Pinched nerve puts Keuchel on 10-day disabled list
Seemingly everything went the Astros’ way the first six weeks of the season as they jumped out to the best start in baseball.
Now they will be forced to weather at least one turn in the rotation without their best pitcher.
Dallas Keuchel was placed on the 10-day disabled list Saturday with what the Astros described as a pinched nerve in his neck. The team expects the lefthander to miss only one start. His DL stint is retroactive to Wednesday, meaning he’ll be eligible to return in time for his start next Saturday against the Baltimore Orioles at Minute Maid Park.
Whether he’s ready to pitch come Saturday remains to be seen. Keuchel, 29, who reported the issue to the team Wednesday, didn’t anticipate this being a lengthy issue and that he hoped to make his start Saturday.
Long reliever Brad Peacock will make a spot start Monday against the Detroit Tigers in Keuchel’s stead. Lefthander Ashur Tolliver was called up from Class AAA as an extra bullpen arm.
“That’s my anticipation,” Keuchel said of missing only one turn in the rotation. “I can’t guarantee yes or no because I’m not God. But I’d like to think that I’m just going to miss one start.”
Keuchel, whose 1.84 ERA through nine starts was best among major league starters coming into Saturday’s games, said he first felt discomfort when he woke up Wednesday, the day after his most recent start in Miami. After alerting the team during Wednesday’s flight to Houston, he visited with team doctors during Thursday’s day off.
Keuchel underwent an MRI on his neck but said doctors offered “really no diagnosis other than the (pinched) nerve. It’s very inflamed.”
He will take a few days off to let the inflammation settle down.
“I think if I had to I could probably go out there and pitch,” he said. “But with the position we’re in right now, it’s kind of the best way to go about it.”
Keuchel’s return to his Cy Young Award-winning form of 2015 is one of the biggest reasons for the Astros’ 29-14 start. The team has won eight of his nine starts. He’s allowed more than two runs only once.
Keuchel insisted the injury had nothing to do with why he pitched only five innings and threw 70 pitches Tuesday against the Marlins, a decision made by the team to save his arm in an eight-run game. Keuchel said he typically doesn’t sleep well after his starts because of the adrenaline built up and he woke up Wednesday with discomfort.
“It’s tough because I feel like I have a high pain tolerance, but … ultimately all of those muscles are firing when I’m throwing the ball,” he said. “It doesn’t feel very good, so that’s why I ended up saying something on Wednesday while we were flying.
“It just wasn’t worth it at this point, and we’ll look to hopefully make our start on Saturday.”
Peacock has a 1.10 ERA in 161⁄3 innings of relief but hasn’t logged more than two innings in any of his 12 appearances.
Manager A.J. Hinch was noncommittal when asked how many innings he thought Peacock could provide Monday.
Said Peacock: “Obviously, I’m not going to go seven innings, but I’ll just go as far as I can.”
“It just depends on how efficient he can be,” Hinch said. “I knew going in (Friday) night that this was probable, so we wanted to get him an inning (in Friday’s loss) almost like a bullpen session prior to his start on Monday.
“Whatever he can give us he’s going to give us. I’ll let him go as long as he can as (long) he’s effective and we feel like he’s managing his workload given that he hasn’t started since spring training. But that’s part of his role on this team is to be prepared for something like this.”
Odds and ends
Top Cuban free agent and outfielder Luis Robert, 19, reportedly agreed to terms on a deal with the Chicago White Sox. The Astros were among the teams to work out Robert but weren’t viewed as a front-runner to sign him. According to Yahoo Sports, the White Sox have agreed to a deal that will pay Robert slightly more than $25 million and cost them more than $45 million after an overage tax. … Former Astros third-base prospect Rio Ruiz hit his first major league home run Saturday off Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer. Ruiz, the Astros’ fourth-round pick in 2012, was part of the January 2015 trade that brought Evan Gattis and James Hoyt to the Astros from the Atlanta Braves.
Jake Kaplan