Astros Place Gregerson on Family Leave and Designate Juan Minaya

We Now Know the Houston Astros’ Move to Activate Danny Worth

To a surprise of most Houston Astros fans, the club announced that to get Danny Worth on the 25-man roster, the have placed reliever Luke Gregerson on the medical family emergency leave and pitcher Juan Minaya was designated for assignment. These two moves cleared room on the 25-man roster temporarily and a spot on the 40-man roster. I wrote earlier in the day about Worth being recalled, who will get some starts all over the infield.

Gregerson, who was recently taken out of the closers role to ease the burden off him, was placed on the family medical leave, which means that he will miss at least three games. While I am not going to speculate what is wrong, and frankly it’s none of our business, I wanted to say that I hope whatever is wrong gets better soon.

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Who is Juan Minaya?

He was added to the 40-man roster this offseason to protect him from the Rule V draft, but now the Astros are undoing that move. Minaya has had an okay season with the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks with a 1-3 record/ 3.91 ERA/ 19 strikeouts in 24 1/3 innings pitched. Minaya has had control issues with a long action arm, but he could reach 97 mph. Hopefully, he will pass through waivers and stick with the Astros.

Minaya is not a member of the Astros Top-30 prospect list, but anyone that throws 97 mph could be an asset to this organization. The Gregerson move could be a temporary move, so there are more moves to come. I strongly believe that A.J. Reed is a week, or so away from making his MLB debut, they are just waiting for him to get hot at the plate.

Next: Astros Are Making a Move, Danny Worth to Join Club

With Worth in the picture now, he will get all the starts versus left-handed pitching and play other games. Worth is not a prospect, but he could help the Astros in a way similar to the way Marwin Gonzalez does as a utility infielder.

***Stats to Baseball-Reference***