Astros right-hander Tatsuya Imai landed on the 15-day injured listing on April 13 with what the workforce referred to as proper arm fatigue, however he’s progressing effectively in his rehab. Imai is about to throw a bullpen session tomorrow and will start a minor-league rehab task as early as Tuesday, in response to supervisor Joe Espada (through Chandler Rome of The Athletic). Though the precise nature of his arm fatigue isn’t clear, the workforce is definitely hoping he’ll be again sooner somewhat than later.
Imai signed a three-year, $54MM cope with the membership over the offseason, which fell beneath business expectations for the previous Japanese star. He has had a tough starting, permitting seven earned runs and 11 unintentional walks in simply 8 2/3 innings over three begins. That’s a really small pattern, after all, and there’s nonetheless loads of time for Imai to ascertain himself as a big-league starter. For the Astros, the large image concern is the truth that so a lot of their beginning pitchers are injured proper now. Hunter Brown and Cristian Javier are each out with Grade 2 proper shoulder strains and received’t return for an additional 4-6 weeks. The struggling pitching employees, which has a 5.97 ERA total, is the primary motive the membership is out to a 10-18 begin in 2026.
A pair different damage notes from the AL West:
Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe was faraway from at this time’s sport as a consequence of left wrist irritation, the workforce introduced. O’Hoppe took a foul ball off his wrist and completed the inning after being visited by the coach. Travis d’Arnaud took over behind the plate within the eighth. O’Hoppe is now in his third season because the membership’s beginning catcher, although he has not been a productive hitter since 2024, when he posted a 102 wRC+ in 522 plate appearances. He declined in 2025, posting a mere 72 wRC+, and has been about the identical to begin 2026. It’s unclear whether or not O’Hoppe will miss any time. Given the wrist irritation is in his receiving hand, the membership may decide to play it protected for the subsequent few days to keep away from compromising his protection. He and d’Arnaud are the one catchers on the 40-man roster, so any absence may inspire the workforce to scour the waiver wire for a depth possibility.
Rangers left-hander Jordan Montgomery threw a bullpen session at this time and could have at the least another earlier than progressing to face dwell hitters, in response to Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning Information. Based mostly on that, he appears to be on observe in his restoration from March 2025. Montgomery signed a one-year, major-league cope with the Rangers in February, with the expectation that he would begin the 12 months on the 60-day injured listing earlier than returning later within the season. His final season as an efficient starter was in 2023, when he was value 4.2 fWAR in 32 begins between the Cardinals and the World-Collection successful Rangers. Now 33 and coming off an prolonged absence, he received’t be anticipated to copy that upon his return. In the very best case for Montgomery, he might slot in as a back-end arm if Jacob deGrom or Nathan Eovaldi will get injured or certainly one of Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter underperforms.
Photograph courtesy of Joe Nicholson, Imagn Photographs
