{"id":106449,"date":"2025-08-28T17:23:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T21:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=106449"},"modified":"2025-08-29T01:21:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T05:21:31","slug":"astros-injury-woes-continue-bright","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/28\/astros-injury-woes-continue-bright\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros Injury Woes Continue, But Still Bright Spots To See"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just when it seemed the Houston Astros were getting fully healthy and their full squad back together, more injury news hit the team. It\u2019s almost becoming a cycle for Astros fans, with some players picking up new injuries. The Astros <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/18\/josh-hader-latest-injury-impact-astros\/\" target=\"_self\">injured list<\/a> changes nearly every day with the number of players still on it.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Astros Injury Woes Continue, But Still Bright Spots To See<\/h2>\n<p>Add veteran catcher Victor Caratini to the list. He moves to the 7-day concussion-injured list after taking two shots to the mask in the last few days. Cesar Salazar gets called up to the big league team as the corresponding move.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Additionally, starting catcher Yainer Diaz is now day-to-day with a hand injury that he suffered after getting hit by a Craig Kimbrel fastball while catching in Baltimore on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>It requires a few more days to recover, so Salazar was immediately brought in as a starter. He did a great job catching Framber Valdez, who went seven scoreless innings against the Rockies on Tuesday.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>While the catcher position may be unstable for the next few days,<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/20\/astros-rotation-boost-two-key-starters-returning\/\" target=\"_self\"> good news continues<\/a> to come in for the team.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Another Big-Time Astros Return Upcoming<\/h3>\n<p>Starting center fielder Jake Meyers began his rehab assignment with the Astros\u2019 Triple-A affiliate Sugar Land Space Cowboys on Tuesday. Meyers recorded one hit in four at-bats and now looks to rebuild his timing after suffering a right calf strain on July 11.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Before getting hurt, the outfielder had been a great all-around player for the Astros as an elite defender and productive bat. Meyers carried a .308 average with a .774 OPS in 89 games this season. The 29-year-old Nebraska native hit three home runs and 21 RBIs along with 14 stolen bases.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>His return, potentially in early September, comes at an opportune time to get ready before the postseason is here.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>WATCH: Yordan goes deep<\/h3>\n<p>It was great news for Houston on Monday as designated hitter <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/18\/astros-slugger-yordan-alvarez-nearing-return\/\" target=\"_self\">Yordan Alvarez<\/a> was officially activated from the injured list and rejoined the lineup. On Tuesday, Alvarez hit his first home run since April with a bomb to straightaway center field, 421 feet.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Air Yordan \ud83d\ude80<\/p>\n<p>Yordan Alvarez mashes his first home run since returning from the IL! <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ey8ceppUSU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/ey8ceppUSU<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 MLB (@MLB) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLB\/status\/1960889692376748543?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 28, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Few hitters can crush a homer to that part of Daikin Park, but the big man has done it before, and did it again as he works back into form ahead of a crucial September.<\/p>\n<p>Alvarez returned for the first time since May 2 after suffering a fractured right hand followed by inflammation. The three-time All-Star struggled to start the year with only a .210 average and three home runs, along with a .646 OPS in 100 at-bats. Alvarez had a great rehab stint with the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks, hitting for a .467 average and 1.262 OPS in 15 plate appearances. While he didn\u2019t homer, he collected seven hits and drove in four runs.<\/p>\n<h3>Sanchy Is Here<\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s been a welcome sight in Houston to see Jesus Sanchez finally arrive at the plate. Fans have seen his great defense and arm, but he went into a 0\/27 slump. Sanchez has now broken out, hitting two home runs in his last five games. This includes a 439-foot blast, the second-longest by an Astro this season. The outfielder has gone 10\/18 (.556 average) over that stretch with four RBI.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: William Purnell-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just when it seemed the Houston Astros were getting fully healthy and their full squad back together, more injury news hit the team. It\u2019s almost becoming a cycle for Astros fans, with some players picking up new injuries. The Astros injured list changes nearly every day with the number of players still on it.\u00a0 Astros [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5612,"featured_media":106469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,2,926,1071],"tags":[323,2359,5107,2960,1479,5945,2725],"class_list":["post-106449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astros","category-featured","category-milb","category-mlb","tag-craig-kimbrel","tag-framber-valdez","tag-jake-meyers","tag-jesus-sanchez","tag-victor-caratini","tag-yainer-diaz","tag-yordan-alvarez"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5612"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106449"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106522,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106449\/revisions\/106522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}