Looking at the schedule and the Astros\u2019 plan to open with a 5-man rotation, there are certainly clues. <\/p>\n
Back on January 5th, at the press conference introducing SP Tatsuya Imai, Astros manager Joe Espada said the team would likely employ a 6-man rotation frequently this season and that we would \u201cprobably see it from the get-go.\u201d<\/p>\n
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With 26 games in 28 days to open the season, and their new prized pitcher used to pitching once a week in Japan, it seemed to make the most sense the Astros would utilize the 6-man rotation as much as possible to keep things as close to \u201cnormal\u201d for Imai as they could as he adapted to the MLB schedule and level of play.<\/p>\n
A little over a week ago, that started to change, and the Astros were unsure whether they would go 5-man or 6-man to start the year. That question was answered today by the manager.<\/p>\n
That definitive statement was made before the Astros took on the Mets in Port St. Lucie today, in their penultimate Grapefruit League game of the 2026 season. It was a game stated by Mike Burrows, who followed Hunter Brown as the Astros line up their rotation for the season.<\/p>\n
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Cristian Javier will pitch tomorrow. Imai, who hasn\u2019t pitched since he threw 3 shutout innings March 11, is scheduled to pitch Monday (March 23) in Houston against the Space Cowboys. The regular season begins March 26.<\/p>\n
Lance McCullers Jr., who last pitched March 17, would presumably follow as the fifth starter. Spencer Arrighetti, the other prime candidate for the rotation\u2019s fifth spot, has not started a game this spring and he was just away from the team due to the birth of his twins. He will likely either begin the season in the bullpen.<\/p>\n
The Astros will play 7 games in a row to open the season. Right now, the way the Astros lineup, that rotation would run Brown, Burrows, Javier, Imai, McCullers, Brown, Burrows, DAY OFF.<\/p>\n
Houston would then play six straight games: Javier, Imai, McCullers, Brown, Burrows, Javier, DAY OFF.<\/p>\n
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They would then play 13 straight games, and this is where the sixth starer would be introduced: Imai, McCullers, Brown, Burrows, Javier, Arrighetti as 6th starter, Imai, McCullers, Brown, Burrows, Javier, Arrighetti, Imai, DAY OFF.<\/p>\n
After that stretch of 26 games in 28 days, they have a 3 game series with the Yankees and then another off day. This could lead to McCullers being skipped and giving him some extra rest before he would make his next start.<\/p>\n
Against the Yankees, the Astros could go with Brown, Burrows and Javier all on 5 days rest.<\/p>\n
Houston will then play 9 straight. With McCullers having been potentially skipped for the Yankees series, that could ultimately lead to Arrighetti not starting again until they need to create a fifth day of rest for Imai again.<\/p>\n
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The rotation coming out from the off day following the Yankees series could be Imai, McCullers, Brown, Burrows, Javier, Arrighetti, Imai, McCullers, Brown.<\/p>\n
The Astros will want to keep Imai on 5 days rest, and in the 4th starter spot, it all seems to lineup that way for him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Looking at the schedule and the Astros\u2019 plan to open with a 5-man rotation, there are certainly clues.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2389],"tags":[42,5,6175,182,139,54,3211,1328,5918,1484,363,4,4678,4658,812,68637,142],"class_list":["post-636937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-astros","tag-astros","tag-baseball","tag-cristian-javier","tag-florida","tag-houston","tag-houston-astros","tag-houstonastros","tag-hunter-brown","tag-joe-espada","tag-lance-mccullers-jr","tag-mike-burrows","tag-mlb","tag-spencer-arrighetti","tag-tatsuya-imai","tag-the-mets","tag-west-palm-beach","tag-yankees"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116272009257992662","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636937","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=636937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}