For the second time in three weeks, the Houston Astros nullified a minor-league option after discovering the demoted pitcher had an injury. This time it is right-hander Mike Burrows, one of general manager Dana Brown\u2019s biggest acquisitions of an offseason that is not aging well.<\/p>\n
The team placed Burrows on the major-league, 15-day injured list Monday with what it described as right elbow neuritis. The Astros offered no timetable for Burrows\u2019 return or other specifics about the injury. According to the Florida Orthopedic Institute, neuritis can be inflammation or compression of the ulnar nerve.<\/p>\n
Burrows was demoted to Triple-A Sugar Land on Tuesday, but he will have his option nullified and his injured list stint start from that date instead. Burrows is not eligible to come off the injured list until July 22.<\/p>\n
Burrows\u2019 absence does not alter the Astros\u2019 trade deadline approach \u2014 they are still prioritizing a left-handed outfield bat \u2014 but may increase the urge to find pitching help. At the very least, Burrows profiled as depth that could have helped in the rotation if he made appropriate adjustments at Triple A.<\/p>\n
Houston optioned Burrows amid a brutal start to his Astros career. He posted a 5.99 ERA across 94 2\/3 innings, required a brief detour to the bullpen for a \u201cbreather\u201d and allowed 21 home runs in 18 appearances. His nadir came in a start against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on July 6, when he squandered a five-run lead and surrendered 10 runs.<\/p>\n
Brown parted with two touted prospects, right-hander Anderson Brito and outfielder Jacob Melton, to acquire Burrows in a three-team trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Rays in December. At the time of Burrows\u2019 acquisition, Brown proclaimed that he could be a future pillar of Houston\u2019s rotation.<\/p>\n
Upon demoting him last week, Brown said: \u201cIt\u2019s difficult because we feel like he\u2019s a big part of our future. But we have to get more action in the (strike) zone to his stuff.\u201d Brown also mentioned \u201cuncharted territory\u201d for Burrows, who has never thrown more than 128 1\/3 innings in his professional career.<\/p>\n
Asked about that workload after his start against the Nationals, Burrows said: \u201cI actually feel good. I know I\u2019ve thrown a good amount of innings, but I feel good at this point. Nothing bad to say about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Burrows\u2019 situation has some parallels to that of Kai-Wei Teng, another of Brown\u2019s offseason acquisitions who required a minor-league demotion last month. Teng, like Burrows, seemed on pace to shatter his career high in innings pitched. Manager Joe Espada said the team demoted Teng, in part, to conserve his innings.<\/p>\n
Three days after demoting Teng, the team nullified his option and placed him on the injured list with a right knee sprain. Espada said team officials learned of the injury after Teng\u2019s demotion and that it would not interrupt his throwing program. Teng is at the team\u2019s complex in West Palm Beach, Fla., completing rehab.<\/p>\n
Because Burrows\u2019 injury is to his arm, it stands to reason things will not be as straightforward.<\/p>\n
Burrows\u2019 injury now means four of Brown\u2019s six offseason, major-league pitching acquisitions \u2014 Burrows, Teng, Tatsuya Imai and Nate Pearson \u2014 have spent time on the injured list. The two others, Ryan Weiss and Roddery Mu\u00f1oz, were designated for assignment and are no longer on Houston\u2019s 40-man roster. The sextet has a 5.73 ERA across 260 2\/3 major-league innings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the second time in three weeks, the Houston Astros nullified a minor-league option after discovering the demoted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":760917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[373,363,99],"class_list":["post-760916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-houston-astros","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=760916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/760917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=760916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=760916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=760916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}