The Astros announced that right-hander Ronel Blanco and left-hander Bennett Sousa have been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. The 40-man roster already had three vacancies, so these moves put the Astros at 39. Infielder Ray Delgado and lefty Bryan King have been optioned to Triple-A Sugar Land as the corresponding active roster moves. The club had a 14-12 split in terms of position players to pitchers yesterday but this gets them back to an even 13-13.
Blanco will be starting tonight’s game, making his first big league appearance in over a year. He required Tommy John surgery last May, wiping out the latter months of that season and the early parts of this campaign.
Prior to that lengthy injury absence, he had a tremendous out-of-nowhere breakout. He went into the 2024 season as a 30-year-old with a limited and unimpressive track record. At that time, he had a 4.78 earned run average in 58 1/3 innings.
He began that season as depth but injuries opened a path for him. He threw a no-hitter against the Blue Jays that April and just kept putting up good numbers after that. He finished the year with 30 appearances, 29 of those being starts, with a 2.80 ERA. He got some help from a .220 batting average on balls in play and an 83.6% strand rate. His 24.6% strikeout rate was a couple of ticks better than average but his 10.1% walk rate and 39.8% ground ball rate were both slightly worse than par.
Since he was fortunate in terms of batted balls and sequencing, his 4.15 FIP and 4.32 SIERA suggested he was more decent than elite. That was still an amazing outcome considering his profile. He began his career as an infielder but didn’t make much progress and started pitching at age 18. He signed with the Astros as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic when he was 22, for a modest $5,000 bonus.
Most future big leaguers from the international free agent system negotiate bonuses worth hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. Though they can’t officially sign until they are 16, those deals are often worked out when the player is even younger than that. For the Astros to get anything at all from an under-the-radar signing like Blanco is a win.
He will now try to get back on track after a lengthy absence. The Houston rotation was in shambles earlier this year but has steadied more recently. Hunter Brown missed significant time with a shoulder strain but has been back for over a month now. Peter Lambert has been doing his own out-of-nowhere breakout, with a 3.03 ERA in 16 starts. Tatsuya Imai and Spencer Arrighetti have been inconsistent. Thanks in part to that healthier rotation, they are more viable contenders now than they were earlier, currently sitting 4.5 games back of a playoff spot.
The club could look to bolster that group ahead of the trade deadline but they have other priorities and a self-imposed payroll crunch. They are still looking for left-handed bats to add into the outfield, a search that has been ongoing for years now. They’re also looking for relief help. Accomplishing those goals is a bit tricky with a thin farm system and a preference to avoid the competitive balance tax. MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker has the club about $8MM below the $244MM base threshold at the moment.
If the Astros don’t add rotation help between now and the August 3 deadline, they will rely on internal arms. They traded Lance McCullers Jr. and Colton Gordon to the Brewers recently. That added some payroll space but subtracted some rotation depth. Teng should be in the mix. Cristian Javier is currently pitching in relief but has lots of starting experience. Mike Burrows and Hayden Wesneski are on the injured list but could be viable candidates in the near future. Ethan Pecko is having a decent season in Triple-A but is not yet on the 40-man roster.
Sousa’s return also bolsters the bullpen, assuming he can get back to last year’s form. In 2025, he gave the Astros 50 2/3 innings with a 2.84 ERA, 29.6% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate. This year, he hasn’t been able to get going yet. He started the year on the IL due to an oblique strain. He was reinstated in late April and made five shaky appearances before elbow inflammation put him back on the shelf. In between those IL stints, he allowed three earned runs in 3 1/3 innings with five walks to four strikeouts. Houston already had three lefty relievers in Josh Hader, Steven Okert and King. Today’s moves keep them at three, with Sousa replacing King.
Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro, Imagn Images
