{"id":77233,"date":"2025-06-03T22:48:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T22:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/77233\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T22:48:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T22:48:11","slug":"astros-looking-for-starting-pitching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/77233\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros Looking For Starting Pitching"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Astros lost yet another rotation member to the surgeon\u2019s table recently, with Ronel Blanco<\/a> requiring Tommy John surgery. He will officially undergo that procedure this Friday, per Chandler Rome of The Athletic<\/a>. Bob Nightengale of USA Today<\/a> reports that the club is on the lookout for more starting pitching.<\/p>\n

It shouldn\u2019t come as a shock that Houston has this focus. They currently have six viable starting pitchers on the injured list, most of them unlikely to return anytime soon. Luis Garcia<\/a> hasn\u2019t pitched in the majors in over two years now, as he has repeatedly hit setbacks in his attempts to return from his own Tommy John surgery. Cristian Javier<\/a> underwent that procedure in June of last year. Hayden Wesneski<\/a> required it last month and, as mentioned, Blanco is next. In addition to all those Tommy Johns, J.P. France<\/a> is still recovering from last year\u2019s shoulder surgery and has an uncertain timeline.<\/p>\n

Spencer Arrighetti<\/a> is also on the IL, though he hasn\u2019t required surgery. He suffered a right thumb fracture in a bizarre accident, getting struck by an errant ball while throwing on the field during batting practice. That means he could be able to return quicker than the guys who did require surgery, though he\u2019s not especially close either. Manager Joe Espada said last week that the righty is now out of the cast and playing catch, per Leah Vann of chron.com<\/a>. He suffered his fracture almost two months ago and will presumably need to ramp up his throwing program before going on a rehab assignment for a few weeks.<\/p>\n

That leaves the Astros with a very top-heavy rotation in the short term. Framber Valdez<\/a> and Hunter Brown<\/a> are a fantastic one-two punch at the front but it gets flimsy behind them. Lance McCullers Jr.<\/a> is back after his own two-year-plus injury odyssey and has made five starts thus far with mixed results. He is obviously talented but it\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess what to expect from him now after such a lengthy absence.<\/p>\n

Ryan Gusto<\/a> and Colton Gordon<\/a> currently have two rotation spots but they have less than 60 big league innings pitched combined. AJ Blubaugh<\/a> and Brandon Walter<\/a> are also inexperienced arms on the 40-man, currently on optional assignment. Jason Alexander<\/a> is also on the 40-man, though he\u2019s a 32-year-old veteran swingman. Miguel Ullola<\/a> is a notable prospect but he\u2019s not on the roster and has only 36 Triple-A innings under his belt so far.<\/p>\n

Taken all together, it\u2019s understandable that the front office wants to add to this group. Doing so this far in advance of the July 31st trade deadline will be a challenge. Most clubs prefer to hang onto their players until closer to the deadline to see if they can hang in the playoff race. Even those teams with pitchers to offer usually prefer to wait with the hope that the pressure of the deadline will drive up prices. To get a major deal done earlier usually comes at a premium.<\/p>\n

Even as the deadline approaches, the Astros will probably have to walk a fine line. They have clearly been trying to avoid paying the competitive balance tax this year. While they made some notable offseason additions such as signing Christian Walker<\/a>, they also moved some money around by flipping Kyle Tucker<\/a> and Ryan Pressly<\/a> to the Cubs in separate deals. RosterResource<\/a> puts their CBT number at just under $236MM, which puts them about $5MM away from this year\u2019s $241MM base threshold.<\/p>\n

Assuming they still want to stay under that line, they will have to avoid taking on significant salary in the coming weeks. Asking another club to eat money in a deal could help them in that regard, though that usually means having to pay a higher price in terms of prospect capital. Houston\u2019s farm system is generally considered one of the weaker ones in the sport, so that could be a tricky balancing act.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on the roster, infielder\/outfielder Zach Dezenzo<\/a> landed on the 10-day IL a few days ago due to left hand inflammation. The club told reporters today, including Rome<\/a>, that Dezenzo has a capsule sprain. He will be resting for the next two weeks and will get more imaging done at that time. Even if declared healthy at that point, he will presumably need to take some time to get back into game shape, either via some live batting practice or a rehab assignment.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Troy Taormina, Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Astros lost yet another rotation member to the surgeon\u2019s table recently, with Ronel Blanco requiring Tommy John…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2389],"tags":[42,5,139,54,3211,4,766,4678,453],"class_list":{"0":"post-77233","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-houston","11":"tag-houston-astros","12":"tag-houstonastros","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-ronel-blanco","15":"tag-spencer-arrighetti","16":"tag-zach-dezenzo"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114621874484780524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77233","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=77233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}