The Houston Astros have certainly been dealt a tough hand when it comes to injuries.
Their two aces, Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez, both spent time on the injured list this season which turned out to be the least of their concerns.
It was officially announced that Cristian Javier and Jose Urquidy would be lost for the remainder of the year after needing surgery that is confirmed to be Tommy John for Javier, and what is expected to be the same operation for Urquidy.
That’s brutal news for the Astros who have already been without Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers Jr. for an extended period of time because of their own surgical procedures.
With that in mind, Houston has to avoid any of their other star players going down with injuries as they look to climb back into the playoff picture.
The entire organization and fanbase was holding their collective breath when Spencer Arrighetti took a comebacker to his left calf on Tuesday that limited his outing, and Alex Bregman was hit by a pitch on his hand in the same game that caused him to be scratched on Wednesday.
Both of those situations could have presented major problems for the Astros, however, they finally got some good news on the injury front.
According to Chandler Rome of The Athletic, X-rays came back negative on Bregman’s hand and Arrighetti is not expected to miss his next start after saying “he’s doing fine.”
That is huge for Houston.
With Arrighetti, they only have five healthy starters on their 40-man roster with extended Major League experience, and even putting the rookie in that classification is a bit of a stretch. They certainly need the 24-year-old going forward as he’s settled in a bit after a rough start to his season.
General manager Dana Brown stated they are targeting pitching around the deadline, and it seems like they are certainly going to be in the market.
Clearly, having Bregman available and not missing extended time provides a huge boost for this team who needs to start winning in bunches soon if they’re going to be playing fall baseball.
