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May 23, 2024 12 mins
Brian McTaggart, Astros beat reporter for MLB.com, joins The Matt Thomas Show to discuss probable roster changes for the Astros as players return from the injured list, as well as Jose Abreu coming back from extended spring training. Abreu was demoted to the Florida Complex League on May 1, but during the recent home series against the Milwaukee Brewers, general manager Dana Brown said Abreu will play a few more minor-league games and could join the Astros in Oakland this weekend. The Astros are "getting close to some decision about the roster," McTaggart said. "I think [Joey] Loperfido goes down" when Abreu comes back. With Jon Singleton providing production from first base, how will the Astros fit Abreu back into the lineup? "This is not going to be an easy decision," and "what is the bar to keep him in the lineup?" Starting pitcher Jose Urquidy left a spring training game in March with a right forearm strain, and Urquidy will get his third rehab game on Friday with the Triple-A affiliate in Sugar Land. This could be Urquidy's last rehab game before rejoining the Astros. Hunter Brown had a quality start on the mound Sunday, giving up just two earned runs in six innings of work, striking out three, but the Astros would lose 2-1. The Astros "might be getting away from the six-man rotation," and "every start just gets better and better" for Spencer Arrighetti, so what will the Astros pitching rotation look like? "Competition brings out the best in people."
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Let's spend ten quity minutes with ourbuddy, the one and only Brian mctaggard
MLB dot Com on the Astros beatwith a little bit of breaking news.
Mister McTaggart, The World Baseball Classichas announced its four sights for twenty twenty
six in the city Houston is oneof them. Yeah, that just coming
at the top of the hour forthe first time the WBC coming to Houston.

(00:22):
It looks like some quarterfinal games.We'll be here in town in March
of twenty twenty six and then theFlorida Long Depot Park like they've been so.
Yeah, that was you know,that was a pretty thrilling tournament,
you know what two years ago orlast year whatever it was with the trout
Tani battles. So yeah, that'sgonna be fun in a couple of years,

(00:46):
you know. I can't wait forit as long as done a single
Houston Astro plays in it. Idon't know how you feel about the World
Baseball Classic. That's just my ownpersonal opinion. Yeah, it's a great
event, but I certainly think there'sprobably a lot of people in the organization
that as far as pictures go,anyway, Echo your sentiments for sure,
Brian. Two out of three serieslost to the Angels. Not great,

(01:07):
but again, the it's gonna happen. You're trying to make up as much
ground as you possibly can here asthe Rangers and Mariners are kind of struggling
again five going into the series againstOakland tomorrow. Uh, you were there
for the game for the Hunter Brown. I was traveling. What did Hunter
Brown prove to you? And moreimportantly, what did the Hunter Brown prove
of the organization? Yesterday? Areyou there? Sorry? Uh? What

(01:33):
are you doing now? I'm athome here in my office. So I
had a technical glitch. Yeah,all right, go ahead. No,
I think he I mean he sorelyneeded this to sort of step up,
and uh, you know, saythat he can be the kind of picture
that everyone thought he could be whenyou know, especially the first half of
last year, because he's strung acouple of these together now and you know,

(01:53):
like I wrote on astros dot com, I mean they're getting close to
some decisions here on the roster becauseyour Kidi's coming back. You know,
that's gonna give him seven starting pitchers. That they have five off days in
June, so they might be gettingaway from the six man rotation just because
you know, if they keep itat six, you're gonna have guys pitching
once a week, So they mighthave to make some decisions regarding the rotation.

(02:14):
And you know, Brown certainly neededto help his case, and you
know he did that yesterday by throwingsix strong innings. All right, so
give me your thought on the rosterprojection. Once Erkidi comes back, and
now we've already got McCormick back,that was one decision. Ten. What's
gonna happen when jose Brady returns,either later this weekend or in the next
week. Yeah, I would thinkthat low Perfido probably goes down. I

(02:36):
mean, he's just not playing muchhere, and you know he's still a
guy that's developing, So I thinkhe put him back down there, Uh
at Triple A. Get him inthe lineup every day for server Land.
I think that's what's gonna be thebest for his development. A Spot has
said that as much at the endof spring training, when low Perfito got
cut from camp right towards the endafter making a push to make the team,
he said, best thing for hisdevelopment is to play every day.

(02:59):
Now he's come up appearents swung thebat very well and did everything they wanted
him to do. But if he'snot gonna play, he may as well
go to Triple A get it back. You know, he will be back
at some point. As far asRakti is coming back, I mean that's
still maybe another you know, maybeten days away. Really hard to say
because a couple of these starters aregonna have more starts, but I mean,
arra Getty's every start just gets betterand better. You're not gonna do

(03:23):
anything obviously with with Pavier and fromEr, even though they've struggled a little
bit, but uh, they havesome good decisions to make. They're about
to have, you know, sevenquality starting pitchers, at least guys with
some experience, and uh, youknow some guys are a couple of guys
one or two are going to bebumped for the rotation and competition brings out
the best of people, so itcertainly will be interesting when her Keti comes

(03:44):
back. Can you live with bumpingor Kety back the rotation in his normal
spot and putting both Arrogatty and Brownon the bullpen if you were to go
to that five man rotation, canyou do that. Yeah, I'm not
so sure. I mean, doyou do you really want Aragedtty just to
be I mean, to be areliever at this point, maybe pitching two
or three innings here or there.I mean, I think sort of like

(04:08):
the low perfedo thing. I thinkwith ara Getty, what would be best
for him would be go to tripleA. Take everything you've learned here in
the big leagues and the confidence thatyou built on it, and just wait
for your turn next time out,and that you know that maybe uh,
you know the next thing most likelyto happen, because uh, I just
think stashing him with a bullpen probablywouldn't be good for his development. I
think you can do that a littlebit easier with Hunter Brown. He came

(04:29):
out of the bullpen in Detroit acouple of weeks ago pitch five innings.
You know, he pitched them abullpen a little bit last year as well,
and even I think the year beforethat, right when he came up.
So but I wouldn't do that witharag Getty at this point because he's
still developing as a starter and heprobably needs to get those starts and as
many innings as he can well selfishlytag he's on my all interview team already
as a rookie. I don't wanthim leaving and going anywhere. So yeah,

(04:51):
great, I mean he his postgameinterviews are great. I mean he
really he knows pitching, He studiespitching and all these guys, but just
the way that he's able to breakit down and as honest as he is.
Man, I hope they keep himin the road station because, yeah,
he's fun to talk to you aftergames when he pitches, win or
lose. All right, let's getto the elephant in the room, you

(05:12):
know, a pound gorilla, whateveryou want to use the cliche term.
So whether a Bray who shows uplate this weekend in Oakland or goes and
joins the team in Seattle, themicroscope, the baseball fan in this town,
the media, anybody's going to belooking at every single the bat for
Jose A Bray. You. Idon't think anybody would say this was the

(05:35):
right amount of time. I thinkall of us collectively, Brian, are
surprised and as quickly it is.And maybe you're not in that situation.
But let's go to the glass halffull. It's easy. He platoons or
or inherits the first base Spot.Let's say he's out of the gate two
for nineteen, three for twenty four. I mean, it seems like an

(05:56):
easy decision, but with the dollarsand the amount of faith this organization still
hasn't it's not gonna be an easydecision. If the glass is half empty
and he doesn't contribute, Yeah,I think you're right. I mean,
this is not going to be aneasy decision. You know. Obviously sending
him down to the minor leagues wasn'tan easy decision, but we all knew
when he went down there that hewas going to get another shot. I

(06:17):
mean, this was a veteran playerwho agreed to go down to the minor
leagues and said, yeah, Ineed to go down there and work.
And the think we've heard he's beenout there working in the Florida Sun every
day in the morning, on thebackfields where you know, no one's cheering
you, no one. You know, there's not a reporter in side,
there are no fans in site,and just down there putting the work in.

(06:39):
And if he comes back up here, he's going to play. Joe
Spot has said that the other daybecause the only way to find out if
he's truly turned things around is toplay him every day. But you're right,
if he starts two to nineteen andhe's striking out and rolling over and
grounding out to the right side ofthe infield, they're probably gonna have to
make a tough decision because they've playedreally well since he was he was gone

(07:00):
for a lot of reasons. They'vegotten healthy a little bit, some other
guys have stepped up, but youknow, John Singleton's done a nice job
as well. So but when hecomes up here, he is going to
play and they're going to write himin the lineup card every day, I
would say, at least initially,and if the results aren't there, then
there's gonna be another big conversation that'sgoing to have to take place on what
he do with him because you stillowe him so much money, but you

(07:24):
can't have him in the lineup everyday like you did in April when he
was performing like that. That's asegue, Brian, And what is the
puke point do you think, Likewhen do you think the astros say,
if it does not go well,we can't do this anymore. We've got
to completely make the nuclear option here. Yeah, it's a good question,
Dan, and one only they knowI would imagine that, you know,

(07:46):
maybe two three weeks, they getto the end of June and it's just
not happening. It's probably never goingto happen at this point. And you
know, what is the what isthe bar to keep him in the lineup
is that you know, hitting twotwenty you know, homer a week,
you know ops and six hundred.I mean that's you know, still not
great production from first base. It'snot even as good as what Singleton's given

(08:07):
you. Or are you hoping thathe comes up and is ops and seven
fifty, homering twice a week andyou know, hitting the ball, driving
the ball to a little more authority, then you can live with that.
But when you have Singleton playing aswell as he is, not that you
know, not that he's making anyoneforget about Bagwell or Leans Perkman. But
he's done a nice job. Butthey do owe it to a break you

(08:30):
just for him agreeing to go down, for the team to reciprocate and say,
okay, you know, let's seewhat you got. It is probably
your last chance. So that's uh, you know, that's probably going to
be answered on a day by daybasis on how he does. How long
that leashes final one for me?Bregman, and you know the last few
games struggled there since moving back intothe cleanup spot. I mean, is

(08:50):
that something that you can continuously movehim in and out of that spot or
is it just now at this point, Joe's committed and he says we arrived
with them. He's got to getgoing no matter where he is in the
lineup. Well, Joe hasn't beenchied on moving guys in the line up.
We know that we saw that earlyon with a bray You right off
the bat, h moving Bragman downto six, and he hit well down

(09:13):
there. Even though they're playing reallywell right now, they you know,
they were seven and three on ahomestand which is exactly what they needed to
do, and overall offensively their numbersare still really good. It would not
surprise me if Bregman continues to strugglethat Joe in the coming days, moves
him back down to the order,maybe moves Panya back up, and you
know, just give Bregman a chanceto work this out like it happened last

(09:35):
time. I mean, he's inan zero for fifteen slump right now,
but you know, popping the ballup again. You know, a couple
of weeks ago, he's really drivingthe ball. He seemed really excited where
he was at the plate. Buthe's back to sort of where he was
in April. And how much havehelped, I don't know. But when
they moved him down the lineup gothim going a little bit. And you
know, with the way that thatJoe's been not been afraid to move these

(09:56):
guys around it, I certainly wouldconsider it once they again at this point,
moving them back down, just tosee if they can get them going
again. Last for me on thisis Joe in a position where and it's
not his fault because he's only tryingto put the best out there, is
there maybe too much lineup shifting thatit's causing a little bit of hey where

(10:16):
am I? And why don't needto come to the ballpark every day looking
to see where I am? Oris that just a byproduct of guys that
are maybe perhaps underperforming and you knowwhat, too bad? If you're not
performing, you don't need to bein a certain spot in the lineup.
Yeah, I think that's just sortof the way it's been. I mean,
aj Hinch moved to lineup around alot too. You know that Dusty
Baker did. I not one thingthat Joe said that he does, and

(10:39):
you know, I don't know ifhe does, if he's followed through with
it, but I'm pretty sure thathe has is that he wants these guys
to know before they come to theballpark where they're hitting. So I'm pretty
sure that these guys know when theygo to bed the night before they get
the lineup where they're going to behitting. But yeah, I think the
days of coming to the lineup andseeing the same seven eight guys the top

(11:00):
of the order and not changing,you know, probably those days are probably
gone, especially with some of thesituations Gastros had with Alvarez moving from left
field to the h You know,you have to work McCormick in there a
little bit. Do Bomd's gonna gethis bats, you have, you know,
kart Key's got to get a bat. So just for those reasons alone,
you're gonna have a lot of lineupchanges. But I know that he
would like some consistency at the topof the lineup with those four guys,

(11:24):
and he really hasn't had that.He's moved him around, he's dropped Bregmant.
So I think that if he canget the top four or five guys
settled through most of the movement atthe bottom of the lineup. But so
far, you know, he's hadto probably do more lineup shuffling at the
top of the lineup that he wouldlike. But if Bredict can get going,
maybe he can find, you know, a combination out there that works.
Great stuff. As always, lookforward to hearing with you and Dan

(11:46):
tomorrow night on the on Deck Showleading into that series against Oakland. Appreciate
the visitors. Always talk in nextThursday. All right, all right,
you got it. That's Brian McTaggartwith us from MLB dot com. You
can hear him every Thursday with usand every Friday before Astros on Deck games
right here on Sports Talk at sevenninety
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