Brent Strom, who led the Astros’ pitching staff for much of the team’s golden era, is returning as a pitching consultant.
Karen Warren/Staff photographer
NEW YORK — The Houston Astros are hiring Brent Strom as a pitching consultant for the rest of this season, manager Joe Espada said Thursday, reuniting with the seasoned pitching coach as they make a push for the playoffs.
Strom, 77, who served as the Astros’ pitching coach from 2014-21, is expected to join the club Friday, when they begin a series against the Mets at Citi Field, and the plan is for him to be in the dugout during games, Espada said.
Espada attributed the move to “looking for ways to improve our pitching here for the coming weeks.” The Astros, who parted with general manager Dana Brown on Monday, entered Thursday with a half-game lead in the AL West despite being a game under .500.
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“This is someone who’s had some of our guys, experience with young pitchers, veteran pitchers, he’s been in World Series with different organizations,” Espada said of Strom, before the Astros played the finale of a series at Yankee Stadium. “And I feel like this is the right time to bring someone who can help us continue to move things forward and help us get our guys better and finish strong.”
The Astros entered Thursday with a 4.68 ERA as a team, sixth-highest in the majors. They have used 17 different starting pitchers this season, tying a franchise record, with their rotation a season-long issue. The group had the majors’ third-highest ERA (5.17) and seventh-fewest innings pitched.
Entering Thursday, the Astros had gone 13 games without a starter completing six innings, resulting in a heavy workload on their bullpen. After ranking third in the majors in bullpen ERA from May through July, the Astros ranked 20th with a 4.14 ERA from their relievers in August.
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As a staff, the Astros entered Thursday with the highest walk rate (10.8%) in the majors, despite making some progress there since the season’s first month. They were allowing the seventh-highest WHIP and OPS in the sport and had recorded the sixth-fewest quality starts.
“He’s got this presence about him, connecting with the young pitcher, older pitcher,” Espada said of Strom. “Also, very simple in how he teaches things. He can go outside of the box, but he also stays on, ‘This is what you need to compete during the stretch.’ There is that experience that I think is needed.
“Sometimes we can spend a lot of time, look at things that are not particularly important right now during this stretch. It’s about competing, it’s about me against him. And my experience with Strommy has been that and I think it’s something that we can all use during this stretch.”
Espada said that Strom will work in tandem with pitching coach Josh Miller and assistant pitching coach Ethan Katz. Miller worked with Strom from 2019-21 in Houston, as a bullpen coach and a pitching coach, while Katz was hired prior to this season to replace Bill Murphy, who also came up under Strom.
“It’s a fresh set of eyes — he’s going to be in our meetings, he’s going to be helping with our throwing programs, video analysis,” Espada said. “I just feel like this is something that we’ll benefit from having him around.”
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Strom and Espada were both members of Houston’s coaching staff from 2018-21, with Espada spending those four seasons as bench coach. Strom’s previous stint as Astros pitching coach included three World Series appearances and one championship in 2017.
Houston had two American League Cy Young winners under Strom — Dallas Keuchel in 2015 and Justin Verlander in 2019, with Verlander, who was traded to the Astros in 2017, winning another Cy Young in 2022. From 2015-21, the Astros ranked second in the majors in ERA and strikeout percentage.
Current Astros pitchers Cristian Javier and Bryan Abreu made their major-league debuts during Strom’s last tenure as pitching coach. Strom also had a one-year stint as Houston’s pitching coach in 1996 and worked in the Astros’ minor-league system for seven seasons before that. He also was a minor league pitching instructor with the Cardinals, where he worked with Jeff Luhnow, who brought Strom to Houston after he became the Astros’ general manager.
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Strom also served as pitching coach for the Royals (2000-01) and Diamondbacks (2022-24) and spent 2025 as an assistant pitching coach with the Pirates. He will now rejoin an Astros club seeking a spark down the stretch.