{"id":73642,"date":"2024-05-17T19:04:23","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T23:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=73642"},"modified":"2024-05-17T19:04:23","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T23:04:23","slug":"astros-jose-abreu-doing-well-minor-league-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/05\/17\/astros-jose-abreu-doing-well-minor-league-option\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros First Baseman \u2018Doing Well\u2019 After Minor League Option"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Houston Astros first baseman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/abreujo02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-17_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jos\u00e9 Abreu<\/a> is \u201cdoing well\u201d as he attempts to rediscover his swing in extended spring training. Abreu got off to a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/04\/24\/jose-abreu-batting-average-jersey-number\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">brutal start<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to the 2024 season. In his first 22 games of the season, Abreu was 7-for-71 (.099) with zero homers, three RBI, and 18 strikeouts. So, the Houston Astros mutually <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/04\/30\/astros-to-option-veteran-jose-abreu\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">optioned him<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to West Palm Beach to work on his swing in extended spring training.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to Astros manager <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/espadjo99.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe Espada<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the veteran first baseman is \u201cin a really good place.\u201d Abreu is taking between seven to eight at-bats in live batting practice, but he\u2019s not playing in any games yet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Houston signed the 37-year-old former MVP to a three-year, $58.5 million contract shortly after winning the World Series in 2022. Abreu was slow to open the 2023 season but eventually came around, finishing with 18 home runs and 90 RBI. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jos\u00e9 Abreu<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> had long been one of the best middle-of-the-order run producers in baseball. He spent nine years with the Chicago White Sox where he won his first MVP, three Silver Sluggers, and was a two-time American League RBI leader. However, Abreu has been a .221 hitter in an Astros uniform with 18 homers, 93 RBI, and a .632 OPS.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jos\u00e9 Abreu is not with the Astros, GM Dana Brown said. Both sides decided that Abreu will be optioned to West Palm Beach effective tomorrow \u201cto get some at-bats and his timing back right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Chandler_Rome\/status\/1785399458269634714?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 30, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Astros&#8217; Jos\u00e9 Abreu &#8220;Doing Well&#8221; After Minor League Option<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Espada said Sunday that he speaks to Abreu \u201coften\u201d and that he\u2019s \u201cdoing well\u201d after being optioned to West Palm Beach. Abreu has been working with Astros Hall of Famer <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bagweje01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-17_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jeff Bagwell<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the Astros hitting coaches on improving his timing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Astros rookie skipper said that he is \u201cgetting some good reports from coaches and strength coaches\u201d about Abreu\u2019s progress. With the rookie-level Florida Complex League beginning its season this week, it seems the next step will be getting Abreu back into games. Houston wants Abreu to \u201cget a refresh\u201d and hasn\u2019t given a timeline for when he could rejoin the Astros lineup.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Jos\u00e9 Abreu is not yet playing in any games in West Palm Beach, Joe Espada said today. Abreu is only taking live batting practice. Asked if Abreu could be back within the month, Espada declined to offer a timetable for his return.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Chandler_Rome\/status\/1791215351109214264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 16, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIn my conversations with him, it sounds like he\u2019s getting that refresh,\u201d Espada said. \u201cHe\u2019s in a really good place. So hopefully that turns into good results for him, both personally and on the baseball field.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since Abreu was optioned, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=singljo02,single002jon&amp;search=Jon+Singleton&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-17_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jon Singleton<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has served as the everyday first baseman for the Astros. Singleton enters Friday\u2019s series opener batting .209\/.318\/.363 with four home runs and 10 RBI over 31 games.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Houston Astros first baseman Jos\u00e9 Abreu is \u201cdoing well\u201d as he attempts to rediscover his swing in extended spring training. Abreu got off to a brutal start to the 2024 season. In his first 22 games of the season, Abreu was 7-for-71 (.099) with zero homers, three RBI, and 18 strikeouts. So, the Houston Astros [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4975,"featured_media":73647,"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":[14,1071,35],"tags":[28245,843,1731,16364,552],"class_list":["post-73642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astros","category-mlb","category-news","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-jeff-bagwell","tag-joe-espada","tag-jon-singleton","tag-jose-abreu"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73642","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=73642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}