The Astros made a few moves going into tonight’s series opener in Minnesota. Jeremy Peña is back from the injured list, while the Astros officially placed Jose Altuve on the 10-day IL with a Grade 2 left oblique strain. Houston also recalled righty Jason Alexander from Triple-A Sugar Land and designated right-hander Cody Bolton for assignment.
Peña returns after a near five-week absence due to a Grade 1 strain of his right hamstring. He jumps right back atop the lineup tonight against Minnesota rookie southpaw Kendry Rojas. Peña had collected hits in eight of his first 10 games before the injury, albeit without much power. He batted .256 and is still looking for his first home run of the season.
Carlos Correa initially replaced Peña as Joe Espada’s primary shortstop. Correa’s season-ending ankle surgery has left Houston with a combination of Braden Shewmake and Nick Allen over the past two weeks. Shewmake has dramatically outhit Allen to seize the majority of the playing time. He’ll now slide to second base in Altuve’s stead, though he’ll be hard-pressed to continue hitting as well as he has. Shewmake is a career .241/.305/.384 hitter at the Triple-A level, so the Astros will mostly be counting on him to hold the fort defensively.
Alexander is up for the third time this season to provide a fresh arm in long relief. He hasn’t pitched in Triple-A since last Tuesday. Houston is pitching Tatsuya Imai tonight, leaving them without much certainty about the workload they’ll get from their starter. Imai has only gone beyond four innings once in his first four MLB starts. He gave up six runs on five hits and three walks over four frames last Tuesday against Seattle, his first big league appearance after a month-long IL stay.
Bolton pitched three innings of mop-up work in yesterday’s blowout loss at the hands of the Rangers. He wouldn’t have been available for at least a day or two. He’s out of options, so the Astros needed to DFA him to swap him off the big league roster. Bolton has logged 20 innings since Houston called him up in late March. He has a 5.40 ERA with a league average 23.2% strikeout rate but a near-15% walk percentage. Bolton has struggled to get opponents to expand the strike zone, leading to a lot of free passes.
The Astros have five days to trade the 27-year-old swingman or place him on waivers. An acquiring team would need to plug him directly onto the big league staff. Bolton has never been outrighted in his career, so he would not have the ability to elect free agency if he goes unclaimed.
