Astros option Fields and Stassi; McCullers and Castro activated

Lance McCullers will make his much anticipated 2016 debut tonight and try to slow down a red hot Red Sox offense. McCullers started the season on the disabled list after experiencing shoulder soreness during Spring Training. To make room on the roster, Josh Fields was optioned to Triple-A Fresno, indicating that Michael Feliz had impressed enough to not be the odd man out man (a role he has played so far this season, being optioned twice this year).

While some of Fields' peripherals aren't bad (11.5 K/9 and 1.7 BB/9), the results for him so far this year have been disappointing to the tune of a 6.89 ERA in 15 appearances. Feliz had 2 garbage appearances to start the season before looking like a man on a mission. He threw 3 straight perfect appearances for a combined 5 innings and 8 Ks. He followed up those perfect appearances with 3 scoreless innings of work in the Astros marathon game against the Indians Wednesday to earn the win, needing only 36 pitches and facing 10 Indians hitters, striking out half of them.

Max Stassi was called up for catcher depth when Jason Castro went on paternity leave prior to the Astros game against the Indians on Tuesday. The Astros chose to keep Erik Kratz on the roster as the backup catcher while Stassi heads back to Fresno to put in some more work. Stassi only recently returned from the DL himself, playing in just 4 games at Fresno before being called up when Castro went on paternity leave.