Astros activate George Springer while sending White to AAA

The Astros regain their offensive spark plug in Springer.

Before today’s Astros versus White Sox game, the team announced that George Springer will be activated according to Jake Kaplan. This was after he missed 13 games after he joined Carlos Correa on the DL. Springer hit the DL with a quad strain.

With the Astros having such a big lead in the AL West, they were able to give Springer time. Springer is a big part of the offense, you need him in October to jump-start the offense. They were able to wait till he was 100% versus 75%. Though, I’m sure Springer made a daily request to come back.

When one goes up, another goes down.

The corresponding move was a head scratcher, most people thought it would be J.D. Davis going down. Davis is the most recent hitter to come up and he hasn’t shown much.

While, Tyler White was hitting well and could play first and second. White had a two game stretch with three homers, so he looked to be the fill in while Correa recovers. According to Kaplan, White is going down instead of Davis.

Before the game, via Julia Morales, A.J. Hinch mentioned that White didn’t deserve to be sent down. They wanted to see how Davis dops versus left-handed pitching. Davis is one of the Astros top prospects and they want to get an extended look at him.

What the…

They know what White can do with his play down the stretch last year and in his limited time this year. White will be back in September if not sooner. He was hitting .310 with a .999 OPS with three homers and nine RBI.

Davis hit 26 homers in the minors, but only has 1 hit in the majors now. He had some defense miscues in his first start at third base, but that could have been the butterflies. He could be the DH of the future, they want to give him more of a chance now.

While the Astros have still had some impressive offensive games while Springer has been gone, he’s the spark plug. His 27 homers and 66 RBI as the leadoff hitter is a hard thing to replace. Getting him back to the lineup and in the field should give the Astros the boost needed to win.

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With Derek Fisher, Josh Reddick, and Springer starting in the outfield tonight, this could be the starting outfield for the playoffs. Until Kyle Tucker is ready, this could be the outfield for the next few years.

***Stats from Baseball-Reference and Jake Kaplan***