Astros pitchers Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers feel good after injuries in 2016.
The health and performances of Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers could be the key to the Astros’ 2017 season. Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that the two have spent the offseason as workout partners.
They have been mainstays at Minute Maid Park since November, running, lifting and, more recently, throwing in preparation for spring training.
Most importantly for the Astros, both starting pitchers, whose 2016 seasons ended prematurely, on Tuesday reported “feeling good” as they ready their arms for the coming season. A level of uncertainty will surround them until they prove their health in games, but each sounds confident the injuries he dealt with last season are in the past.
“I’ve been telling some of the guys it kind of feels weird to actually feel good,” said Keuchel, who missed the final five weeks of last season because of a shoulder injury. “First time in a long time that I feel 100 percent, and that’s just exciting. And I know Lance feels the same way.”
Keuchel is two weeks into his offseason throwing program, having on Dec. 27 thrown for the first time since he was shut down in early September, an unceremonious end to a strugglefilled season in which he had a 4.55 ERA in 26 starts. The 29-year-old lefthander’s current routine calls for catch every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He plans to increase his throwing to four or five days a week as the calendar creeps closer to February and then to a daily basis by spring training.
Keuchel said he will probably throw his first bullpen session around Feb. 1, giving himself a full two months to build up his arm for the start of the season on April 3. Pitchers and catchers report to the Astros’ new facility in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Feb. 14.
McCullers, 23, began his offseason throwing program about three weeks ago and said he hopes to have at least three to four bullpen sessions under his belt by the start of spring training. An elbow sprain cost him the final two months of last season, though by late September the righthander had progressed enough to pitch in a simulated game.
He said he is “feeling strong” and that “nothing’s bothering me” physically.
“We’re kind of just progressing like a normal offseason,” he said. “Good to go.”
Arbitration deadline nears
The Astros and the agents for each of the team’s seven arbitrationeligible players will exchange desired salary figures by the end of Friday if the parties don’t strike deals beforehand.
Dallas Keuchel and fellow starters Collin McHugh and Mike Fiers, outfielders George Springer and Jake Marisnick, super utility man Marwin Gonzalez and relief pitcher Will Harris are the Astros players eligible for salary arbitration.
One-year salary settlements are the most common outcome in these cases. If a hearing is required, a three-person arbitration panel decides in February whether the player will make the salary requested either by his side or the team’s.
The Astros have gone to a hearing only once during general manager Jeff Luhnow’s tenure, and it occurred last February, when the team won its case over catcher Jason Castro, who got $5 million, as opposed to the $5.25 million he sought.
Odds and ends
Former Astros third baseman Morgan Ensberg was named manager of the Tri-City Valleycats, the organization’s shortseason Class A affiliate in Troy, N.Y. Ensberg, 41, has worked for the team since 2013, spending last year as a roving development coach. … Tony DeFrancesco and Rodney Linares are returning to their managerial posts with Class AAA Fresno and Class AA Corpus Christi, respectively.