Houston Astros pitcher Ronel Blanco has been suspended 10 games for using an illegal substance on the mound. He will not appeal the decision.

Blanco was caught with a sticky substance in his glove before the fourth inning of Houston’s game Tuesday against the Athletics. He was ejected after umpires ruled that the substance was explicitly illegal.

“I felt something inside the glove,” umpire Erich Bacchus said after the game. “It was the stickiest stuff I’ve felt on a glove since we’ve been doing this for a few years now.”

Blanco claims that he did not know it was against the rules to use rosin on his non-dominant hand and admitted to putting some on his forearm. He claims that his sweat could have transmitted some of the rosin to his glove, resulting in the failed inspection. This conflicts the report given by umpires, who ruled out rosin in the moment.  

After some consideration with his agent, Blanco eventually decided not to contest MLB’s decision. Astros general manager Dana Brown vouched for the pitcher after the ruling was announced.

“Ronel Blanco is a good human being, he’s a good dude, and he’s worked his butt off to get into the starting rotation,” Brown said. “I think he sees it as ‘Look, I don’t want to extend this any longer. I want to get back to the business of pitching.’”

Blanco has been lights-out early in his third MLB season, earning a 4-0 record and 2.09 ERA through eight starts. The shining jewel in his young career came in early April, when he threw a no-hitter in his eighth career start. He has been a bright spot in an otherwise disappointing Astros season, as the perennial World Series contenders are currently 18-25, fourth in the A.L. West division.

Blanco’s suspension began Wednesday night and should result in two missed starts, which could give Houston short-term rotation problems. He will be available to pitch again in late May.

Houston Astros star pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. will miss the 2023 season after receiving forearm surgery to repair a flexor tendon and remove a bone spur. McCullers has only made 34 starts since 2021 but is expected to return in 2024.

Astros general manager Dana Brown announced McCullers’ injury update Wednesday and clarified in a statement that the righthander made several attempts to return to the mound in 2023. He first suffered the injury to his flexor tendon during the 2021 playoffs and has suffered multiple setbacks since, most recently in February this year. He previously missed the entire 2019 season due to Tommy John surgery.

“After the injury happened in February, Lance worked his tail off to get back on the mound,” Brown said in a statement. “This guy is a warrior and did everything in his power to get back. But each time he built himself up to an increased pitch total off the mound, the pain would come back. It’s unfortunate, but we look forward to him being back on the mound next season.”

In 2022, McCullers returned in August and made eight regular season starts, compiling a 4-2 record with a 2.27 ERA. In the playoffs, he started in series against the Mariners, Yankees and Phillies, earning another World Series ring in the process. He has spent the entirety of his professional career in Houston, debuting in 2015 and making on one All-Star game appearance in 2017.

“Lance is a grinder, and he tried to, with pure grit, fight through the injury and come back,” Brown went on to say. “That happened in ’21, and in ’22, he ended up coming back some. You could give him cheers for his grit to come back. Starting out this year, he felt like he was going to be fine and continue to press through it and it continued to bother him.”

By the time McCullers returns for the Astros next year, he could be 30 years old, and despite debuting at the age of 21, he has only managed to make more than 25 starts in a single season once. His impact on the mound after multiple surgeries is unclear and he still has several years remaining on his contract.