Per Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:

Fort Worth resident German Duran has been claimed off unconditional waivers by the Houston Astros. The Paschal High graduate, who attended TCU and Weatherford College, was exposed by the Rangers last week to make room on the 40-man roster for Willie Eyre, who has since been demoted to Triple-A Oklahoma City and will start there tonight.

The Rangers had hoped to sneak Duran through waivers, and almost did. He had only a few more hours to clear and stick with the organization. Instead, the Astros got him and will have to place him on the major-league disabled list as he recovers from an appendectomy.

Both the Rangers and Duran had reportedly expressed a mutual interest in continuing their relationship in spite of his placement on release waivers (Texas would have designated him for assignment and placed him on outright waivers if not for the fact that teams are not allowed to do so with injured players), but that's obviously not happening now.

His projection as a player was somewhat limited even after his breakout .300/.352/.525 campaign at Double-A Frisco in 2007 (he has failed to come close to replicating that success since then), and at this point the odds of Duran flourishing into anything more than a serviceable major league utility player seem quite long, but he's still just 24 years old and perhaps his fortunes will improve in an organization with a not-very-good Kaz Matsui manning second base at the major league level. Best of luck to him.

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