Astros star Alex Bregman nearing big-league return after recent rehab successes

Alex Bregman’s return to the Houston Astros lineup appears to be extremely close to happening.

In fact, it could come as soon as Wednesday, depending on how things go, Astros manager Dusty Baker said on Tuesday.

“On Bregman, we’re analyzing him today to see how he looks and see how he feels,” Baker said. “He could be activated in a day or so.”

This comes as Bregman has caught fire in his second rehab go-round with the Triple-A Sugar Land Skeeters rehabbing a strained quad muscle. In his last three games with the Skeeters, Bregman has 6 hits in 13 at-bats (an extremely healthy .462 batting average) to go with a home run, four RBI, three runs scored, and a walk. He did not strike out at all in any of those at-bats over the last three games.

This comes after it was announced on Aug. 11 that Bregman would need a second rehab stint in Sugar Land after a less successful first go-round at Triple-A during this rehab process.

Bregman was at Minute Maid Park during batting practice on Tuesday, taking some ground balls in the field.

The third baseman has been out since mid-June and has thus far played 59 games this season for an Astros team that currently leads the American League West division with a 73-52 record. In those 59 games, Bregman is batting .275 with seven home runs and 34 RBI.