Astros GM drops injury update that could change everything

Injuries have been a huge storyline, causing huge twists and turns throughout the Houston Astros' 2025 season. From Yordan Alvarez's IL odyssey that kept him out for nearly four months to quickly losing two-fifths of the starting rotation due to UCL injuries, basically in succession, with Ronel Blanco and Hayden Wesneski needing to undergo Tommy John surgery to, on a positive note, welcoming back Luis Garcia after 28 long months as he recovered from Tommy John surgery of his own, the injury bug has been a central character in the club's story this year.

Things seemingly reached a low point in July. Heading into the month, Jeremy Peña went down with fractured ribs, but the big blow came a few weeks later when Isaac Paredes suffered a devastating hamstring injury that seemed to spell the end of his season.

Losing Paredes sent shockwaves throughout Houston's orbit. Not only had the club lost one of the gems of the Kyle Tucker trade, but a gaping hole had opened at the hot corner just before the trade deadline, giving Dana Brown yet another item to add to his shopping list. With Paredes presumed to be lost for the year, Brown took a big swing to reunite with Carlos Correa to fill the void, and the prodigal son stepped right in and may have saved Houston's season.

Now, Brown is back with a shocking Paredes update that could end up being a game-changer for the Astros' stretch run and into October.

Dana Brown drops a bold injury update that could change everything for Isaac Paredes and the Astros

Speaking with MLB.com's Brian McTaggart, Brown had some unexpected Isaac Paredes news to share and went into detail about what it could mean for the Astros' offense.

“We're going to get information on both later today or early [Wednesday]. I think we got a good chance that Paredes may be doing some activity, but ... I'm fired up about that because I felt like when Paredes went down our offense suffered. He was seeing so many pitches. He was setting a tone for us at the top of the lineup. And so getting him back would really make me feel even better about the offense that broke loose [Monday].”

Brown is certainly correct in that Houston's offense mostly disappeared following the loss of Paredes, whose .259/.359/.470 line proved to be a critical force in the Astros' lineup. For his part, Paredes opted not to get surgery to fix his torn hamstring and instead opted for a Platelet-Rich Plasma injection treatment in hopes of returning to the field this season.

Now with the 26-year-old third baseman preparing to resume baseball activities, a return is one step closer to coming to fruition. Should he pull off the miraculous comeback, it would bring a huge impact to the Astros while also raising some questions.

How Houston would deploy Correa and Paredes together in the same lineup is an open question. Paredes does have experience playing first base, though, with Christian Walker finally starting to heat up, it's questionable if the Astros would want to risk throwing their prized free agent acquisition out of rhythm by making him share the position with Paredes.

Paredes also has some experience at second base, though he last played there in 2023, and his defense was not good and would likely be worse now that he's hobbled. The most likely scenario is that he would split time with Correa, who hasn't been the picture of health these last few years either, at the hot corner, while also logging some time at designated hitter.

Since returning from the injured list, Yordan Alvarez has gotten a lot of run in left field, including getting the start out there each of his last four contests, meaning some at-bats could be opened for Paredes that way.

Regardless of how the Astros balance the lineup, should Paredes achieve what was unthinkable and return to action, finding a way to feed all these mouths is a good problem to have. Most importantly, they'd be adding a potent bat that is tailor-made for Daikin Park, making them much more formidable down the stretch and into October. Should that happen, everything else will work itself out.