{"id":598785,"date":"2026-02-28T22:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T22:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/598785\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T22:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T22:01:12","slug":"josh-hader-still-uncertain-for-astros-opening-day-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/598785\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Hader Still Uncertain For Astros’ Opening Day Roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bout of biceps inflammation in late January<\/a> set Josh Hader<\/a> back in his offseason prep, and has continued to limit the Astros closer during Spring Training.\u00a0 Hader\u2019s throwing has been limited to games of catch, and Astros manager Joe Espada told reporters (including the Houston Chronicle\u2019s Matt Kawahara<\/a>) that Hader would continue on this route through the week.<\/p>\n

Espada didn\u2019t provide any clarity on when Hader might start to increase his throwing progression, or whether or not the left-hander might not be available for Opening Day.\u00a0 \u201cI think we still have a little bit more time.\u00a0 Once we start getting down to that we\u2019ll talk more on that, but right now it\u2019s still premature just to see where we\u2019re at by March 26,\u201d Espada said.<\/p>\n

Because Hader is a relief pitcher built for a limited workload, he naturally doesn\u2019t require as much ramp-up as a starter.\u00a0 In each of the last three years, however, Hader has made at least six appearances in Spring Training games, and matching that number may be difficult given that we\u2019re less than a month away from Houston\u2019s first regular-season contest.<\/p>\n

The biceps injury comes on the heels of a more serious injury setback for Hader, as a left capsule sprain prematurely ended his season last August.\u00a0 Surgery wasn\u2019t required, and after completing a throwing program in November<\/a>, Hader said that he expected to be ready for Spring Training.\u00a0 That might have well been the case, if it wasn\u2019t for the biceps inflammation that again put Hader on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

Bryan Abreu<\/a> covered the majority of save chances when Hader was on the injured list last season, so Abreu would probably be Houston\u2019s top choice as interim closer if Hader needs a 15-day IL stint to begin the 2026 campaign.\u00a0 While Abreu has more than proven himself capable of high-leverage work, obviously removing a star closer like Hader from the equation weakens the bullpen depth chart as a whole.<\/p>\n

If Hader is absent, it will put more of a spotlight on the rest of the Astros\u2019 relief corps, from both a quality and health perspective.\u00a0 To the latter point, Enyel De Los Santos<\/a> has started throwing again and Espada said the right-hander should start working off the mound by next week.<\/p>\n

De Los Santos picked up a right knee strain early in camp, but it appears as though the strain ended up being fairly minor.\u00a0 The missed time in camp may not have much impact on De Los Santos\u2019 availability for Opening Day, as Espada said that since De Los Santos pitched in winter ball, the righty might be able to rebuild his arm strength in fairly short order.<\/p>\n

De Los Santos signed with Houston last August and pitched pretty well down the stretch, posting a 4.03 ERA, 6.6% walk rate, and 26.4% strikeout rate over 22 1\/3 innings in an Astros uniform.\u00a0 He avoided arbitration with the Astros by agreeing to a one-year, $1.6MM deal for the 2026 season, giving the 30-year-old a bit of stability after already playing for eight different teams over the course of his seven MLB seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bout of biceps inflammation in late January set Josh Hader back in his offseason prep, and has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2389],"tags":[42,5,11192,139,54,3211,1109,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-598785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-astros","8":"tag-astros","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-enyel-de-los-santos","11":"tag-houston","12":"tag-houston-astros","13":"tag-houstonastros","14":"tag-josh-hader","15":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116150513678355840","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}