{"id":547843,"date":"2026-03-20T00:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T00:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/547843\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T00:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T00:07:12","slug":"astros-bennett-sousa-to-begin-season-on-injured-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/547843\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros’ Bennett Sousa To Begin Season On Injured List"},"content":{"rendered":"

Astros reliever\u00a0Bennett Sousa<\/a> will begin the season on the 15-day injured list, manager Joe Espada tells reporters (including Brian McTaggart of MLB.com<\/a>). The southpaw suffered a left oblique strain last week and is back in Houston for testing.<\/p>\n

It certainly seems like it\u2019ll be more than a minimal injured list stay. Espada declined to specify a timeline but noted it\u2019d be \u201ca while.\u201d Sousa is shut down entirely until he\u2019s able to throw without pain. He\u2019ll join\u00a0Josh Hader<\/a> as key bullpen arms starting the season<\/a> on the shelf.<\/p>\n

Losing Sousa obviously isn\u2019t as impactful as beginning the season without Hader, but it\u2019s nevertheless a real blow to Espada\u2019s relief corps. A waiver claim at the end of the \u201923 campaign, Sousa quietly developed into a key bullpen piece last year. He fired 50 2\/3 innings of 2.84 ERA ball while striking out almost 30% of batters faced. By the second half, no Houston pitcher was being called upon in higher-leverage situations on average.<\/p>\n

Sousa has struggled to stay healthy over the past few years. He missed the entire 2024 season due to thoracic outlet surgery. Sousa came back stronger than ever but went down at the end of August with elbow inflammation \u2014 ultimately ending his season. He had tossed three innings of one-run ball this spring.<\/p>\n

Hader\u2019s absence means\u00a0Bryan Abreu<\/a> will begin the season as the primary closer.\u00a0Bryan King<\/a> and\u00a0Steven Okert<\/a> still give the Astros a pair of quality left-handed setup arms. The bullpen is much less imposing from the right side, especially if they\u2019re reluctant to use Abreu earlier in games.<\/p>\n

Enyel De Los Santos<\/a>, himself questionable for Opening Day after battling a right knee issue, could be set for important innings. Rule 5 pick\u00a0Roddery Mu\u00f1oz<\/a> has had a fantastic Spring Training and should break camp. AJ Blubaugh<\/a> and\u00a0Kai-Wei Teng<\/a> could pitch multiple innings if they make the team, while Ryan Weiss<\/a> will either be part of a six-man rotation or in long relief. Minor league signee\u00a0Christian Roa<\/a> has pitched very well (8 2\/3 innings of one-run ball with 12 strikeouts) and seems to have a clear path to an Opening Day roster spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Astros reliever\u00a0Bennett Sousa will begin the season on the 15-day injured list, manager Joe Espada tells reporters (including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[213294,49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-547843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-bennett-sousa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547843","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=547843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}