Astros Spring Training Roster

For your future reference, below is a list of the Astros’ 40 man roster and non-roster invitees to Spring Training. This will remain pinned at position nine on the home page and updated as Spring Training proceeds.

Here are the current non-roster invitees to Spring Training.

March 6. In some of his first action after undergoing Tommy John surgery, former Minor League Pitcher of the Year Brady Rodgers was optioned to the Minors after a disappointing Spring Training, allowing 15 hits and 5 runs in 8 innings.

He is being sent to Minor league Camp along with the injured Frances Martes, pitchers Erasmo Pinales, Jose Hernandez and Ryan Hartman, and catcher Lorenzo Quintana, all non-roster invitees.

March 10.

Not that any of these cuts were a surprise, but two 40 man roster, and five non-roster invitees were optioned or reassigned to the minors yesterday.

The two rostered players are catcher Garrett Stubbs and pitcher Bryan Abreu.

The five non-roster invitees reassigned to minor league camp were catcher Chuckie Robinson, pitcher Akeem Bostick, outfielder Ronnie Dawson and infielders Josh Rojas and Taylor Jones.

See article here.

March 12

The Future is now. Not just for top prospects Forrest Whitley, Kyle Tucker, J.B Bukauskas, and Corbin Martin, who were sent to the minors camp this afternoon. They were joined by Rogelio Armenteros, Brandon Bielak and Alex DeGoti.

It was not expected that any of these players would make the opening day roster, but the early timing of the cuts in the case of many of these is a little surprising.

In limited action, all the pitchers on this list were having a good Spring. Top 10 MLB prospect Whitley threw 8 innings, with a 2.25 ERA and 11 k’s. Bukauskas and one of the biggest surprises of the camp, Bielak, each pitched 7 innings with a 1.29 ERA. Martin threw 6.2 innings with a 2.70 ERA, and Armenteros had 5 innings with a 1.80 ERA.

Outfielder Tucker’s Spring was a bit disappointing, hitting .757 OPS in 25 AB’s. Shortstop DeGoti hit.563 in 28 AB’s.

As members of the 40 man roster, Tucker and Armenteros were optioned. The rest were reassigned.According to Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle, the Astros have optioned Derek Fisher, Myles Straw, and Cionel Perez to minor league camp.

March 19

Cionel Perez, Derek Fisher, Myles Straw optioned.

The decision to option Perez is the first surprise among all the cuts this Spring, as he was still considered by some writers, including Jake Kaplan of the Athletic as late as yesterday, to be a front-runner for the lefty reliever role. With his departure the competition seems to come down Reymin Guduan and Framber Valdez. Valdez is also seen as competing for the fifth starter role, and if he wins that slot, the Astros may not carry a left-handed reliever to open the season. If his competitor, Brad Peacock wins fifth starter, Valdez may join Perez in the minors, as questions about Valdez’ control make him ill-suited for a relief role.

Reymin Guduan must be happy, and for now that last spot in the bullpen is his to lose. But with similar questions as Valdez about control, Guduan needs to continue to show the improvement in this area that he has shown thus far in Spring Training if he wants to keep the upper hand.

Don’t count out Cionel Perez. He turns just 23 in about a month and is definitely in the picture as the future of left-handed pitching in the Astros organization, even this year. The Astros will probably expand from 12 to 13 pitchers in May. Expect to see Perez back after that, at least some time this year.

A number of highly successful and even surprising Spring Training participants not on the 40-man roster were reassigned, including Yordan Alvarez, Jack Mayfield, Abraham Toro, Nick Tanielu, and pitchers Kent Emmanuel and Brenden McCurry.