{"id":784486,"date":"2026-08-21T11:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T11:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/784486\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T11:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T11:06:17","slug":"astros-designate-nelson-velazquez-for-assignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/784486\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros Designate Nelson Vel\u00e1zquez For Assignment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Astros announced that they have recalled infielder Raynel Delgado<\/a> from Triple-A Sugar Land. Outfielder Nelson Vel\u00e1zquez<\/a> has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.<\/p>\n

These moves appear to be related to the status of shortstop Jeremy Pe\u00f1a<\/a>. Last night, he was hit by a pitch on his hand, as seen in this clip<\/a> from Baseball Savant. Manager Joe Espada informed reporters today, including Chandler Rome of The Athletic<\/a>, that an MRI didn\u2019t find any structural damage. Pe\u00f1a is still sore but the club hopes he won\u2019t need a stint on the injured list.<\/p>\n

Nick Allen<\/a> is covering shortstop tonight but the Astros came into today without anyone else on the roster capable of playing the position. If they hadn\u2019t made any roster moves, Allen would have had no cover for as long as Pe\u00f1a was nursing his hand injury, so they have recalled Delgado to put a proper backup on the roster.<\/p>\n

Adding an extra infielder has nudged off an outfielder. Vel\u00e1zquez is out of options, so he has been pushed off the 40-man. Houston just claimed him off waivers ten days ago. Since that claim, he has gone hitless in five plate appearances. That\u2019s less than ideal but, as mentioned, this move was surely more about roster maneuvering than that tiny sample of playing time.<\/p>\n

Since the trade deadline has passed, Vel\u00e1zquez will have to be placed on waivers. It\u2019s possible he garners interest as a platoon bat, as that was seemingly why the Astros grabbed him. In 88 plate appearances this year, mostly with the Cardinals, he has a subpar .205\/.273\/.410 line on the whole. However, the righty-swinging Vel\u00e1zquez has four homers on the year, all against lefties. His .186\/.269\/.441 line against southpaws for the season looks bad but is held down by a tiny .194 batting average on balls in play. Even with that bad luck, the power is enough for a 94 wRC+.<\/p>\n

Vel\u00e1zquez doesn\u2019t have huge splits in his career, with a .205\/.297\/.431 line and 102 wRC+ against lefties compared to a .215\/.277\/.430 line and 93 wRC+ against righties. He\u2019s a poor defender, so the middling offense has pushed him to fringe roster status. He has exhausted his options and had to settle for a minor league deal with the Cards coming into this year. He has a previous career outright and would have the right to elect free agency if he clears waivers this time.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Astros announced that they have recalled infielder Raynel Delgado from Triple-A Sugar Land. Outfielder Nelson Vel\u00e1zquez has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,17102],"class_list":["post-784486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-baseball","tag-baseball","tag-nelson-velazquez"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117133179841246926","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784486","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=784486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}