Kyle Tucker's text message to Joe Espada will leave Astros fans frustrated

The Houston Astros managed a series split with the Baltimore Orioles over the weekend despite not having some of their best players available. Yordan Álvarez has been dealing with a neck injury, but it sounds as if the Houston slugger could be back in the lineup for the upcoming series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

But one player who won't be back this week is Kyle Tucker. The Astros outfielder has been out of the starting lineup since early June. Tucker fouled a pitch off his shin and has been on the IL ever since. Astros GM Dana Brown and manager Joe Espada have continually offered updates as to Tucker's condition, but more times than not, it's been much ado about nothing.

The Astros fanbase is getting tired of hearing meaningless updates, and yet, that's all Brown and Espada care to offer. The latest tidbit from Espada centered around a text message between the Astros' skipper and Tucker over the weekend. Espada said, "He actually sent me a very long, long, long text message, and it was full of a lot of positive notes. It was very encouraging."

Kyle Tucker's text message to Joe Espada will leave Astros fans frustrated

Well, zippity-doo-dah, a positive text message. That's sure to excite the Astros fanbase, isn't it? Oh yeah, in that same conversation, Espada mentioned that Tucker still isn't running. As Chandler Rome of The Athletic points out, Tucker needs to begin running full speed and run the bases before being sent on a rehab assignment.

So while the Astros' brass believes that Tucker will return during the first week of September, that timeline seems extremely optimistic based on the facts. Furthermore, if Tucker is limited in any way, one has to believe that he may not be ready to play the field.

If Tucker's return comes with the caveat that he'll be the Astros designated hitter, Houston will be in the same predicament they found themselves in this past week when Alex Bregman was limited due to an elbow injury. It forced Bregman off third base and into the DH role, which in turn put Yordan Álvarez into left field. Houston would love to avoid that scenario when Tucker is finally cleared to return.

At this point, Astros fans are just ready to see Tucker back on the diamond. And while the Houston faithful haven't given up on Tucker making it back to the lineup at some point before the end of the regular season, these injury updates haven't offered much insight as to what's really going on with the All-Star slugger.

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