It has been two months since Houston Astros star Kyle Tucker hit a foul ball off his right shin resulting in missing every game up until that point making stints on multiple injured lists. Fast forward to the present and there is not a clear timetable for the return of the Astros outfielder as manager Joe Espada tries to give the media and fans all the information possible to know what the player is up to.
The injury is being specifically labeled as a “right shin contusion” where before, his statistics consisted of a .266 batting average, 19 home runs, and 40 runs batted in (RBIs). Espada would be asked if there is a chance that Tucker can come back before the month of August is completed which led to a hesitant response from the skipper according to The Houston Chronicle.
“It’d be great,” Espada said. “But I’m not going to sit here and say that it’s going to happen. It’s kind of day to day, see how he feels and how we build him up. But it’d be too aggressive for me to say that we’ll have him by the end of the month. It’s a possibility, but not going to go there.”
Espada talks Astros' plan of action for Tucker
Per Matt Kawahara of The Houston Chronicle, Tucker's recovery process has consisted of little of hitting and running with his “on-field activity” just playing catch. As for the Astros schedule, they are embarking on a 10-day road trip to face the Texas Rangers, the Boston Red Sox, and the Tampa Bay Rays where Espada will be discussing with Tucker on a plan of action of how they are “going to handle the next couple of weeks.”
“He's going to do some stuff inside today,” Espada said. “We are having a conversation with him [about] how we're going to handle the next couple of weeks. I think he's getting close for us to push him out to start doing more active, more intense stuff. We're going to…talk about maybe staying back for the first half of the trip so he could do some intense stuff here or do we want to go go [Arlington] and do it on that turf?”
Tucker will not be shut down per Houston's manager
If there is one thing Espada wanted to get out there to the public, it's that he doesn't envision see Houston wanting to “shut him down” in terms of Tucker's season.
“He actually walked in feeling better,” Espada said. “I don’t think we are in a spot where we’re going to shut him down.”
This falls in track with what was said in prior weeks by Espada as he spoke about Tucker's recovery saying that while the “strength” is not where it should be at, he has “responded well” for the most part.
“There’s still not the pushing and the strength that we would like to see, but [Tucker’s shin] is better,” Espada said on July 23. “Today, it was deeper in the outfield, and we went east to west a little bit more. He responded well.”
At any rate, the Astros are 57-53 which puts them second in the AL West as they look to win the series against the Rays which the final game takes place Sunday afternoon.
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