Houston Astros: Lance McCullers placed on 10-day DL
By Anthony Sosa
The Houston Astros placed another starting pitcher on the disabled list Monday. Lance McCullers becomes the fourth Astros starter on the DL right now.
The injury bug continues to strike MLB’s best team. The Houston Astros lost another starter to the DL on Monday. They placed right-handed pitcher Lance McCullers on the 10-day DL with lower back discomfort, per a tweet from Astros beat reporter Brian McTaggart. The tweet also mentioned that the move is retroactive to June 9.
Astros place Lance McCullers on the 10 day DL retroactive to the 9th due to lower back discomfort. Musgrove will be activated in his spot.
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) June 12, 2017
In a separate tweet, McTaggart mentioned that the Astros don’t expect to be without McCullers for very long.
Astros don't expect a long absence for McCullers
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) June 12, 2017
McCullers joins three other Astros starting pitchers on the DL. The other three include ace Dallas Keuchel, Charlie Morton and Collin McHugh. When the Astros placed McCullers on the DL, they activated starting pitcher Joe Musgrove from the DL. He joins the remaining members of the Astros rotation including Mike Fiers, Brad Peacock and David Paulino.
In his third big league season, McCullers is in the midst of a breakout campaign. In 2017, McCullers looks like one of the best pitchers in baseball.
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This season, McCullers owns a 6-1 record with a 2.58 ERA, 2.89 FIP, 1.057 WHIP and 89 strikeouts. When McCullers and Keuchel are healthy, they are one of the best top of the rotation 1-2 punches in the game.
The 23-year-old’s ERA sits sixth best in baseball right now. He ranks eighth in K/9 at 10.448. His FIP ranks fifth best in baseball.
Although it seems likely that McCullers won’t miss more than a couple starts, the Astros need him back as soon as possible to continue to build on their MLB-best 44-20 record. They currently lead the second-place Los Angeles Angels by 12 games. Their early season success gave them a nice cushion for a hard-hitting period of injuries to the rotation.
Starting pitcher injuries in the AL West
The Astros aren’t the only team in the AL West dealing with injuries to their starting rotation. In fact, each team in the West has lost at least one of their top pitchers to the DL.
The Seattle Mariners are currently without Felix Hernandez, Hisashi Iwakuma and Drew Smyly. Lefty James Paxton just recently got off the DL.
For the Angels, Nick Tropeano and Andrew Heaney continue to recover from Tommy John surgery, while Garrett Richards and Tyler Skaggs are also sidelined with injuries.
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Out in Oakland, two of the best Athletics pitchers are out right now with injuries, Andrew Triggs and Kendall Graveman. Ace Sonny Gray recently came off the DL in May.
Lastly, the Texas Rangers are competing without one of the best left-handed pitchers in the game, Cole Hamels. The team also has A.J. Griffin on the DL.