Astros: Cionel Perez next pitcher out in most recent cuts

The Astros made more cuts, optioning three and reassigning six to the minors. Highly touted Cionel Perez and Yordan Alvarez were among the players cut.

According to Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle, Cionel Perez, Myles Straw, and Derek Fisher were the players on the Astros‘ 40-man roster optioned to the minors leagues. Non-roster invitees Yordan Alvarez, Kent Emanuel, Brendan McCurry, Jack Mayfield, Nick Tanielu, and Abraham Toro were all reassigned to the minors.

Perez was one of the pitchers considered to be in the running to fill the left-handed spot open in the bullpen. That now seems to have come down to a two-man race between Framber Valdez and Reymin Guduan. Perez was behind in his throwing program and only appeared in two Spring Training games. Manager A. J. Hinch feels that Perez may benefit by getting in more innings down in the minors to start the season and expects him to be called up later this year.

"“He’s only been up a couple of times on the mound and we feel like it’s more important for him developmentally to get regular work in the initial part of the season. We think he’s going to pitch in the big leagues this year, most likely out of the bullpen. But given our needs in the pen and how it’s shaping up, we had guys ahead of him and so we decided to make the decision today.” Hinch said explaining the decision."

Alvarez, Fisher and Straw all had good Spring Training performances. As Hinch stated, they are just the unfortunate consequences of an overcrowded outfield. “They’re really stuck on a really good team,” Hinch said of Straw and Fisher. “There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be in the big leagues, other than being a little unlucky that we’re just stacked in the outfield and we have opportunity we’re going to give to somebody else right now and they’re going to provide depth for us”.

Tanielu may have been the player that made the most noise this Spring, impressing everyone with his bat. He had a slash line of .342/.405/.799 in his 15 appearances. He knocked in 15 runs showing his power with four home runs and three doubles.

"“This spring coming in, I was trying to come in in shape and try to show AJ and them what I could do, since last year I was hobbled with a leg injury. This Spring Training was big for me, and [I] wanted to put myself out there and show the guys I could play.” Tanielu said on his experience."

It’s very evident that this team has an extremely talented and deep pool of prospects to enable the Astros to be a very competitive team for a long time. Don’t be surprised to see one or more of these players coming up to Houston sometime this year.