HOUSTON — This can’t continue, not if the Astros are to climb out of a deficit they’ve created and contend for a championship. Carrying baseball’s worst pitching staff isn’t compatible with anything this club aspires to accomplish, a fact amplified across the first 36 games of this gnarly season.
Absences from ace Hunter Brown, $18 million man Tatsuya Imai and closer Josh Hader are impossible to ignore, but pitching injuries — or, in Imai’s case, “arm fatigue” — impact teams across the sport.
Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón have not thrown an inning for the New York Yankees. Nor have Hunter Greene or Nick Lodolo, two pitchers projected to lead the Cincinnati Reds’ rotation. The Chicago Cubs are without Cade Horton, Justin Steele, Hunter Harvey and Caleb Thielbar. Three members of the Detroit Tigers’ projected season-opening rotation were already on the injured list before two-time AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal joined them on Monday afternoon.
All of those pitching staffs have somehow stayed afloat.
Houston’s is sinking to a staggering low. It surrendered eight more runs on Monday night, inflating its major-league worst ERA to 5.78. Sixteen of the Astros’ first 36 games have featured at least seven runs allowed. Somehow, they’ve won two of them.
“It’s a long season. I know how good I am. My confidence hasn’t shifted at all,” said right-hander Ryan Weiss, who surrendered seven of the eight runs during an 8-3 loss against the Los Angeles Dodgers. “I just have to continue to be myself and continue to attack hitters and be aggressive in the zone.”
Weiss’ wretched Monday raised his ERA to 7.62 after 26 innings. Only two Astros pitchers have thrown more: Mike Burrows and Lance McCullers Jr. They’ve teamed for a 6.13 ERA. He is averaging 20.3 pitches per inning, permitting a .315 batting average, 2.12 WHIP and — according to Baseball Savant — has a pitching run value of minus-10.
On Monday, he threw a season-high 95 pitches because Houston had no other choice. That he could only collect 13 outs created reverberations the Astros will feel across the next two days — while raising legitimate questions about roster management.
Houston’s pitching staff covered 18 innings of a doubleheader last Thursday in Baltimore before beginning a three-game series at Fenway Park on Friday. The team deployed a bullpen game on Sunday — with the understanding another loomed on Monday.
After using five relievers to cover 10 innings of Sunday’s 3-1 win, manager Joe Espada acknowledged he “didn’t have a lot of options” to pitch in that game.
Bryan Abreu clinched Sunday’s win, then pitched again a day later on Monday. (Olivia Vanni / Getty Images)
As a result, rookie AJ Blubaugh threw a season-high 59 pitches across 3 2/3 innings, after which he acknowledged, “I’m pretty sore right now, to be truthful.” Embattled reliever Bryan Abreu earned the win, but tossed two innings for the first time since June 29, 2025.
On Monday, Abreu threw 18 more pitches, the sort of workload reserved for a late September pennant race — not a spiraling team in early May. Bennett Sousa, activated off the injured list on April 25, pitched for the third time in four days on Monday.
To avoid this, logic suggested summoning a fresh arm from Triple-A Sugar Land prior to Monday’s game. Both Colton Gordon and Jason Alexander were optioned less than 15 days ago, meaning they could not be recalled unless the player they replaced went on the injured list. Ditto for Jayden Murray.
Right-hander Miguel Ullola is on the 40-man roster and would’ve been eligible without that restriction. The Astros had an open 40-man roster spot when Monday began, too, so finding someone off the roster would’ve been an option — and would’ve protected the overworked arms within their bullpen.
Roster management is the job of a general manager, but then again, perhaps Dana Brown had a baseline expectation for competence from someone he signed to a guaranteed, $2.6 million major-league contract this winter.
Weiss did not — and has not — met it. The team will demote him to the minor leagues before Tuesday’s game, according to a league source, representing the first somewhat seismic shakeup on a pitching staff in need of one.
The right-hander is becoming the poster child for this catastrophe, but enough blame exists to go around.
Two days before Monday’s disaster, Spencer Arrighetti needed 35 pitches to finish three scoreless innings against the Boston Red Sox. Houston scored four runs in the fourth inning and another in the fifth, affording Arrighetti a cushion he needed to savor.
Instead, Arrighetti lost his command and could not seize advantage of a comfortable lead. He finished just five innings in a situation where the Astros needed a minimum of five. Arrighetti’s inability to deliver a deeper outing with a big lead forced Espada to use Enyel De Los Santos for five outs and Kai-Wei Teng for four.
Teng is one of six pitchers Brown signed or acquired on major-league deals this winter. The five who’ve appeared in a game have posted a 6.07 ERA. Remove Teng from that group and the number rises to 7.19.
Teng stands out as a saving grace. He is one of perhaps three leverage relievers in a bullpen that boasts a league-worst 6.22 ERA. The team has toyed with stretching Teng out as a starter — and planned to deploy him as one in Sunday’s game. Using him for 23 pitches on Saturday scuttled the plan, setting this dismal two-day cycle into motion. Teng could not pitch at all on Sunday, which perhaps forced Espada to extend both Blubaugh and Abreu beyond reason.
That Teng threw 31 pitches across two scoreless innings on Monday — in a game the Astros trailed by five runs — epitomizes the excruciating position in which Espada is mired. He deployed one of his leverage relievers in a lopsided game because turning to anyone else would’ve jeopardized their health.
Doing so almost ensures Teng won’t be available to pitch on Tuesday or Wednesday, putting the Astros at further disadvantage against a Dodgers team with an already superior roster and more pressure on a pitching staff that can’t absorb it.
Espada is in the final year of his contract and guiding a team already eight games under. 500. Four days ago, the third-year skipper stated something obvious: His team needs to start winning series or, at the very least, stringing together consecutive wins.
It is worth wondering whether Espada and his coaching staff even have a roster equipped to do it.
