{"id":71521,"date":"2024-04-26T12:49:21","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T16:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=71521"},"modified":"2024-04-26T12:49:21","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T16:49:21","slug":"astros-activate-framber-valdez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/04\/26\/astros-activate-framber-valdez\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros Activate Cy Young Contender Ahead Of Mexico Series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Finally, some good news for the Houston Astros pitching staff. Left-hander Framber Valdez will be activated off the injured list to start Sunday\u2019s game against the Rockies in Mexico City. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Valdez has been on the injured list after being scratched from his third start of the season with elbow soreness. Thankfully, the left-hander seems to have avoided what could have been a very serious injury. Valdez began throwing again shortly after his injured list designation and will be activated barely over the 15-day minimum.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Source: the Astros are optioning right-hander J.P. France to Triple-A Sugar Land ahead of their trip to Mexico City. That will clear a roster spot for Framber Valdez, but does prompt some questions about how their rotation lines up going forward.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Chandler_Rome\/status\/1783621894844932207?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 25, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/valdefr01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Framber Valdez<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> last pitched on April 2nd, tossing 7 \u2154 scoreless innings against the Toronto Blue Jays. In two starts this season, the Astros ace boasts a 2.19 ERA over 12 \u2153 innings pitched.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Houston\u2019s long list of starting pitcher injuries only exacerbated Valdez\u2019s brief stint on the injured list. While the Astros <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/04\/15\/houston-astros-ace-season-debut\/\" target=\"_self\">returned ace Justin Verlander<\/a> last week, Houston placed right-hander <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/04\/21\/cristian-javier-il-neck-injury\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cristian Javier on the injured list<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> shortly after. The Astros knew they would be without <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/garcilu05.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Luis Garc\u00eda<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcculla02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-04-21_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lance McCullers Jr.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> until at least mid-season after both undergoing elbow surgery last year. Houston lost Justin Verlander and Jos\u00e9 Urquidy during Spring Training <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to the injured list, thinning their rotation even further.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Houston Astros Expected to Activate Left-Hander Framber Valdez from Injured List<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With its veteran starters out of commission, Houston has had to rely on the younger members of its pitching staff. Rookie right-hander Spencer Arrighetti has made three starts for the Astros after being called up from Triple-A Sugar Land. Their younger starters&#8217; injuries and shaky starts have led to Houston\u2019s third-worst starting ERA<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at 5.03. The Astros bullpen hasn\u2019t helped the situation either. Astros relievers have combined for a 5.13 ERA, also the third worst in the league.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that Valdez is back, he\u2019ll slot into the rotation next to Verlander, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/blancro01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ronel Blanco<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/brownhu01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hunter Brown,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and Spencer Arrighetti. Framber Valdez has a 3.38 career ERA and has been in the top 10 in AL Cy Young voting in back-to-back seasons. The 30-year-old southpaw should bring stability to a struggling Astros team having its worst start since 1969. If Javier and Urquidy can return soon, the order could be restored in the starting rotation, allowing Houston to turn things around.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credits: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Finally, some good news for the Houston Astros pitching staff. Left-hander Framber Valdez will be activated off the injured list to start Sunday\u2019s game against the Rockies in Mexico City. Valdez has been on the injured list after being scratched from his third start of the season with elbow soreness. Thankfully, the left-hander seems to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4975,"featured_media":71529,"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":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1071],"tags":[5519,3911,247,3912],"class_list":["post-71521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astros","category-mlb","tag-hunter-brown","tag-jose-urquidy","tag-justin-verlander","tag-lance-mccullers-jr"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71521","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\/4975"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}