{"id":305276,"date":"2025-11-25T05:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T05:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/305276\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T05:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T05:30:08","slug":"josh-hader-back-to-normal-from-shoulder-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/305276\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Hader “Back To Normal” From Shoulder Injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Astros played the final two months of the 2025 season without their star closer.\u00a0Josh Hader<\/a> suffered an ill-timed capsule sprain in his throwing shoulder a couple weeks into August. The injury came too late into the season for the front office to respond with an impact trade addition. Hader expressed hope that he could make a long shot return in the playoffs, but the Astros struggled down the stretch and found themselves on the outside looking in during the final weekend.<\/p>\n

For many players, a capsule injury requires surgery and a potential year-plus absence. The Astros have maintained they expect Hader to be able to return without going under the knife. General manager Dana Brown said at the GM Meetings that the team was hopeful the six-time All-Star would be ready for Opening Day.<\/p>\n

Hader offered similar sentiments this evening, saying he\u2019s in a good spot after completing a throwing program a few weeks ago. \u201cIt should be normal. Obviously, intensity gets up (in Spring Training) and we\u2019ll see how that goes and how I\u2019m recovering, bouncing back from that,\u201d the veteran lefty said (link via Matt Kawahara of The Houston Chronicle<\/a>). \u201cBut as of now, everything is status quo, back to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the injury, Hader was amidst yet another excellent season. He carried a 2.05 ERA while striking out 37% of opponents across 52 2\/3 innings. Hader locked down 28 of 29 save chances and was well on his way to what would have been his sixth straight full season with at least 30 saves. It was a strong rebound effort from a little less consistent first season in Houston. Hader posted a 3.80 ERA, the second-highest mark of his career, across 71 appearances in 2024.<\/p>\n

Hader worked more than one inning in seven appearances this year. He completed two full frames four times, including in what wound up being his last outing of the season on August 8. Hader tossed a season-high 36 pitches in that appearance. That could certainly be coincidental \u2014 he twice threw 35 pitches in a game earlier in the year and didn\u2019t get hurt \u2014 but the timing at least raises some questions about his workload. Hader didn\u2019t throw more than one inning in any regular season game between 2021-23, seemingly out of concern about suffering an injury before he\u2019d locked in a significant free agent contract.<\/p>\n

Once the Astros signed him to a five-year, $95MM deal, Hader reversed course. He said tonight he remains open to pitching multiple innings despite the shoulder issue, though he added he hasn\u2019t heard anything from the team regarding their usage plans. \u201cFor sure. They committed to me to be here for multiple years and gave me the opportunity to pitch. That\u2019s all I can ever ask for. And my commitment to them is committing to be there and be available as much as possible,\u201d Hader replied when asked about working more than one inning.<\/p>\n

The Astros were forced to press\u00a0Bryan Abreu<\/a> into the closer role for the final six weeks of the season. Abreu had a rough patch between August 30 and September 9 when he allowed multiple runs in three out of four games. He was otherwise flawless, tossing scoreless appearances in his remaining 14 outings while securing seven saves. Abreu is one of the best setup arms in MLB and could certainly close if necessary, but the Astros felt the effects of losing Hader on the overall bullpen. Kaleb Ort<\/a> and\u00a0Enyel De Los Santos<\/a> were their top right-handers to handle leverage spots that arose earlier in games. That\u2019s not sufficient for a playoff hopeful.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t seem Houston will know if they\u2019re out of the woods with Hader\u2019s shoulder until he fully builds up in March. The early returns are encouraging, though, which is pivotal for a team that\u2019ll again face questions about the bullpen depth. The front office appears to be working under relatively tight payroll constraints from ownership and also needs to solidify the middle of the rotation while ideally adding a left-handed bat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Astros played the final two months of the 2025 season without their star closer.\u00a0Josh Hader suffered an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305277,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,35442,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-305276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-josh-hader","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}