HOUSTON — To address their depth-starved starting rotation, the Houston Astros have agreed on one-year, major-league deal with right-hander Ryan Weiss, team and league sources said.

Weiss’ contract contains a club option for the 2027 season, according to a team source. The deal will guarantee Weiss $2.6 million in 2026 and could earn him more than $7 million through 2027 if the option is exercised.

The signing all but ensures Weiss will make his major-league debut during the 2026 season as part of Houston’s revamped starting rotation. The Astros are bracing for the loss of free-agent Framber Valdez and have multiple starters recovering from either end-of-season injuries or reconstructive surgeries they underwent last season.

Weiss, who turns 29 next week, pitched the last two years for the KBO’s Hanwha Eagles, a stretch in which he posted a 3.16 ERA across 46 starts. Before playing in Korea, Weiss reached Triple A in both the Kansas City Royals and Arizona Diamondbacks systems.

Astros senior director of amateur scouting Deric Ladnier ran Arizona’s drafts when the Diamondbacks chose Weiss in the fourth round in 2018. Weiss spent the 2023 season playing independent ball and in the Chinese Professional Baseball League before turning his career around in Korea.

Weiss is the second low-risk, high-upside pitching contract Houston has given out this offseason. In October, the team signed former top Toronto Blue Jays prospect Nate Pearson to a one-year, $1.35 million contract and plans to convert him into a starting pitcher.

Signing Pearson and Weiss is, in part, a byproduct of the Astros’ financial situation. Owner Jim Crane is wary of crossing the luxury tax, and prices for starting pitching in the domestic free-agent market are high.

Houston has already saved an estimated $15.8 million with its initial offseason moves, but is still around $25 million under the first luxury tax threshold, according to outside approximations.

As a result, multiple sources said Houston believes its best avenue to acquire an established starting pitcher is via trade. There is considerable interest from other teams in both center fielder Jake Meyers and right fielder Jesús Sánchez, though Sánchez’s dismal performance after the trade deadline may impact his value.

Infielder Isaac Paredes is perhaps the team’s most valuable, realistic trade chip, but general manager Dana Brown did not sound last month like someone prepared to move the All-Star third baseman.

“Right now we think he’s a guy that we do not want to trade,” Brown said at the general manager’s meetings. “He carries too much value in our lineup. He’s one of the best guys at seeing pitches and working counts, and it’s one of the reasons why we went out and traded for him. We need that value in our lineup. It’s the exact direction we’re trying to take, and we feel like if we trade him, we’d be weakening our lineup. Right now, we have no interest in trading him.”

The Astros re-acquired Carlos Correa at the trade deadline and are playing him at third base, leaving Paredes without a clear defensive position. Trading first baseman Christian Walker could solve that conundrum, but Walker’s lack of production, coupled with the two years and $40 million remaining on his contract, will depress his value.

Brown and his lieutenants will consider all of this upon arriving at next week’s MLB Winter Meetings in Orlando. Their decisions will be based on finding innings for a team that desperately needs them.

Valdez threw a team-leading 192 innings across 31 starts last season. Couple his expected departure with an August trade of Ryan Gusto, and the Astros will be without two of their top-three leaders in innings pitched during the 2025 season. American League Cy Young finalist Hunter Brown is the only returning member of Houston’s pitching staff who threw more than 86 innings last season.

Weiss threw 178 2/3 frames last season for Hanwha, striking out 207 batters while sporting a 2.87 ERA. Adding that volume is a start.