After letting Jorge De Leon go on a waiver claim, the Astros have cleared three additional roster spots with a series of moves today. As the club announced in a press release, it has declined its option over reliever Matt Albers and outrighted first baseman Jesus Guzman and lefty Rudy Owens. According to the team, Houston’s 40-man roster now has four vacancies, though it would appear from this list that it stands at 37 (with Albers still technically on the 60-day DL).

Albers, 31, will head back to the open market after an injury-shortened 2014 campaign. He allowed only one run in his ten frames on the year, striking out eight and walking three batters, but shoulder troubles ended his season. Houston had signed him to a one-year, $2.45MM deal that included the option. The Astros elected to pay a $200K buyout rather than taking on the $3MM option price.

Guzman, 30, continued to see his star fade after showing some promise earlier in his career with the Padres. He hit just .188/.272/.248 at the major league level. The 26-year-old Owens, meanwhile, had his first big league start but posted a 4.33 ERA in 135 innings at Triple-A, striking out 6.9 and walking 2.2 batters per nine.

Albers is still on the 60-day DL; he hasn’t officially filed for free agency yet. He, Crain, Cisnero and Zeid are still there. However, with the loss of De Leon, Owens, and Guzman, there are only 3 open spots on the 40-man roster… unless the Astros made another move that wasn’t publicly announced?

You’d be surprised at the number of times the media relations department doesn’t have the 40-man roster count right. The baseball information people don’t necessarily send every move down to them. Between them and the websites (which are NOT run by the teams), there are often roster discrepancies that need to be resolved.