Smith absent because of safety concerns
Veteran reliever Joe Smith has not reported to the Astros’ summer camp workouts because of “concerns about the health and safety of his family,” manager Dusty Baker said Sunday.
Baker did not answer if Smith will play this season. All major leaguers have the opportunity to opt out of the season.
Houston re-signed the 36-year-old Smith to a two-year, $8 million deal this winter. He missed the first half of the 2019 season after rupturing his Achilles tendon but returned for a dominant run during the team’s playoff push. Smith finished last season with a 1.80 ERA in 25 innings.
Throughout his two-year Astros tenure, Smith shared his mother’s battle with Huntington’s disease — a neurodegenerative disorder that has no cure.
Smith and his wife, TNT sportscaster Allie LaForce, founded the HelpCureHD Foundation, which provides financial, emotional and mental support to Huntington’s patients.
Reddick ponders future free agency
If there is a 2020 season, “woos” won’t serenade Josh Reddick’s stroll to home plate inside Minute Maid Park, a silence that may extend far past this year.
Reddick says he and his wife, Jett, recently came to grips with such a reality. The 33-year-old outfielder is entering the final season of his four-year, $52 million deal, during which he’s become a Minute Maid Park fan favorite with his Ric Flair-inspired walk-up music and affinity for Spider-Man.
“It’s definitely a little saddening and a little heartbreaking because of how fast they really welcomed me in here,” Reddick said. “It’s such a great place to play. This fanbase has been top notch since I got here, not only for me but for this team and for this city. Definitely going to stink.”
Regardless of the outcome in 2020, Reddick will enter free agency this winter. Major League Baseball and the Players Association already agreed to award full service time to players if the season is canceled, meaning Reddick, Michael Brantley and George Springer could exit Houston after the year.
After hitting .314 and amassing a career-best .847 OPS in 2017, Reddick sputtered in 2018 and 2019. He failed to eclipse a .730 OPS in either season. Reddick’s deal was the most expensive given to a free agent under Jim Crane’s ownership.
“Hopefully we can get past this and beat this thing and, if anything, get some fans in here for the playoffs,” Reddick said. “That would be a really nice farewell, so to speak, for me to get back in front of those people and, obviously, win it all to give them a treat on my way out the door.”
Baker observes prospects at UH
Dusty Baker spent his Sunday morning at the University of Houston, surveying the Astros’ 22player group at their alternate training site while reminiscing about the days of Phi Slama Jama.
“That’s a nice set-up over there. It’s real nice,” Bakker said. “I was trying to get to the gym to see ( Hakeem) Olajuwon and Clyde the Glide ( Drexler) — all those guys. I’m a basketball man. That’s my first time on that campus. It’s a larger school than I had imagined.”
Baker couldn’t make it to the Fertitta Center, but he did study many of the Astros’ prospects he was unfamiliar with — focusing on those who were not in major league spring training this February.
In case of emergency or injury on the major league team, Baker wanted to watch some replacements to give “genuine input” to Houston’s front office if or when decisions needed to be made.
Top pitching prospect Forrest Whitley headlines the group working out at UH. On July 25, that crew will move from the campus to Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi, where they’ll remain for the duration of the 60-game season.