Astros Activate Luke Gregerson and Tyler White Goes to AAA.

The Astros Send Tyler White Down.

The Houston Astros made a hard but obvious move before Friday night’s Star Wars night versus the Reds by activating Luke Gregerson from the family medical emergency leave and sent Tyler White down to Triple-A. While Gregerson has had his struggles in the bullpen in 2016, he still is the leader of the bullpen. It is also good to see that whatever Gregerson’s emergency was, everything was okay.

When Danny Worth was activated, I predicted that White would be the one to go down. White got off to such a great start to the 2016 season, but he has gotten himself in a little funk. This funk has led to him losing the first base job, then becoming a platoon partner, now going back to the minors. This is not the end of White’s big league career, but how he handles it from here on will have a big impact on if his career continues.

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White needs to go down and rediscover the swing that helped the form 33rd round pick make the Astros 2016 opening day roster, something that A.J. Reed has not done yet. White started off the season hot, batting .250 in April with five homers and 14 runs batted in. Since that time, White has hit .178 with two homers and five runs batted in.

White has always been a contact hitter with occasional power, but since the start of the season, his strikeout percentage has increased. He has been susceptible to the breaking ball, often backing away from the curveball. White needs to go back to doing what Tyler White does best, just make contact. Once he does this, he will come back and make an impact, or Reed will.

The other players that this affects is Luis Valbuena and Marwin Gonzalez, who will both split time at first base until another move is made, with Worth playing third base often.

Next: Astros: The Return of the Productive Carlos Gomez

Good luck to White, this in not goodbye, this is, we’ll see you soon. The plus side is that White hit really well at Triple-A last year, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get him back on track. Welcome back, Gregerson, get ready to pitch lights out in the bullpen.

***Stats from Baseball-Reference***