Astros injury updates: Altuve’s return, Springer’s rehab and more

The Astros have battled their fair share of injuries so far this season. While it hasn’t seemed to slow them down, a few familiar returning faces will only improve the team.

It’s been a month or so since the Astros were fully healthy. Although the rookies that have been called up to fill in have provided a fairly decent stopgap between the regulars injury list stints, it’ll be nice to have some normalcy in the day to day lineup with players like Jose Altuve and George Springer back.

Jose Altuve: He will make his return to the lineup after being sidelined since May 10th with a left hamstring strain. While he was supposed to return earlier than June 19th, he suffered a slight setback when he felt some pain in his surgically repaired right knee. All seems well with both injuries as he’s logged five rehab games in the minors, with no issues.

George Springer: Quickly following after Altuve is Springer. Down since Monday 25th, also with a left hamstring strain, Springer will begin a rehab assignment on Thursday, June 20th, reported by Chandler Rome of the Chronicle.  Before George Springer went down, fans were quickly inserting his name into the very early American League Most Valuable Player race, as he was tearing the cover off of the ball to start the season. Having him back manning the outfield will be an added boost to an already potent lineup. If all goes well, look for George to return sometime late next week.

Notable late June/ Early July potential returns: Theoretically if there are no major setbacks in the next two weeks, the Astros will look to welcome back the likes of Jose Altuve, George Springer, Max Stassi, who’s also in the midst of rehab games at Round Rock, Collin McHugh, Aledmys Diaz, Joe Smith, who has been sidelined the entire season with an Achilles injury, and Carlos Correa who has been out of action since May 26th with a broken rib. All will hopefully start rehab assignments before the All-Star break, which only bodes well for the Astros, and negatively for the rest of the league.

Look for the Astros to be healthy and rested come the second half of the season as they gear up for another division title run, postseason run, and hopefully, another World Series run.