Astros: Framber Valdez sent down and Reymin Guduan called up

The Houston Astros have made a roster move sending Framber Valdez down to the minors and calling up Reymin Guduan to take his spot in the bullpen.

In the first major roster move of the season, according to Jake Kaplan of theathletic.com, the Astros reshuffled their bullpen staff. Houston has sent Valdez down to their Triple-A affiliate Round Rock Express and brought up Guduan from the same team to join the Astros bullpen.

Valdez and Guduan were the final two left-handed relief pitchers that were battling it out in Spring Training for the final spot in the pen. Valdez ultimately won out, traveling with the team from Florida to Houston to start the season.

Valdez has only appeared in two games this season pitching three innings. He surrendered two earned runs on three hits and a walk in his first appearance of the season, taking the loss in that game. The second game he pitched in was more like what we’re use to seeing from Valdez, only allowing one runner to reach base retiring the side in the ninth.

With a few scheduled off days for the Astros in the next couple of weeks, there’s no need for a fifth starter necessitating the move of Brad Peacock to the bullpen. This would undoubtedly take away some playing time from Valdez. It would serve him better to be able to get more innings of work in down at Round Rock.

Guduan had an impressive Spring appearing in 11 games this Spring allowing only two earned runs, ending up with an ERA of 1.64 and a very low 0.82 WHIP. He had a nice SO/IP ratio of 12.3 striking out 15 batters in 11 innings of work. Guduan has pitched three innings in two games with the Express giving up one run on three hits, but does have six strikeouts against only one walk.

I’m sure there will be more shuffling and reshuffling of the pitching staff as the season goes along and I’d be willing to bet Valdez will be back in Houston before we know it.