{"id":391036,"date":"2026-01-06T04:56:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T04:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/391036\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T04:56:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T04:56:06","slug":"astros-could-open-season-with-six-man-rotation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/391036\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros Could Open Season With Six-Man Rotation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Astros officially introduced\u00a0Tatsuya Imai<\/a> at Daikin Park this morning. The surprising three-year deal continues what has been a pitching-focused offseason for a Houston team losing Framber Valdez<\/a> to free agency. The Astros also acquired\u00a0Mike Burrows<\/a> in a trade that cost two of their better prospects while adding potential back-end starters\u00a0Ryan Weiss<\/a> and\u00a0Nate Pearson<\/a> on cheap one-year deals.<\/p>\n

Manager Joe Espada said at Imai\u2019s press conference that the club is likely to lean on a six-man rotation frequently throughout the season (link via Chandler Rome of The Athletic<\/a>). That could be the case from day one, as the skipper indicated they may begin the year with an extra starter. Espada pointed to the team\u2019s heavy early-season workload. The Astros only have two off days between Opening Day on March 26 and April 22. Barring rainouts, they\u2019ll play 26 games in their first 28 days.<\/p>\n

Hunter Brown<\/a> is the clear #1 starter with Valdez expected to head elsewhere. Imai and Burrows slot into the middle of the rotation, while\u00a0Cristian Javier<\/a> is lined up for a spot somewhere in that 2-4 mix. Options for the final rotation spot or two include Weiss, Pearson,\u00a0AJ Blubaugh<\/a>,\u00a0Spencer Arrighetti<\/a>,\u00a0Jason Alexander<\/a>,\u00a0Lance McCullers Jr.<\/a> and prospect\u00a0Miguel Ullola<\/a>. Weiss, who signed for $2.6MM after pitching to a 2.87 ERA with a 28.6% strikeout rate in Korea, probably enters camp at the top of that group.<\/p>\n

There are durability and\/or experience questions with everyone who slots behind Brown. Javier has been a quality starter at his best but was up-and-down upon his return from Tommy John surgery in the second half of 2025. This will be Burrows\u2019 first full season in the big leagues. Neither Imai nor Weiss have pitched in MLB. Arrighetti and McCullers slogged through injuries last year and were ineffective when healthy. Blubaugh has three career starts. Alexander,\u00a0J.P. France<\/a> and\u00a0Colton Gordon<\/a> all look more like depth arms than rotation stalwarts.<\/p>\n

Given the innings questions for almost everyone after Brown, it\u2019s sensible to ease their early-season workloads. That would leave one fewer spot in the bullpen given the 13-pitcher limit, however. Houston has six relievers who are either slam dunks or near-locks for the MLB roster if healthy: Josh Hader<\/a>, Bryan Abreu<\/a>,\u00a0Steven Okert<\/a>,\u00a0Bennett Sousa<\/a>,\u00a0Bryan King<\/a> and\u00a0Enyel De Los Santos<\/a>. They\u2019re also bringing Rule 5 pick\u00a0Roddery Mu\u00f1oz<\/a> to camp and would need to carry him on the MLB roster to keep his contractual rights. Spring Training injuries and any late-offseason additions will change the picture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Astros officially introduced\u00a0Tatsuya Imai at Daikin Park this morning. The surprising three-year deal continues what has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-391036","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-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391036","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=391036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}