Click Q&A: How are Astros preparing for '22?

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Astros general manager James Click took some time Friday to address some questions surrounding his club three weeks shy of the start of the regular season. Click, in keeping with his policy, declined to address the club’s interest in free-agent shortstop Carlos Correa.

MLB.com: Is relief pitcher Pedro Báez healthy and throwing in camp this year after missing most of last year with an injury?

Click: He’ll be throwing [Sunday]. He is fully healthy. We’ll be looking forward to seeing him off the mound.

MLB.com: Other than Lance McCullers Jr. (flexor tendon), are there any other pitchers who are behind in their throwing programs?

Click: We’re still working on getting [Rafael] Montero here. He has been throwing at our academy in the Dominican [Republic]. He looks free and easy, looks good. Nobody [else] comes to mind. We’re still assessing workload limits and build-up plans. With this shortened Spring Training, we’re going to have to find that balance between getting guys as stretched out as we can while also being responsible for how quickly they can get stretched out.

MLB.com: How mindful do you have to be with pitchers’ workloads during this year’s short spring?

Click: I don’t want to lose sight of the position-player workload, also. Those guys have a routine, and they need to get a certain number of live at-bats before they feel comfortable. It is going to be a challenge. For better or worse, we had plenty of time to plan for this, and our coaches and our strength and medical people have been doing a tremendous job of making sure that we had a plan in place depending on how much time we had. As soon as we knew how much we had, we said, "OK, we’re going with this plan we’ve worked on, and we’re going to get it going."

MLB.com: You recently added left-hander Zac Rosscup to the bullpen mix on a Minor League deal, but there are still only four southpaws in camp, only two of which -- Blake Taylor and Rosscup -- are relievers. Are you concerned with your left-handed pitching depth?

Click: We’re always looking to shore up depth on every part of the roster. That certainly is a part that has some questions about it, but at the same time, we have right-handed [pitchers] we feel can get [left-handed hitters] out, as well. It is something we’re always looking at, but I don’t know that we feel a tremendous sense of urgency. In terms of Rosscup, we’re looking forward to seeing what he looks like off the mound. We got very good reports from him, and we’ve seen him in the big leagues for a few years.

MLB.com: You lost a few key members of your bullpen from last year -- including Kendall Graveman and Yimi García -- and added Héctor Neris. How do you feel overall about your bullpen depth, especially with now Báez being healthy?

Click: We still have high hopes for [Báez]. I know it was a bit of a lost season for him last year, but if he can return to the form we saw the previous few years, he’s going to be a critical piece in the ‘pen. Beyond that, with [Ryan] Pressly, Neris, [Ryne] Stanek, [Phil] Maton, Montero, Báez, Taylor, [Brandon] Bielak ... we’ll see what we’ve got, but we feel we have a lot of good possibilities out here.

MLB.com: What do you think of the physical condition your position players reported to camp in following the lockout?

Click: We couldn’t have asked for more from them. The guys, you can tell that they took it very seriously. They knew they would have to be ready. They knew that it was going to be a short ramp-up. Several of them have come into camp in the best shapes of their lives like they always do. There are a few guys who you can tell took the offseason very seriously, and it’s a testament to the professionalism of the group and the organization that they did that.

MLB.com: We’ll get our first look at top pitching prospect Hunter Brown in Grapefruit League action on Sunday. What have you seen from him so far?

Click: We have a lot of people who are big fans of Brown in this organization. He certainly has the potential to force our hand at some point, and we hope that he does. He has some things to work on, and we’ve talked about that with him. He knows what he has to do, but he is a guy that we’re hoping, sooner rather than later, really pushes us to make a decision.

MLB.com: You guys moved right-hander Cristian Javier to the bullpen last year and during the playoffs. Do you expect him to be a starter this year?

Click: That is the plan. We certainly see him as a starter long term. I think he has the potential to be a very good Major League starter, so we’re going to continue to explore that as much as possible. I know that he did end up in a bullpen role last year. He’s a great teammate for doing that for us, but we see him as a starter long term, and we’re going to continue to find ways to get him those reps.

MLB.com: Any further updates on when McCullers might start throwing?

Click: No, not yet. We’re still waiting to see how he responds to treatment and all of the exercises and things like that, and we’re going to continue to assess.