Carlos Lee spent the All-Star break back home in Panama and missed yesterday’s team workout because of “an issue” with his return flight.
Technically it was a “voluntary” workout, but Bernardo Fallas of the Houston Chronicle notes that “the Astros were counting on everybody who had not played at the All-Star Game to be there” and general manager Ed Wade made no attempt to hide his disappointment with Lee’s no-show:
The workout was not mandatory, clubs are not allowed to make post-All-Star break workouts mandatory, but I’m still disappointed that he wasn’t there. It would have been respectful if he would have been there.
Fallas speculates that Lee won’t be in the starting lineup for tonight’s game against the Pirates, which is fair enough, but my guess is that the whole thing would have been much less of an issue if Lee wasn’t hitting .240 with by far the worst OPS of his career.
