Maybe the joke\u2019s on me.<\/p>\n
Before the season even started, as baseball experts and national publications kept insisting that\u00a0Lance McCullers Jr.\u00a0would be part of the Houston Astros\u2019 starting rotation, I wasn\u2019t buying it. Not even a little. I questioned it constantly. I doubted it openly. And realistically, I believed there was no chance McCullers would not only make the rotation, but stay in it.<\/p>\n
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Truth be told, I was done with him.<\/p>\n
At least three different times last season, I reached my breaking point. I even said on my radio show that I didn\u2019t want to talk about McCullers again until he actually earned it\u2014until he performed at a level worthy of the attention. His track record, paired with the endless cycle of injuries, setbacks, and uncertainty over the past few years, made it hard to believe anything else. It felt far more likely that 2026 would be his last season in an Astros uniform, if he even made it through the year.<\/p>\n
And then came his first start.<\/p>\n
To my surprise, it was nothing short of impressive.<\/p>\n
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Sure, there were a couple of hard-hit balls that just barely stayed foul, but at the end of the day, he did his job. He pitched effectively. He competed. And most importantly, he helped the Astros secure a win. It wasn\u2019t just serviceable, it was encouraging.<\/p>\n
At the same time, my confidence in another arm was trending in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n
Coming into the season, I was far more bullish on\u00a0Cristian Javier. I believed he was the one poised to return to form, the one the Astros could count on again. In my mind, Javier had a legitimate shot to work his way into the top three of the rotation by midseason.<\/p>\n
Instead, we\u2019ve seen the exact opposite.<\/p>\n
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Javier has looked nothing like the pitcher Astros fans remember. He\u2019s committing the cardinal sins of starting pitching: issuing walks, hitting batters, and consistently putting runners on base to start innings. And as any pitcher knows, that\u2019s a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n
Those runners? They\u2019re scoring.<\/p>\n
Despite a noticeable uptick in fastball velocity, Javier\u2019s inability to locate his pitches has completely undermined his effectiveness. His command is off. His control is shaky. And his inability to consistently throw strikes has led to a spike in walks and a lack of trust on the mound. His \u201cinvisaball\u201d has been located anywhere but near the zone.<\/p>\n
Through two starts, he hasn\u2019t looked like a reliable major league option, especially not for a team with the expectations the Astros carry into 2026. In fact, he\u2019s looked more like a pitcher who belongs in Triple-A than one you can depend on every fifth day.<\/p>\n
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And that\u2019s where things get interesting.<\/p>\n
With\u00a0Spencer Arrighetti\u00a0closing in on a return and the Astros considering a six-man rotation, there are real decisions looming. We\u2019ve seen this movie before. Last year, \u201cmysterious\u201d or conveniently timed injuries played a role in managing struggling arms, most notably with McCullers himself.<\/p>\n
Could that scenario play out again, this time with Javier?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not out of the question.<\/p>\n
The good news for\u00a0Houston Astros\u00a0is that they have depth. Between options at the major league level and reinforcements in Sugar Land,\u00a0Dana Brown\u00a0and\u00a0Joe Espada\u00a0have flexibility. If Javier continues to struggle, there are viable replacements ready to step in and stabilize the rotation.<\/p>\n
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But before we go too far in either direction, before we anoint McCullers as \u201cback\u201d or write Javier off completely, it\u2019s worth remembering something.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been here before.<\/p>\n
Last season, after one strong outing against the Dodgers, McCullers had everyone believing he had turned the corner for good. It didn\u2019t last. That memory alone is enough to pump the brakes on any sweeping conclusions based on a single start.<\/p>\n
So where does that leave us?<\/p>\n
For me, it means staying cautious.<\/p>\n
McCullers deserves credit for what he showed, but I need to see more. A few more quality outings. Consistency. Durability. Proof that this isn\u2019t just another flash before a setback.<\/p>\n
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As for Javier, the leash might be shorter than expected. The potential is still there because of his track record, but the results have to follow, and soon.<\/p>\n
Because in a season where expectations are high, the Astros don\u2019t have the luxury of waiting too long for anyone to figure it out.<\/p>\n
So I\u2019ll ask you:<\/p>\n
Who do you trust more right now? And how do you see this rotation shaking out between now and the All-Star break?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maybe the joke\u2019s on me. Before the season even started, as baseball experts and national publications kept insisting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2389],"tags":[42,5,6175,39,139,54,3211,1484,4,4678,1949],"class_list":{"0":"post-662173","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-cristian-javier","11":"tag-dodgers","12":"tag-houston","13":"tag-houston-astros","14":"tag-houstonastros","15":"tag-lance-mccullers-jr","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-spencer-arrighetti","18":"tag-the-athletics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116344546029927038","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662173","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=662173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}