{"id":679506,"date":"2026-04-20T00:54:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T00:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/679506\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T00:54:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T00:54:21","slug":"hunter-brown-cristian-javier-projected-to-return-in-5-7-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/679506\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier Projected To Return In 5-7 Weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an interview on SportsTalk790 radio<\/a> today, Astros general manager Dana Brown said right-handers Hunter Brown<\/a> and Cristian Javier<\/a> are tentatively expected to return to Houston\u2019s rotation by late May or early June.\u00a0 (Hat tip to MLB.com\u2019s Brian McTaggart for the link.)\u00a0 The timeline for both pitchers is still fluid, so the GM thinks their returns could \u201chopefully\u2026be a little sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Astros are probably due some good health news, given how the team has been hit hard by injuries in the season\u2019s first month.\u00a0 Houston\u2019s injury list consists of 14 players, and Brown and Javier are two of 10 pitchers on either the 15-day or 60-day IL.\u00a0 The depleted and makeshift rotation is down to Mike Burrows<\/a>, Lance McCullers Jr.<\/a>, Spencer Arrighetti<\/a>, and Peter Lambert<\/a>, whose minor league contract was just selected on Thursday (Lambert then allowed four runs over five innings in Friday\u2019s 9-4 loss to the Cardinals.)<\/p>\n

Brown and Javier were each sidelined by Grade 2 shoulder strains.\u00a0 Brown posted an 0.84 ERA over his first two starts before being placed on the 15-day IL on April 2, while Javier joined him a week later after struggling to a 12.54 ERA over his first three starts and 9 1\/3 innings.\u00a0 No tentative recovery timelines were given at the time of the IL placements, and neither pitcher has resumed throwing, which is why Dana Brown\u2019s projection was fairly broad.<\/p>\n

Assuming no setbacks, Brown and Javier each face the standard build-up process of playing catch, bullpen sessions, live batting practice sessions, and surely at least a couple of minor league rehab games given the length of their IL stints.\u00a0 Even if the best-case scenario is late May, however, that still means the Astros will be scrambling for rotation innings for upwards of another month.<\/p>\n

All of the injuries have unsurprisingly led to a rough start to Houston\u2019s season, as the team is now 8-15 after today\u2019s extra-innings 7-5 loss to St. Louis.\u00a0 The Astros are 10 games into a stretch of 13 games in 13 days, and some relief may come for the pitching staff in terms of off-days on April 23 and 27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an interview on SportsTalk790 radio today, Astros general manager Dana Brown said right-handers Hunter Brown and Cristian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,6175,1328],"class_list":{"0":"post-679506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cristian-javier","10":"tag-hunter-brown"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116434309179196279","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679506","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=679506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}