Houston Astros backup catcher may need trip to injured list

The Houston Astros have been dealing with injuries all season, which has impacted the poor performance they have had thus far.

According to Spotrac, 13 of their players have already missed a total of 686 days of action.

That will only increase with Cristian Javier and Jose Urquidy out for the year and Justin Verlander being placed on injured reserve for the second time this season.

However, it looks like another player might join them soon.

Backup catcher Victor Caratini is having images done on his left quad after being removed from Wednesday’s game after attempting to score from third base on a ground ball. He had already been hit by a foul ball on the same leg before his withdrawal in the third inning.

The Astros injury page reports that manager Joe Espada confirmed that the catcher is having his quad examined by team doctors and “based on the imaging results, Caratini could consider a move to the injured list.”

This would be a big blow for Houston.

After being brought in during the offseason, the veteran was solid for them in a backup role, slashing .248/.287/.429 with four homers, 17 RBIs and an OPS+ of 102. Caratini’s performance allowed Yainer Diaz gets time at the designated hitter to keep his bat in the lineup when he’s not behind the plate because Caratini has a defensive bWAR of 0.5.

There’s already a third catcher on this list, Cesar Salazar, who went 3-for-4 with three RBIs in his two games, but the sample size is far too small to get a sense of the how he could perform with more opportunities in the future. .

We’ll see how this affects the Astros.

They may have to use Diaz behind the plate more than they would like since he has a defensive bWAR of -0.2 this season. Their new star catcher’s biggest asset is his bat and not what he does on defense.

This injury could change things as his inexperience at the plate combined with the inexperienced pitching staff due to injuries could become a major problem.

Nothing has been officially announced regarding Caratini, but the fact that Espada is already mentioning that there could be a move to the IL for the veteran is not a good sign.