{"id":77928,"date":"2024-06-26T20:38:22","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T00:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=77928"},"modified":"2024-06-26T20:38:22","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T00:38:22","slug":"astros-luis-garcia-rehab-assignment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/06\/26\/astros-luis-garcia-rehab-assignment\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros Right-Hander Begins Rehab Assignment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Astros right-hander <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=garcia034lui&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-06-26_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luis Garcia<\/a> will begin a minor-league rehab assignment this weekend and could rejoin the rotation in late July. Nearing the final stages of his recovery from Tommy John surgery,<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Garcia<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> will likely throw two innings in his first rehab start this weekend.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Luis Garcia could start a game in the complex league this weekend, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/e\/espadjo99.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-06-26_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe Espada<\/a> said. That would be the beginning of his rehab assignment.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Chandler_Rome\/status\/1805710163040460890?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 25, 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;\">Garcia threw a 32-pitch live bullpen session on Saturday and could throw another before making his first rehab start. After tossing seven innings for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic, the 27-year-old made six starts for Houston before undergoing Tommy John surgery last May. Manager <\/span><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/espadjo99.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Joe Espada<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> said the length of Garcia\u2019s rehab assignment will depend on \u201chow he feels, how he bounces back.\u201d Espada has previously expressed optimism that the right-hander could return to the Astros rotation in late July.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Garcia made 28 starts for the Astros in 2022, posting a 3.72 ERA through 157 \u2153 innings. During the American League Division Series, he tossed five scoreless innings in relief in an 18-inning victory over the Seattle Mariners. Having lost both <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/j\/javiecr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-06-26_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cristian Javier<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/u\/urquijo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-06-26_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jos\u00e9 Urquidy<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/06\/05\/cristian-javier-jose-urquidy-elbow-surgery\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">season-ending elbow surgery<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Garcia beginning a rehab assignment is welcome news.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Luis Garcia Begins Rehab Assignment, Could Return in Late July<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having been <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/05\/28\/injured-astros-starters-piling-up\/\" target=\"_self\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">depleted by injuries<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the first half, the Astros have a full six-man rotation on their injured list and just four healthy starters. Yet, the Astros have won six straight, sitting one game under .500 and 4 1\/2 games behind the Mariners. But reinforcements are on the way, with both Garcia and <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mcculla02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-06-26_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lance McCullers Jr.<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> working their way back from elbow surgery.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">A Lance McCullers Jr. update: he&#8217;s scheduled to throw his first up-down tomorrow. He&#8217;ll throw 25 warmup pitches, sit in the bullpen to mimic an inning break, and then throw more. He&#8217;ll do that one more time and then they&#8217;ll start talking about facing hitters.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Chandler Rome (@Chandler_Rome) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Chandler_Rome\/status\/1804283025909248055?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 21, 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;\">McCullers, who last pitched for the Astros in 2022, underwent flexor tendon surgery last June after suffering a forearm strain in spring training. The 30-year-old threw his first up-down session on Saturday and has been throwing regular bullpens. But the right-hander, who is roughly two weeks behind Garcia\u2019s rehab, has yet to face hitters in live batting practice. McCullers made eight regular season starts for Houston in 2022, pitching to a 2.27 ERA with 50 strikeouts over 47 \u2154 innings. He is currently in line to return to the Astros starting rotation sometime in August.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Espada said Luis Garcia will pitch either Friday or Saturday for the rookie-level Astros team in the Florida Complex League. He has been consistently throwing 93-94 mph in his live bullpen sessions and, barring any setbacks, could return next month.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Astros right-hander Luis Garcia will begin a minor-league rehab assignment this weekend and could rejoin the rotation in late July. Nearing the final stages of his recovery from Tommy John surgery,\u00a0Garcia will likely throw two innings in his first rehab start this weekend. Luis Garcia could start a game in the complex league this weekend, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4975,"featured_media":77999,"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":[1731,3911,3912,3445],"class_list":["post-77928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-astros","category-mlb","category-news","tag-joe-espada","tag-jose-urquidy","tag-lance-mccullers-jr","tag-luis-garcia"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77928","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=77928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}