{"id":378858,"date":"2026-07-19T17:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T17:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/378858\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T17:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T17:47:10","slug":"houston-astros-ronel-blanco-back-in-rotation-after-tommy-john-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/378858\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Astros: Ronel Blanco back in rotation after Tommy John surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ronel Blanco will make his return to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/sports\/astros\/\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Houston Astros<\/a> from Tommy John surgery Monday, starting the team\u2019s series opener against the Miami Marlins, manager Joe Espada said.<\/p>\n<p>Blanco\u2019s return to the majors will occur about 14 months removed from his last start for Houston. The right-hander, who emerged as a rotation piece in 2024, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/sports\/astros\/article\/ronel-blanco-undergoes-arm-surgery-20365466.php\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">had surgery last June<\/a> that included a repair of the ulnar collateral ligament with an internal brace as well as a repair of the flexor tendon.<\/p>\n<p>The Astros hope Blanco and Hayden Wesneski, who is also nearing a return from Tommy John surgery, can help reinforce their pitching staff in the second half. Astros starters entered Sunday with the third-highest ERA (5.18) in the majors this season and the ninth-fewest innings pitched (486 \u2154).<\/p>\n<p>In five minor-league rehab outings, Blanco allowed two earned runs in 17 innings. His last rehab start comprised 4 \u2153 innings and 68 pitches at Triple-A, meaning he may still be on a slightly limited pitch count for his season debut Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe feels good, his stuff looked really good in his outings,\u201d Espada said. \u201cExcited to have him back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After Blanco\u2019s start, Tatsuya Imai and Peter Lambert are scheduled to start the final two games against the Marlins. Wesneski, who made his fourth rehab start Friday in Triple-A, was at Daikin Park over the weekend. Espada said the Astros were still discussing the next step for Wesneski.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ronel Blanco will make his return to the Houston Astros from Tommy John surgery Monday, starting the team\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378859,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-378858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}