August 19: Per Chandler Rome of The Athletic, infielder/outfielder Brice Matthews has been transferred to the 60-day injured listing to open a 40-man spot for Pecko. Matthews was positioned on the ten-day IL July 14 with a left knee sprain. His present standing is unclear however he received’t be eligible for reinstatement till September. Right-hander Miguel Ullola has been optioned to open an energetic roster transfer, per the Astros.
August 17: The Astros will promote pitching prospect Ethan Pecko on Wednesday, stories Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. The 23-yr-outdated will make his MLB debut towards the Angels within the second recreation of this week’s sequence. Houston might want to open area on the massive league pitching workers and 40-man roster in a pair days.
Pecko has gone from comparatively unheralded sixth-spherical choose to one in every of Houston’s higher pitching prospects. The 6’2″ righty has a 5-pitch arsenal with barely above-common management that ought to enable him to fit in the back of a rotation. Pecko lands sixth amongst Astros prospects at Baseball America and ninth at MLB Pipeline, with each retailers projecting him as an MLB-prepared #4/5 starter.
The Towson product has missed a while in every of the final two seasons. Pecko missed the primary month this yr however has been within the Triple-A rotation for the reason that remaining week of April. He has a 4.94 earned run common throughout 74 2/3 innings. That’s in regards to the expectation for a pitcher within the Pacific Coast League.
Pecko has a league common strikeout and stroll profile whereas working within the 94-95 mph vary together with his 4-seam fastball. He additionally has a sinker, cutter, slider and curveball however hardly ever makes use of a changeup. None of these are essentially plus choices, nevertheless it’s a deep sufficient arsenal that he may very well be a serviceable MLB starter immediately.
Houston may definitely use stability in the back of the rotation. Ronel Blanco solely accomplished 5 innings in one in every of his first 5 begins since getting back from Tommy John surgical procedure. The Astros optioned him after the Mariners tagged him for 5 runs throughout 4 innings on Saturday. Pecko may compete with Tatsuya Imai (just lately demoted to the bullpen) for that rotation job behind Hunter Brown, Peter Lambert, Cristian Javier and Hayden Wesneski.