McCullers inching his way back to mound
Lance McCullers took another step in working his way back into the rotation.
The 22-year-old righthander threw what manager A.J. Hinch called “half a bullpen (session)” on Sunday, putting McCullers in a situation that called for fewer pitches but more energy.
He will head to the team’s spring training f acility in Kissimmee, Fla., and “get up and running.”
“More of a controlled environment in extended spring training, more regular work,” Hinch said. “We don’t have to worry about weather. We don’t have to worry about travel. We just get him in one spot and have a regimen in place.”
McCullers, who started the season on the 15-day disabled list because of a mid-March bout of shoulder soreness, has seen his progress through rehab assignments stalled. He pitched April 11 for Class AA Corpus Christi, throwing 48 pitches, but was scratched from a second outing because of what Hinch described as “lingering recovery issues.”
Hinch said McCullers is past the hurdle of the recovery and needs to get into baseball activity and likely will do so in extended spring training in the next week before getting another rehab start.
McCullers, the 41st overall pick in 2012, made 22 starts last season, going 6-7 with a 129 strikeouts.
“Hopefully this week, but again we’re going to wait and see how he feels tomorrow and then the next day,” Hinch said. “We’re happy with where he’s at, and the energy that he’s putting into this is more and more game-like and less (like) practice.
“We’ve asked him to do that so we can monitor his recovery.”
Plan is for Gattis to catch some
Astros manager A.J. Hinch said he is trying to get Evan Gattis some reps behind the plate, but the game situations have yet to yield the right spot.
Gattis, who was activated from the disabled list April 11 after recovering from offseason sports hernia surgery, has yet to catch for the Astros after doing so almost exclusively for Atlanta in 2014. His seven starts this year are all as the designated hitter.
“I’m trying,” Hinch said. “Every game, I’m trying. If we can jump out to a lead where I can give him a soft landing.
“He may not need the soft landing. He might not get it, but I just want his first couple of innings to be something less than Ken Giles with the bases loaded and a 3-2 slider in the dirt.”
Gattis didn’t catch in
2015 as the Astros wanted his bat in the lineup. He had 566 at-bats last year
and led the team in home runs and RBI.
He has donned his catcher’s gear on multiple occasions late in games but has yet to take to the field because of game situations.
“These are real-time situations that could come up so I’m trying to gently ease him back into it, but pretty soon, I’m just going to force him in there,” Hinch said.
Odds and ends
Backup catcher Max Stassi (wrist) will start game activity this week at extended spring training at the Astros’ f acility in Kissimmee, Fla., and then be sent out to an affiliate. … Voting for the 2016 MLB All-Star Game officially began Sunday. For the second consecutive year, voting will be done online exclusively and via mobile devices at MLB.com, the 30 team websites and with MLB. com’s At Bat app. The game is July 12 at San Diego’s Petco Park. … Doug Fister, who starts Monday’s series opener against the Mariners, flew to Seattle before the team. … When asked about playing on national television, which the Astros have done twice this weekend, manager A. J. Hinch said it didn’t matter before joking that his mother doesn’t get to watch. “It gets blacked out in Oklahoma,” Hinch said.