This story was excerpted from Brian McTaggart’s Astros Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
HOUSTON -- As a Major League manager, you understand it’s part of the job when reporters question your lineups and pitching decisions. Some managers handle those questions better than others, but almost all understand that reporters to have a job to do.
Astros manager Joe Espada gets this better than most, so when a reporter -- well, uh, that would be me -- asked him out of sheer curiosity prior to Tuesday’s game against the A’s when third-string catcher César Salazar would finally get into a game, Espada said that he hoped it would be soon.
Fast forward to the seventh inning of the Astros’ 11-1 win when Salazar emerged from the dugout to pinch-hit for starting catcher Yainer Diaz. Wait, did a question from a reporter -- again, that would be me -- really influence Espada to play Salazar? Not exactly, but it was on the manager’s mind when he did it.
“I almost looked up there [to the press box],” Espada joked. “I was probably going to get on the phone and ask you if you were happy. I was happy. He was happy. Listen, he comes here every single day and he gets ready to play. Some of these players are waiting and it’s not easy to write a lineup. I want to give everyone an opportunity.”
Salazar flied out to center on the first pitch he saw and caught the final two innings, doing so with the same kind of positive attitude that has carried him through the month of May. Salazar was recalled from Triple-A Sugar Land on May 5 when slugger Yordan Alvarez went on the injured list and had to wait three weeks to get some game action.
“Trust me, I look at him and he jokes around a lot with me about it,” Espada said. “He said, ‘Hey Joe, I’m ready.’ I’m aware of that. He’s awesome – one of the best teammates that you could ask for.”
Salazar, 29, appeared in 25 games with the Astros in the previous two years and is now 10-for-44 in his career with a pair of doubles and eight RBIs. A seventh-round pick in the 2018 MLB Draft out of the University of Arizona, the native of Mexico has 421 career Minor League games under his belt, including 174 games at the Triple-A level.
He was hitting .197 (14-for-71) at Sugar Land when he was called up, but prefers his role with the Astros over playing time in Triple-A. He said his job is to reach the big leagues and help the club any way he can. Even when he’s not playing.
“It’s just having a good routine every day and focusing on executing that routine and focusing on just staying ready for the game with the belief I’m going to go in every game,” he said. “Anything can happen, and my job right now is to be ready for whatever happens and I’m doing a good job with it. I’m trying to stay mentally ready. This is my role right now and I have to do the best I can with the role I got.”
Salazar is amassing Major League service time and banks a big league salary while he waits for his opportunity, so it’s not like anyone should feel sorry for him.
“The game is hard,” he said. “The more you play, the easier it gets. It’s all about timing. I think we have a really good routine going, me and [catching coach] Michael Collins, me and Snit [hitting coach Troy Snitker]. The coaches have done a good job of keeping me ready, keeping me engaged. I try to bring the juice in the dugout. That’s something I like to do. It keeps me with a good focus on the game. I’m doing the best I can.”
When Isaac Paredes hit a walk-off homer May 13 against the Royals, it was Salazar who was the first to grab a cooler filled with sunflower seeds and race to home plate to dump them on Paredes’ head.
“He does a good job of keeping us alive,” outfielder Chas McCormick said. “He’s always screaming throughout the game. Even when we come in and we need some runs or something, he pumps us up. He does a really good job.”
The Astros have Diaz and Victor Caratini at catcher, and carrying Salazar as a third catcher gives Espada the luxury of having the bats of both Diaz and Caratini in the lineup at same time without the threat of losing one to injury and having no backup catcher.
“Every day I think I’m going to go in," Salazar said." I have the mentality I’m going to go in, and that's why I have to keep executing my routine and just keep winning the day.”