HOUSTON -- With general manager Dana Brown and manager Joe Espada watching from behind the batting cage, Isaac Paredes took his first swings at Daikin Park in months during batting practice Friday and was casually depositing balls into the Crawford Boxes in left field.
It was only batting practice, but what a sight to behold.
“I missed the Crawford Boxes,” joked Paredes, who made a habit of pulling the ball into the short porch in left field this season before suffering a hamstring injury July 19. Instead of opting for season-ending surgery, Paredes chose to rehab the injury with hopes he could return at some point and help the Astros lock down the American League West title.
Four days after the Astros lost slugger Yordan Alvarez to a significant left ankle sprain, Paredes returned to the lineup Friday for the biggest series of the season against the Mariners, who are tied with the Astros for first place in the AL West with nine games remaining. He had been rehabbing in West Palm Beach, Fla., for the past few weeks with an eye on a pennant race.
“I didn’t doubt the fact he would get back with the work he has put in to get back on the baseball field,” Espada said. “The impact in our lineup, in our clubhouse, just to have him back, especially with what happened to Yordan … it’s a huge impact.”
The Astros can only hope Paredes has the same kind of success in his return from a long-term injury as Alvarez and All-Star shortstop Jeremy Peña did after they were sidelined.
Alvarez slashed .369/.462/.569 with three homers and nine RBIs after missing 100 games with a broken hand before landing back on the injured list Friday (retroactive to Tuesday). Peña missed 27 games, mostly in July, with a fractured rib, but entered Friday with an .859 OPS in September, going 7-for-11 in the series against Texas.
Paredes, acquired from the Cubs in the Kyle Tucker trade in December, was having a solid year at the plate before he got injured. He was slashing .259/.359/.470 with a team-high 19 homers and 50 RBIs in 94 games and was among the league leaders in walks (49). The Astros also missed Paredes’ ability to work counts, something the team hasn’t done well collectively this season.
Before the injury, he ranked second in the AL at seeing 4.41 pitches per plate appearance; the Astros are tied for last in the AL at 3.75 pitches per plate appearance.
Paredes said his hamstring was close to being 100 percent healed, but the Astros want him to be smart about choosing when to run and when to jog. The goal is to keep his bat in the lineup. He injured the hamstring running to first on a ball he hit off the left-field wall in Seattle (Paredes said he was running at about 87 percent of his max sprint speed while in Florida).
So, when Paredes rolls a ball over to the shortstop, he will take it easy to first base. If he hits a ball off the wall in left field in Daikin Park, he’ll likely be held to a single. If he hits the ball in the gap? That’s when things could get interesting.
“It’s going to be difficult, but we’re just going to have to see what the situation of the game is,” Paredes said. “All I want to try to do is help the team, but I want to be smart about it.”
Prior to his injury, Paredes started 88 games at third base, a position which is now occupied by Carlos Correa, who was acquired from the Twins at the Trade Deadline. Paredes can also play second base and first base, but the immediate plan is to keep him at designated hitter.
“Yes, he can play defense, but we want to get him out there at DH and get him moving around and then we’ll see where we go from there,” Espada said. “He worked really hard defensively down in West Palm, but right now just to get him in the lineup as a DH, I think it’s a step in the right direction.”
Alvarez, meanwhile, was walking without the protective boot on Friday. He can’t return until the final series of the season at the earliest, but for now the Astros are hoping Paredes can carry the load as the big bat at the top of the order.