Houston Astros injury updates including Yordan Alvarez, Jose Urquidy

The injury bug has has been going around the league in 2023 and the Houston Astros have been no exception. Both sides of the ball have lost key players like Yordan Alvarez, Jose Urquidy, Lance McCullers Jr., Luis Garcia, and Michael Brantley this season for varying degrees of time that have made things rather difficult when it comes to trying to keep pace in the AL West.

At times, it can be quite difficult to keep track of who is hurt with what and the latest updates regarding when guys could return. So, here is where the Houston Astros stand on the injury front as of now.

Houston Astros Injury Updates

Jose Altuve

Altuve hurt his right heel running the bases recently and missed a couple of games as a result. Fortunately, he was back in the lineup on Wednesday.

Yordan Alvarez

The news gets less good as we go down the list and the biggest name is Yordan Alvarez who is currently dealing with a right oblique strain. Oblique injuries are notoriously tough to predict and can take a long time to heal. The latest update we have here is that the Astros are hoping that Yordan can return to the lineup by mid-July. One good sign is that Dusty Baker did say that Alvarez did some work in the batting cage as well as did some running and throwing drills. Hopefully it isn't too long until he is back.

Michael Brantley

Brantley is still recovering from the shoulder surgery that ended his 2022 season. The hope was that he would already be playing with the Astros by now. However, when he was set to rejoin the club in early May after making a few minor league rehab appearances, his shoulder was still bothering him and he basically had to start all over again to let the inflammation in his shoulder calm down. The most recent reports are that Michael is at least hitting off a tee now, so a 2023 return is not out of the question. It does seem like it will be a while, though, as he was placed on the 60 day IL in late June and he doesn't seem close to going out on a rehab assignment.

Jose Urquidy

In late April, Jose Urquidy had to leave a start early and was later put on the injured list with inflammation in his pitching shoulder. Teams don't mess around with pitchers' shoulder, so it has been a relatively slow rehab process for Urquidy including placing him on the 60 day IL. However, he did throw a bullpen a couple days ago that apparently went quite well. From the sounds of things, he will throw another bullpen and then face some live hitters before a decision is made on sending him out on a rehab assignment. All of that points to a return sometime in July and that is good news for the Astros.

Houston Astros Out for the Season

Lance McCullers Jr.

After a bullpen session before the season resulted in McCullers Jr. aggravating his existing forearm injury and missing the start of the season, the Astros announced that he underwent surgery to remove a bone spur and repair his flexor tendon. He is out for the season for sure.

Luis Garcia

Luis Garcia started the season with Houston, but left an early May start very clearly having pain in his elbow. A couple of weeks later, he underwent Tommy John surgery and is a lock to miss the rest of the season. Whether or not he will be able to return for the start of the 2024 season is very questionable given the timing, so a safe bet may be sometime mid-2024 for his return.