HOUSTON \u2014 After a season defined by injuries and how the Houston Astros handled them, the team did not renew the contract of longtime head athletic trainer Jeremiah Randall, the team announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n
According to both Baseball Prospectus and FanGraphs, no team lost more potential value to injuries this season than the Astros, who ended their eight-season streak of postseason appearances under the weight of that attrition.<\/p>\n
At one point in mid-July, Houston had 18 players on the injured list. Twenty-eight Astros spent at least some time sidelined.<\/p>\n
Three of the Astros\u2019 four All-Stars \u2014 third baseman Isaac Paredes, shortstop Jeremy Pe\u00f1a and closer Josh Hader \u2014 spent more than a month on the injured list. Slugger Yordan Alvarez appeared in just 48 games following a saga that called into question Houston\u2019s much-maligned \u201creturn to play procedure.\u201d<\/p>\n
After diagnosing Alvarez with a \u201cmuscle strain\u201d in his right hand in early May, the Astros allowed him to face live pitching at Daikin Park. Alvarez complained of more pain, which prompted the team to send him for more imaging. It revealed a fracture. Houston took no additional imaging before putting Alvarez in the batter\u2019s box.<\/p>\n
\u201cPotentially more imaging, I think that may have helped us,\u201d general manager Dana Brown acknowledged last week. \u201cBut it\u2019s difficult when imaging is telling you one thing \u2014 you try to go with what you\u2019re seeing \u2014 but maybe we (could have) gotten more imaging with Alvarez.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown\u2019s predecessor, James Click, promised a review of the team\u2019s \u201creturn to play procedure\u201d after Jake Meyers\u2019 unsuccessful return from shoulder surgery in 2022. Owner Jim Crane \u201cparted ways\u201d with Click that winter, prompting speculation about whether the audit ever took place.<\/p>\n
Throughout the season, Brown tried to downplay the team\u2019s rash of injuries, ascribing them to either industry-wide trends or fluke accidents. Some of them were flukes, be it pitcher Spencer Arrighetti\u2019s fractured thumb during batting practice or Pe\u00f1a\u2019s fractured rib on a hit by pitch. Three members of Houston\u2019s starting rotation underwent Tommy John surgery, which is almost becoming an accepted practice in this era.<\/p>\n
Other instances, however, cast serious doubt on the Astros\u2019 return to play procedure, none more than Meyers\u2019 injuring himself while running out to his position prior to the first inning of a game July 9.<\/p>\n
Meyers had sustained a right calf injury a few days earlier, but never went on the injured list. Before the July 9 game, Meyers tested out his calf while under the supervision of the athletic training staff and strength and conditioning staff. Meyers reinjured himself before the game began and missed nearly two months.<\/p>\n
Randall, who represented the team at the All-Star Game this season, had led the Astros\u2019 athletic training staff since 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2014 After a season defined by injuries and how the Houston Astros handled them, the team did…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":290861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[4345,2382,358,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-290860","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-houston-astros","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115347617417510915","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}