Astros Notes: Ronel Blanco's return, Jeremy Peña and Christian Walker update, Brice Matthews

The first series of the second half did not go to plan for the Houston Astros. Instead of building on the momentum they had going into the All-Star break, the Astros were instead swept by an Orioles squad that will be lucky to make the playoffs at all this season. The offense only scored two runs in each of the three games, and while the pitching wasn't bad, they weren't able to get the job done with that little run support.

Thankfully, that is just one series, and Houston welcomes the Marlins next, which, on paper, should be a decent matchup for them if the Astros are relatively close to full strength. With that in mind, here are some notes as to what is going on with Houston's injured players as of now.

Ronel Blanco set to make his return from Tommy John surgery on Monday

Everyone knows that the Astros need starting pitching help, and there has been no shortage of speculation as to who they could go out and get at the trade deadline in the wake of Tatsuya Imai's struggles and Mike Burrows' demotion-turned-IL stint. However, help is (hopefully) on the way Monday, and he doesn't even require a trade.

Ronel Blanco underwent Tommy John surgery back in May 2025, and his absence over the last 14 months or so has definitely been felt. Thankfully, his rehab has gone well, and Astros fans will get the chance to see him against the Marlins on Monday after he is activated.

Jeremy Peña and Christian Walker's injury status remains disturbingly vague

When both Jeremy Peña and Christian Walker left Saturday's matchup against the Orioles early, many fans probably assumed the worst. Peña seemed to be bothered by the hamstring that put him on the IL earlier this season, and Walker grabbing his oblique raised a lot of alarms, given his history of trouble with that particular injury.

Luckily, it seems like the team doesn't expect either injury to be serious, as neither player has been placed on the IL and Peña said himself that he is feeling good after taking Sunday's game off. However, it will be hard to get too excited until we see both hitters in the Astros' lineup regularly again, and we have little indication as to when that will happen right now.

Brice Matthews' trip to the IL feels like the end of that grand experiment

While Lucas Spence's successful MLB debut was the real story, it came with the word that Brice Matthews was headed to the injured list with a sprained knee. One hopes that Spence can build on his performance, but it may come at the expense of Matthews' roster spot even when he gets healthy.

Before banging his knee on the outfield wall, Matthews' performance at the plate this season had been abysmal with a .197/.250/.332 line and 61 wRC+. As sad as it sounds, his injury allows the Astros to test out other options ahead of the trade deadline. If Spence (or someone else) ends up performing better, sending Matthews back to the minors once he is healthy would make a lot of sense.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow