Preston Tucker gets The Call!

Congratulations to seventh-round pick, Preston Tucker, who has hit well at every level of the minors that he has played at.  With a minor league line of .296/.365/.507, and a 2015 line of .320/.378/.650, Tucker has earned his call up.  And he brings some speed - he has one stolen base this year.

So, those of you who read the recent game recaps would have seen that:

1. George Springer hit the 7-day concussion disabled list on Wednesday.  This DL is not retroactive, so he is on the DL for 7 days from when he was put on.
2. The bullpen has been worked quite hard this year.  It has been worked extra hard the last few games, pitching 6 innings on Tuesday and 4 innings on Wednesday.  Home blowout losses double-suck because of the extra half-inning the 'pen has to manage.  The Astros just had two of them in a row.
3. The bench was already short, carrying three guys including one backup catcher.
4. And, speaking of backup catchers, Hank Conger appeared in left field for the Astros in a fielders' version of mop-up duty.

Tucker is not on the 40-man, so a corresponding move needs to be made.  There are a variety of them, but the most likely is that Jed Lowrie will head to the 60-day DL.  Someone will need to be removed from the 40-man for Jed to be activated again, but that problem is, uh, 60-odd days away.  I recently wrote a little about potential options when L.J. Hoes was sent back down, and in a lot of ways, a little bit of playing time for a couple of the guys in AAA is a good thing.  And Preston Tucker has been the best of the lot this year in Fresno.

And, given the state of the 'pen, this may not be the only move that is made.  

So, I will be an interested observer when the Astros head to Anaheim tomorrow, and it will be interesting to see if Tucker starts against the lefty, Santiago.  But the time zones are in my favour, and with a playoff basketball series going on, some Texans may prefer to sleep.  Regardless, the next few months are going to be interesting, and Preston Tucker is one of the reasons why.

Preston, enjoy your debut (whenever it happens) and best of luck.

(Update:  As the below commentator said, Ronald Torreyes has been DFA'd.  Outcome awaited)