{"id":111160,"date":"2025-06-17T18:41:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T18:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/111160\/"},"modified":"2025-06-17T18:41:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T18:41:14","slug":"astros-notes-melton-rotation-mccullers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/111160\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros Notes: Melton, Rotation, McCullers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Astros placed top prospect and rookie outfielder Jacob Melton<\/a> on the 10-day injured list due to a right ankle sprain over the weekend, but he\u2019ll apparently be out a fair bit longer than the 10-day minimum. General manager Dana Brown has said since Melton\u2019s IL placement that he expects the 24-year-old to require around four weeks to recover from the sprain (link via Chandler Rome of The Athletic<\/a>). That could keep Melton out through the All-Star break.<\/p>\n

Houston\u2019s second-round pick in 2022, Melton has appeared in 11 big league games so far and batted .241\/.290\/.310 with a strikeout rate just under 39%. It\u2019s not a good start to what the Astros hope will be a lengthy big league career, but it\u2019s hardly uncommon to see even well-regarded prospects struggle like this in their first exposure to major league pitching. Melton missed some time with a back injury early in the season but played in 17 Triple-A games prior to his promotion, hitting .254\/.371\/.508 with a huge 15.5% walk rate against a 21.1% strikeout rate (11 walks, 15 punchouts in 71 plate appearances).<\/p>\n

With Melton now joining Zach Dezenzo<\/a> and Yordan Alvarez<\/a> on the injured list, Houston\u2019s outfield depth is again being tested. The \u2019Stros have Jose Altuve<\/a> in left, Jake Meyers<\/a> in center and Cam Smith<\/a> in right. Altuve has hit well but struggled with the defensive transition from second base to left field, logging ugly grades from metrics like Outs Above Average (-3) and Defensive Runs Saved (-8). Smith has held his own, producing league-average offense overall (despite a recent slump) and taking nicely to his own move from the infield to the outfield (4 OAA, 9 DRS). Meyers, always a quality defender, is once again playing well in center field while also enjoying a career year at the plate.<\/p>\n

So long as that trio holds up, the Astros should be able to weather the injury storm, but the depth options at this point are thin. Cooper Hummel<\/a> is back in the big leagues in a reserve capacity. Pedro Le\u00f3n<\/a>, Chas McCormick<\/a> and Taylor Trammell<\/a> are all on the injured list at the moment. Trammell is currently on a rehab stint in Triple-A and could soon be an option, but Le\u00f3n was pulled from his own rehab stint earlier this month due to a knee issue. McCormick landed on the IL at the end of May due to an oblique strain and has not yet been cleared to play in rehab games.<\/p>\n

Shay Whitcomb<\/a> and Kenedy Corona<\/a> are the only two position players in the minors who are on Houston\u2019s 40-man roster. Both can play in the outfield, but Whitcomb has spent more time in the infield this season and Corona isn\u2019t hitting well at all in Triple-A.<\/p>\n

The outfield isn\u2019t the only area of Houston\u2019s roster being put to the test, of course. The Astros\u2019 rotation still has its two stars atop the staff, Hunter Brown<\/a> and Framber Valdez<\/a>, but the rest of the group isn\u2019t nearly as accomplished. Ronel Blanco<\/a> and Hayden Wesneski<\/a> have already undergone Tommy John surgery. Spencer Arrighetti<\/a> is working back from a broken thumb on his pitching hand. Cristian Javier<\/a> (2024 Tommy John surgery), Luis Garcia<\/a> (2023 Tommy John surgery, plus multiple setbacks) and J.P. France<\/a> (2024 shoulder surgery) are all still months from being factors.<\/p>\n

Lance McCullers Jr.<\/a>\u2019s return has been a boon. Outside of one awful start, he\u2019s been a steadying presence to held patch things over, but now he\u2019s sidelined by a foot sprain. The Houston Chronicle\u2019s Matt Kawahara writes<\/a> that manager Joe Espada has expressed hope that McCullers can return after the 15-day minimum, but Kawahara characterized that as nothing more than \u201cinitial optimism.\u201d The Astros are notoriously opaque when it comes to health updates on their injured players, so it\u2019s hard to get a clear sense for when McCullers might come back.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, rookie Ryan Gusto<\/a> stepped up with a nice effort yesterday, and (per Kawahara) recently recalled righty Jason Alexander<\/a> will start today\u2019s game. Alexander is a journeyman waiver claim, but he\u2019s pitched well in Triple-A since the Astros claimed him from the Athletics. If he handles himself well against his former A\u2019s teammates, he could stick around a bit longer, particularly given the lack of healthy depth options. Righty AJ Blubaugh<\/a> is on the 40-man roster but is sitting on a 7.66 ERA in Triple-A. No other starters are on the Astros\u2019 40-man in the upper minors; they have several relief arms on the 40-man and could add prospect Miguel Ullola<\/a>, although his sharp 3.33 ERA in Triple-A belies a more problematic 15.2% walk rate.<\/p>\n

The Astros, unsurprisingly, plan to target starting pitching<\/a> ahead of next month\u2019s trade deadline. For now, they\u2019ll proceed with Valdez, Brown, Gusto, Colton Gordon<\/a> and Brandon Walter<\/a>. The latter three are all rookies. Neither Gusto nor Gordon had pitched in the majors prior to 2025. Walter, who\u2019ll turn 29 in September, is a former Red Sox prospect who signed a minor league deal this past offseason and has looked excellent through his first three starts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Astros placed top prospect and rookie outfielder Jacob Melton on the 10-day injured list due to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2389],"tags":[42,5,139,54,3211,18418,11838,1484,4,5100],"class_list":{"0":"post-111160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-astros","8":"tag-astros","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-astros","12":"tag-houstonastros","13":"tag-jacob-melton","14":"tag-jason-alexander","15":"tag-lance-mccullers-jr","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-ryan-gusto"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114700175578443464","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}