The Astros are dealing with a handful of injuries to depth players in camp. Manager Joe Espada told reporters this morning that reliever Shawn Dubin is battling shoulder inflammation. Meanwhile, young outfielder Pedro León sustained a strained MCL in his left knee (relayed by Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle).
While there’s no suggestion of surgery for either player, it seems they’ll each be in for notable absences. Both injuries figure to force them to begin the season on the injured list. Houston also took hits to their bullpen and outfield depth late last week. Chandler Rome of The Athletic wrote on Friday that righty reliever Kaleb Ort was battling a left oblique issue. Meanwhile, outfielder Taylor Trammell suffered what appears to be a significant right calf strain (per the MLB.com injury tracker).
In isolation, none of those injuries represents a huge blow. León has appeared in seven major league games. He’s likely to start the season with Triple-A Sugar Land once he’s healthy. The former highly-regarded prospect hit 24 homers and stole 29 bases in the minors last season. That came with an elevated 27% strikeout rate. As he enters his age-27 season, he’s unlikely to take a big step forward with his plate discipline. Baseball America ranked him the #18 prospect in a weak Houston farm system. BA writes that León projects as a depth outfielder whose power and speed are undercut by the swing-and-miss issues and fringe outfield defense.
This is a big camp for each of Dubin, Ort and Trammell. All three have exhausted their minor league options. They need to stick on the major league roster (or injured list) or be exposed to waivers. Dubin tossed 45 1/3 frames in a multi-inning relief role last year. He pitched to a 4.17 ERA with solid strikeout (23.7%) and ground-ball (46.5%) rates, but he walked almost 13% of batters faced. The Astros used him mostly in low-leverage relief.
Ort, 33, was a waiver claim from Baltimore last May. He pitched well in 22 big league appearances, working to a 2.55 ERA behind a 28% strikeout rate across 24 2/3 frames. Ort had entered the season with a career earned run average north of 6.00, but he probably showed enough in his relatively small sample with Houston to stick in middle relief. He’s a power arm who can miss bats but had inconsistent control in the minors.
Houston acquired Trammell in a minor league trade with the Yankees at the start of the offseason. The Astros added him to their 40-man roster to keep him from qualifying for minor league free agency. A former top prospect, Trammell has only hit .167/.270/.363 over 126 major league games. He had an impressive .256/.381/.488 line in Triple-A with the Yankees last year. As with León, that came with an alarming number of strikeouts (a 26.8% rate). Houston spent most of the offseason looking for lefty-hitting outfield help after the Kyle Tucker trade. Their only move was to bring back Ben Gamel on a non-guaranteed contract. Trammell and Gamel might battle for one roster spot, espeically with Jose Altuve seeing time in left field.