Astros make move to shake-up bullpen, but all eyes are on Jose Altuve’s lineup status

After a brutal game against the Reds on Saturday, the Houston Astros were always going to need to bring in a fresh arm or two before Sunday's game. The bullpen had to pitch a lot more than planned after Lance McCullers Jr. imploded in the first inning yesterday and not having a fresh relief arm after that would be malpractice. However, that concern has taken a bit of a backseat with the latest development regarding Jose Altuve.

As expected, Houston decided to option Logan VanWey to Triple-A in exchange for Shawn Dubin. Saturday's debacle can't be blamed much on VanWey, but can be optioned freely and threw two innings yesterday which means he was unlikely to be available the next couple of days anyways. However, the bigger problem may be that Altuve, who was pulled from yesterday's game, has been held out of the lineup Sunday.

Jose Altuve held out of lineup Sunday, but no injured list stint for the moment

There are a few ways to look at this situation. On the one hand, having an older face of the franchise who was already struggling miss a game with a soft tissue injury like a hamstring issue is bad news. Human bodies don't heal more quickly or readily with age and with Altuve already a bit long in the tooth, one wonders how his body will react over the course of a long baseball season.

However, what didn't happen was Altuve getting placed on the injured list on Sunday. The severity of hamstring injuries generally makes themselves known pretty quickly and with everyone involved calling the move precautionary last night, the Astros may just be giving Altuve a day to bounce back just to stay ahead of any further issues.

One hopes that this is just a one game hiccup that we all forget about in a week. However, with the Astros' offense struggling to start the season, any absence longer than that from Altuve may compound those troubles.

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