Reliever Rodney signed from Sugar Land
Fernando Rodney, the veteran righthanded reliever famous for his offkilter cap, signed a minorleague contract with the Astros and headed Friday from Sugar Land, where he was pitching for the independent league Skeeters, for the Astros’ alternate training site in Corpus Christi.
Rodney, 43, who has pitched for 11 teams in 17 seasons, including stints last year with the A’s and Nationals, could bolster an Astros bullpen that currently is missing Joe Biagini and Austin Pruitt, both on the injured list, and Joe Smith, who is sitting out the season, and with questionable availability for Ryan Pressly and Chris Devenski, both of whom report elbow soreness.
Rodney appeared in three games with the Nationals against the Astros in the 2019 World Series and was granted free agency after the season. He was 0-5 in the regular season with 55 appearances and two saves in 47.2 innings with Oakland and Washington in 2019.
Rodney most recently pitched in the Constellation Energy League at the Skeeters’ Constellation Field. He pitched one scoreless inning with a strikeout July 26 for Team Skeeters against the Sugar Land Lightning Sloths.
The veteran rotates the bill of his cap to the left in tribute to his father, Ulise Rodney, who died less than a week before Rodney’s 2002 major league debut with the Tigers.
“My father was a fisherman,” Rodney told the San Jose Mercury News in 2019. “He wore his hat to the left side of his head, and when I asked him why, he said it was because when the sun would come out during a certain time of the day and hit that side, he would turn it that way in order to block the sun.
“When he passed away, I decided to keep it like that for him.”
Pressly, Devenski making progress
Astros manager Dusty Baker said Friday that relievers Ryan Pressly and Chris Devenski were feeling better as they recover from elbow soreness and that Pressly could be available as early as Saturday.
The Astros have had to rely on rookies in the bullpen with the absence of the two veterans, but Baker was optimistic that both are on the mend entering the weekend road series against the Angels.
Pressly, Baker said, “Is feeling pretty good. Devo is feeling better. I’m not sure about his availability, but he said (Thursday) he was feeling better.”
The Astros’ early-season pitching woes, Baker said, emphasizes the need for teams to be allowed to carry 30 roster players longer than the current two-week period now allowed by Major League Baseball.
Rosters currently are scheduled to be cut to 28 players after two weeks and to 26 after four weeks.
“The way things are going to protect the pitchers, owners of different clubs are trying to keep the roster at 30 for a little while longer,” Baker said.
In that vein, Baker said he is on board with the agreement that that teams could play seven-inning doubleheader games this season.
“With pitchers going down every day, and with the shortage of pitchers, I think that’s a good rule,” he said. “It appears like there might be quite a few doubleheaders that were unplanned, especially with some teams losing multiple guys (to COVID-19).”
Meanwhile, Baker said the two veterans who have yet to join the team, pitcher Jose Urquidy and designated hitter/outfielder Yordan Alvarez, continue to progress at the team’s backup training site in Corpus Christi.
“I talked to Urquidy, and I think he’s probably more advanced than Yordan, even though pitchers are usually a little bit behind,” Baker said. “Yordan is up to 30 swings, and he’s probably a little bit behind Urquidy.
“It depends on whether we’re trying to get Urquidy ready to be a starter or a reliever. We might need him in a relieving role before I need him in a starting role.”
First trip strange for vets, rookies
Be it for veterans like Jose Altuve or rookies like Blake Taylor, the Astros’ first road trip of the truncated season began Friday like none other.
The official game day routine began at 11:30 a.m. PST, when players and staff had to gather at their hotel for COVID-19 tests, followed by a four-bus caravan to the ballpark at noon for a game that was scheduled to start six hours later.
“I woke up and stayed in my room all day until it was time to go to the field,” Altuve said. “I normally wake up and have breakfast or lunch with some of my teammates, we go out and walk a little bit, and today we didn’t do that.
“It’s a little weird. We’re in a situation right now where you have to make sure that everything is clean, you have to follow the protocols and you have to wear your mask.”
Manager Dusty Baker said the traveling party was limited to fewer than 20 people on each bus.
“It’s been very different, but at least we’re here playing,” he said.
Baker said Derek Vioga, the Astros’ director of team operations, “sent out a bunch of edicts” detailing proper behavior on the road. Players also are aware of the problems faced by the Marlins and Cardinals, both of whom have had players test positive.
“There’s a lot of rumors out there how other teams got sick,” Baker said. “Our staff here, our training staff, our fitness staff, are constantly wiping things down and remind them to wear your mask, wipe off everything on the plane. They’re constantly wiping and polishing things.
“You’re more concerned about the hotel or the bus or the plane or wherever than the clubhouse. I think the clubhouse is one of the cleanest places around because it’s a more controlled environment.”
Baker said support staffers “are doing all they can. The rest is up to us and up to the virus.”
The Astros’ 30-player roster includes rookie pitcher Taylor, who is from Mission Viejo, Calif., about 20 minutes from Angels Stadium in Anaheim. The series against the Angels is a homecoming game of sorts for him, but he is staying at the team hotel and won’t see his family on the trip.
“I told them it was best for my teammates and for their families that they probably weren’t going to see me,” Taylor said. “I don’t want to get COVID. I don’t want to give it to anybody or to anybody else’s family.”