August 19: Per Chandler Rome of The Athletic, infielder/outfielder Brice Matthews has been transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot for Pecko. Matthews was placed on the 10-day IL July 14 with a left knee sprain. His current status is unclear but he won’t be eligible for reinstatement until September. Right-hander Miguel Ullola has been optioned to open an active roster move, per the Astros.
August 17: The Astros will promote pitching prospect Ethan Pecko on Wednesday, reports Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. The 23-year-old will make his MLB debut against the Angels in the second game of this week’s series. Houston will need to open space on the big league pitching staff and 40-man roster in a couple days.
Pecko has gone from relatively unheralded sixth-round pick to one of Houston’s better pitching prospects. The 6’2″ righty has a five-pitch arsenal with slightly above-average control that should allow him to slot at the back of a rotation. Pecko lands sixth among Astros prospects at Baseball America and ninth at MLB Pipeline, with both outlets projecting him as an MLB-ready #4/5 starter.
The Towson product has missed some time in each of the last two seasons. Pecko missed the first month this year but has been in the Triple-A rotation since the final week of April. He has a 4.94 earned run average across 74 2/3 innings. That’s about the expectation for a pitcher in the Pacific Coast League.
Pecko has a league average strikeout and walk profile while working in the 94-95 mph range with his four-seam fastball. He also has a sinker, cutter, slider and curveball but rarely uses a changeup. None of those are necessarily plus offerings, but it’s a deep enough arsenal that he could be a serviceable MLB starter right away.
Houston could certainly use stability at the back of the rotation. Ronel Blanco only completed five innings in one of his first five starts since coming back from Tommy John surgery. The Astros optioned him after the Mariners tagged him for five runs across four innings on Saturday. Pecko could compete with Tatsuya Imai (recently demoted to the bullpen) for that rotation job behind Hunter Brown, Peter Lambert, Cristian Javier and Hayden Wesneski.