Yordan Alvarez was reportedly trending in the right direction in terms of returning for the Houston Astros, but it's going to be a little bit longer than anticipated. The team announced on Saturday that Alvarez has a small fracture in his right hand that is 60% healed. That puts a damper on his previous plan to face live pitching soon, so the road to recovery is going to be a little bit longer, and the Astros will have to adjust.

This is an unfortunate turn of events for the Astros were about to get one of their best players back, but these kinds of things happen, and the team is prepared for it. They will have to find a way to stay afloat during his extended absence.

“We'll keep marching forward, that's our team DNA,” Astros manager Joe Espada said, according to a post from Brian McTaggart. “We've been in this position before. These guys know that we have to find a way to continue to move forward. And once he gets back, our team will immediately improve again.”

The Astros have made some roster moves as well as Shay Whitcomb is up with team now, and Chas McCormick is on the IL with an oblique strain. A lot of things will look different with Alvarez out.

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“We've got a new player here today, [Shay] Whitcomb,” Joe Espada continued. “We're going to put [Chas] McCormick on the IL with a left oblique strain. It happened on a swing on two nights ago. So we have with him here with us.”

With Yordan Alvarez out, Shay Whitcomb will have plenty of opportunities at different positions.

“He has been swinging pretty well, and also been playing some left field, which is good,” Espada added. “I think we, you know, not having Yordan for the time being, there's openings between DH and some outfield, opportunity at second base, I think we'll find a way to put him in there.”

Fortunately for the Astros, they are in a good position right now as they recently took over first place in the AL West, passing the Seattle Marines. Houston is playing good baseball right now as the team is currently 31-26 on the year. The Astros need to find a way to weather the storm while Yordan Alvarez recovers from his injury, and if they do that, they'll be in great shape for another playoff run.