That's the question for today...does Astacio stay in the rotation, or is he gone?
My guess would be that we'll know by this afternoon...as with Drese, if they are going to drop him from the rotation (and the roster), they'll want to do it today, so they can have another body up here for tonight's game.
Showalter was rather cryptic afterwards, per the DMN:
After the game, manager Buck Showalter treaded carefully when addressing Astacio's status.
"I'm going to treat this man with the respect he has coming," Showalter said. "It's not like every time out that's happened, so I'm going to keep that in mind."
Well, maybe every time out that hasn't happened, but it is real close. He started the season with three strong outings, but since then, Astacio has posted an 8.20 ERA over his last nine starts. He's sitting at a 6.04 ERA for the season, and other than a couple of good outings against the AAA-caliber Royals, he's been serving batting practice the last six weeks.
If I had to guess, I'd say that Astacio gets one more shot to hold onto his job, mainly because I don't think the Rangers feel comfortable going with anyone from the minors just yet. If they cut bait with Astacio, my guess is that they plug John Wasdin into the rotation for a start or two, while they try to figure out if Wilfredo Rodriguez is the answer, and wait for R.A. Dickey to get back to 100%.