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By Jon Vankin
Contributing Sports Writer
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After decades of struggle, making just 10 postseason appearances — and reaching the World Series only once — in their first 54 years of existence, the Houston Astros in 2017 emerged as perhaps the dominant team in the American League.
With two World Series championships since, four trips to the Fall Classic and seven straight AL Championship Series berths — a streak that was broken just last year — the Astros this season appear well on their way back to the postseason, leading the AL West by five games.
The only obstacle so far has been a string of injuries.
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Designated hitter Yordan Alvarez has been limited to just 29 games with a hand injury. Second baseman Jeremy Pena had his career year interrupted by a broken rib in late June that has sidelined him ever since. Outfielder Jake Meyers and Jacob Melton are currently on the injured list as well.
The latest and potentially most devastating addition to the list of casualties came on Saturday when All-Star third baseman Isaac Paredes, who signed a one-year, $6.6 million contract with Houston before the season, was forced to leave a game against the Seattle Mariners with a hamstring injury.
Paredes, whose .829 OPS was second only to Pena's among Astros regulars, pulled up lame while running out a line drive off the wall at T-Mobile Park. After that game Paredes, who missed three games in June with a left hamstring injury, told reporters that this strain, to the right one, was worse.
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On Tuesday, Astros manager Joe Espada announced new information on the Paredes injury, and it wasn't great.
"This is a pretty significant injury," Espada told reporters, as quoted by Chandler Rome of The Athletic. "We are waiting on some results, but it's definitely something that's going to keep him out for a while."
In fact, Espada appeared to acknowledge, Paredes could be out for the remainder of the season.
"We don't know yet," Espada said, per The Athletic. "But I know it's something that's going to take some time."
The announcement casts a pall over the Astros season. Houston was on a three-game win streak heading into Wednesday's game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, but has lost seven of its previous eight.
General manager Dana Brown had reportedly been looking for upgrades to the Astros' pitching staff, also riddled by injuries, but may now shift his trade deadline priorities to the offensive side of the ball, according to The Athletic report.
Rome suggested that the Astros may target Colorado Rockies' third baseman Ryan McMahon. But the stumbling block there is that McMahon's salary would put the Astros into luxury tax territory.
But the Astros have 17 players on the injured list, including five of the nine hitters in the opening day lineup, Rome reported. That is a predicament that may force team chairperson Jim Crane to give the green light to some major moves at the July 31 trade deadline.
Or he could simply write off the season.
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