Astros Send 5-Year MLB Veteran to Minors Before Mariners Series Finale

The Houston Astros fell 10-5 to the Seattle Mariners on Saturday, the day after scoring 10 runs in a walk-off win to open the three-game American League West divisional rivalry series.

Before the season finale, a game nationally televised by NBC’s Sunday Night Baseball, the Astros made a roster move, sending a 32-year-old veteran right-handed pitcher to the minor leagues.

The move creates another change to Houston’s pitching depth at a critical point in the season, sending an experienced arm back to Triple-A as the Astros prepare to close out the series.

Ronel Blanco’s Rocky Return From Tommy John Surgery

The Astros on Sunday optioned five-year MLB veteran Ronel Blanco to the Triple-A Sugar Land Space Cowboys ahead of their series finale against the Seattle Mariners, the team confirmed in a social media announcement.

Blanco heads down, with right-hander Miguel Ullola recalled to fill the open roster spot. Blanco worked four innings of long relief against Seattle on Saturday, allowing five runs on seven hits, including a late three-run homer that turned a winnable game into a scramble.

Blanco has posted a 7.71 ERA and 1.46 WHIP across 23.1 innings in five appearances this season, with seven home runs allowed against just 20 strikeouts. Multi-run outings against Miami, the Chicago White Sox, Texas and San Diego piled up between July and August, and Houston opted to send him down rather than keep absorbing the damage.

Blanco Has Spent Entire Career With Astros Org

Blanco, 32, signed with Houston as an international free agent in 2016 for a $5,000 bonus, a modest deal for a converted position player who didn’t move to the mound until he was 18. He worked odd jobs washing cars to help support his mother before the signing changed his path.

The payoff arrived in 2024, when Blanco broke out with a 2.80 ERA over 167.1 innings and threw a no-hitter against Toronto in April, the 17th in franchise history. He was named the Astros’ Pitcher of the Year that season, according to MLB.com’s official team site.

That momentum stalled in 2025. Blanco made only nine starts before undergoing Tommy John reconstruction, a procedure that wiped out the rest of his season and pushed his return deep into this summer. He was activated off the 60-day injured list on July 20 and started that night against Miami, according to MLB Trade Rumors, which tracked his reinstatement. He still has a minor-league option remaining, giving Houston flexibility to bring him back once his command sharpens.

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Astros Pitching Staff Faces Test in AL West Race

Houston sits first in the American League West at 63-61 after Saturday’s loss to Seattle, according to division standings tracked by StatMuse. The lead over Texas and Seattle has held despite a rotation ERA that ranks among the worst in baseball, a problem the front office chose not to address at the trade deadline.

The staff ERA sits near the bottom of the league, according to a Houston Chronicle report on the rotation’s ongoing issues, with Houston instead betting on rehabbing arms like Blanco and Hayden Wesneski to stabilize things down the stretch. Peter Lambert and Hunter Brown have provided reliable innings, but Spencer Arrighetti, Tatsuya Imai and Lance McCullers Jr. have all posted elevated numbers, and Mike Burrows remains sidelined with right elbow neuritis.

Ullola, 24, gives Houston a fresh bullpen arm after converting more fully to relief work this season. He has a 5.40 ERA over three brief big-league outings, but the Astros view him as a strikeout option while Blanco works to fix his command in Sugar Land.

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