{"id":642869,"date":"2026-03-25T16:23:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/642869\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T16:23:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:23:29","slug":"astros-finalize-opening-day-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/642869\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros Finalize Opening Day Roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Astros finalized their Opening Day roster, most announcing that shortstop Jeremy Pena<\/a> will avoid a season-opening trip to the injured list. Catcher C\u00e9sar Salazar<\/a> was designated for assignment, clearing a 40-man roster spot for Christian V\u00e1zquez<\/a>, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Sugar Land. Houston also selected right-hander Christian Roa<\/a>\u2018s contract and opened a 40-man spot by placing lefty Brandon Walter<\/a> on the 60-day IL while he recovers from UCL surgery. Houston also optioned outfielder Zach Cole<\/a> to Triple-A, while prospect Brice Matthews<\/a> makes the cut.<\/p>\n

Outfielder Zach Dezenzo<\/a> will open the season on the 10-day IL due to a right elbow sprain. Righty Ronel Blanco<\/a> (recovering from Tommy John surgery), left-hander Josh Hader<\/a> (biceps tendinitis), righty Enyel De Los Santos<\/a> (right knee strain), lefty Bennett Sousa<\/a> (oblique strain), right-hander Nate Pearson<\/a> (recovering from elbow surgery) and right-hander Hayden Wesneski<\/a> (recovering from Tommy John surgery) are all opening the year on the 15-day IL. Blanco and Wesneski will be 60-day IL candidates whenever Houston next needs a 40-man roster spot.<\/p>\n

More to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Astros finalized their Opening Day roster, most announcing that shortstop Jeremy Pena will avoid a season-opening trip…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2389],"tags":[42,5,3616,13576,9027,2263,45496,1250,11192,1432,139,54,3211,5828,1109,4,878,766,43882,453],"class_list":{"0":"post-642869","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-bennett-sousa","11":"tag-brandon-walter","12":"tag-brice-matthews","13":"tag-cesar-salazar","14":"tag-christian-roa","15":"tag-christian-vazquez","16":"tag-enyel-de-los-santos","17":"tag-hayden-wesneski","18":"tag-houston","19":"tag-houston-astros","20":"tag-houstonastros","21":"tag-jeremy-pena","22":"tag-josh-hader","23":"tag-mlb","24":"tag-nate-pearson","25":"tag-ronel-blanco","26":"tag-zach-cole","27":"tag-zach-dezenzo"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116290743294114789","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642869","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=642869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}