Martin Maldonado sitting Thursday for Houston

Houston Astros catcher Martin Maldonado is not in the starting lineup for Thursday's series opener against right-hander Dylan Cease and the Chicago White Sox.

What It Means:

Jason Castro will start at catcher over Maldonado and hit ninth. Maldonado went 2-for-4 with a homer in Wednesday's series finale against the Texas Rangers.

numberFire’s models project Castro for 7.8 FanDuel points and he has a $2,000 salary on Thursday. Per our MLB Heat Map, the Astros have an implied total of 4.7 runs.