Astros summon Paulino for Thursday debut

CLEVELAND — David Paulino, a 6-foot-7 right-handed pitcher who went a combined 5-4 with a 2.00 ERA and 106 strikeouts in 90 innings this year at the Rookie, Double-A and Triple-A levels, was called up by the Astros on Tuesday and will start Thursday’s series finale against the Indians.

Paulino, who was the player to be named in the 2013 trade in which the Astros sent Jose Veras to the Tigers in exchange for outfielder Danry Vasquez, is ranked as the Astros’ No. 4 prospect by MLBPipeline.com. He’ll join Joe Musgrove as rookies in the Astros’ starting rotation, which is without Lance McCullers (elbow) and Dallas Keuchel (shoulder inflammation).

“It makes sense, because he’s had a lot of success,” Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said. “I think when we look at what he’s capable of doing, pitch-wise, repertoire-wise, command-wise, he has a chance to be a really good starter at the big leagues in short order. While it wasn’t part of our plan, with Dallas missing some time we figured this as good an opportunity as we’re ever going to get to put him into an important game or two and see what he’s got.”

• Keuchel scratched with shoulder inflammation

Luhnow says Paulino could be at the top of their rotation in the future, but he’ll be getting a key start for a team still in the Wild Card hunt in the American …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com