Keuchel excited to face Astros with Luhnow gone: Nobody there to 'dislike'

Chicago White Sox left-hander Dallas Keuchel will start against his former team, the Houston Astros, for the first time this weekend.

He's looking forward to reconnecting and is happy one face won't be in sight: Former general manager Jeff Luhnow.

"... Luhnow's not there anymore, so I don't have anybody to dislike," Keuchel said Tuesday, according to Scott Merkin of MLB.com. "We never got along, no bones about it. But I like everybody else over there, so it's going to be weird."

Luhnow joined the Astros' front office as GM after the 2011 season, and he oversaw the club's lengthy rebuild that culminated in a World Series victory in 2017. MLB suspended him alongside former Astros manager AJ Hinch for the sign-stealing scandal that occurred during the 2017 and 2018 seasons. The Astros subsequently fired Luhnow.

Keuchel, 33, spent the first seven seasons of his MLB career with the Astros after Houston selected him in the seventh round in 2009. A two-time All-Star, Keuchel won the AL Cy Young Award in 2015 after going 20-8 with a 2.48 ERA and 1.02 WHIP over 232 innings.

Following a one-year stint with the Atlanta Braves in 2019, Keuchel signed a three-year, $55.5-million deal with the White Sox prior to the 2020 campaign.

Keuchel needs to face the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday before focusing on his former team. He's looking forward to the reunion even though it's going to be surreal.

"I don't know if it's really going to register with me until in the moment or afterward," he said, according to Merkin. "It's really a place I never thought I was going to leave. In all honesty, I have a lot of guys over there I have big-time admiration for, still, and I have a lot of contact with."