract with right-handed pitcher Buck Farmer, FanSided’s Robert Murray reports. Farmer had been a free agent since mid-April, when the Braves released him from a minor league deal.

Farmer, 34, spent the first eight seasons of his career with the Tigers. After moving into a full-time bullpen role in 2018, he was a solid middle reliever for Detroit for three seasons, pitching 158 1/3 innings with 29 holds and a 3.92 ERA from 2018-20. He was never an overpowering presence on the mound, and indeed, many of his underlying metrics suggested his ERA in that span was unsustainable. Still, he was a reliable inning eater out of the bullpen for some mediocre Tigers teams that desperately needed those innings. Unfortunately, he struggled so badly in 2021 that he was designated for assignment and passed through waivers twice. The first time, the Tigers sent him outright to Triple-A. The second time, he was granted his release.

After a brief stint in the Rangers’ minor league system, Farmer resuscitated his career with the Reds. Across three seasons in Cincinnati from 2022-24, he pitched to a 3.68 ERA and a 3.99 SIERA over 193 innings. Rarely did he enter in high-leverage spots, but even so, he was a key player in the Reds’ bullpen all three years. In that time, only 15 relievers threw more innings than Farmer. That’s all the more impressive considering it took him some time to establish himself in 2022, and he only threw 47 innings in the majors that year.

Despite his solid, dependable performance over the previous three seasons, Farmer was only able to land a minor league deal this winter, which he signed just days before spring training began. He struggled in five spring appearances with the Braves, giving up four runs on eight hits and four walks. His struggles continued at Triple-A, where he gave up five runs (four earned) on seven hits and four walks in 4 2/3 innings.

Nonetheless, Farmer’s big league track record, and particularly his time with the Reds, speaks louder than his poor performance in a handful of spring training and Triple-A appearances. Thus, it’s hardly surprising that he landed a new minor league deal, and one would have to think his chances of returning to the majors are much better with the Angels than they were with the Braves. Indeed, just a few days ago, the Angels selected the contracts of two veteran relievers whom they had signed to minor league deals: Héctor Neris and Connor Brogdon. Angels relievers have an ugly 7.15 ERA this season, and their bullpen ranks second-to-last in the majors in FanGraphs WAR. So, if Farmer pitches well at Triple-A, L.A. won’t have trouble making room for him in the big league bullpen.

Astros Place Hayden Wesneski On Injured List Due To Elbow Discomfort

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The Astros announced Friday that right-hander Hayden Wesneski is being placed on the 15-day injured list due to discomfort in his right elbow. Right-hander Logan VanWey will be recalled from Triple-A Sugar Land to take Wesneski’s spot on the roster. An exact diagnosis or expected timetable for Wesneski’s return has not been provided. His IL placement is retroactive to May 7.

It’s ominous any time a pitcher hits the injured list due to a nebulous designation such as “elbow discomfort.” Teams will typically provide further details — specific symptoms, diagnoses, timetables, etc. — not long after making announcements such as this one. The Astros are notoriously tight-lipped with any and all medical updates, however, so time will tell when they opt to divulge more information.

Regardless, the loss of Wesneski stings. One of three players acquired from the Cubs in exchange for Kyle Tucker, he opened the season in Houston’s rotation and has played a key role. His most recent start (four runs in four innings) bumped his ERA up to 4.50, but Wesneski had been sitting at a solid 3.86 mark prior. His most recent appearance was the first time in 2025 that he worked fewer than five innings and the first time he yielded more than three runs in a start.

Houston only just welcomed Lance McCullers Jr. back from an injury absence of more than two years. He joined Wesneski, Hunter Brown, Framber Valdez and Ronel Blanco in manager Joe Espada’s rotation, bumping rookie Ryan Gusto a long relief role. With Wesneski down for at least two weeks, it seems likely that Gusto will step back into the starting five, although Houston has righty AJ Blubaugh and lefty Colton Gordon both on the 40-man roster down in Triple-A.

Whoever steps into the rotation vacancy could be looking at an abbreviated stint on the starting staff. Certainly, the ’Stros will hope for a swift return for Wesneski. But even if he requires an absence of some note, other reinforcements could be on the way. Right-hander Spencer Arrighetti has been out since April 7 with a fractured thumb, but the Astros’ original hope was that he’d be able to return in about six weeks. That timetable might be hard to meet if he’s yet to resume throwing, but there’s yet to be any indication that he’s facing a substantially longer absence than originally hoped. Prospect Miguel Ullola has been dominant in his two most recent Triple-A appearances, tossing 10 scoreless innings and allowing only two hits and three walks while punching out 15. Looking further down the road, the club hopes to have righty Cristian Javier back later in the summer after he underwent Tommy John surgery last June.

Generally speaking, the Astros are reasonably well equipped to handle one loss of note in the rotation. A second injury, particularly one to Brown or Valdez, would prove a far greater test to the organization’s depth.

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