Astros' Castro pleased with quad's progress

HOUSTON -- Three days after going on the disabled list with a strained right quad, Astros catcher Jason Castro said he was pleasantly surprised at his progress and began rehab treatments on the injury Tuesday.

Castro said his first few days have been spent getting the swelling down and keeping his muscles activated to set the base for the treatments -- including light exercises, light stretching and some range-of-motion work. He strained his quad in Saturday's 4-1 victory against Minnesota when he rounded first base on a double.

"The soreness has gone down quite a bit, so that's a good thing," Castro said. "All the reports have been pretty good, as far as what the staff and doctors think ... It's only been three or four days, so we're trying to get it to calm down as much as possible before we start pushing it again."

Astros manager A.J. Hinch echoed the positivity of the initial results, though cautioned that Castro's biggest test will come when he resumes catcher's activities.

It's not known when exactly that will be, but Castro said the goal is to use the entire 15 days on the disabled list to get healthy, possibly avoiding a rehab assignment.

"That's not something we've talked about yet," Castro said of a possible rehab assignment. "But because I have the 15 days to get everything in I need to do, that will be our kind of timeline and that's what we'll kind of shoot for, as far as how we're going to progress."