Houston Astros relief pitcher Bryan Abreu (52) reacts after giving up a 3-run home tun to St. Louis Cardinals Nolan Gorman during the seventh inning of an MLB baseball game at Daikin Park, Friday, April 17, 2026, in Houston.
Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle
Houston Astros relief pitcher Bryan Abreu (52) reacts after giving up a 3-run home tun to St. Louis Cardinals Nolan Gorman during the seventh inning of an MLB baseball game at Daikin Park, Friday, April 17, 2026, in Houston.
Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle
Houston Astros relief pitcher Bryan Abreu (52) delivers during the seventh inning of an MLB baseball game at Daikin Park, Friday, April 17, 2026, in Houston.
Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle
That Bryan Abreu is not himself is evident. One of baseball’s most dominant relievers for the past three years, the Houston Astros right-hander is having a nightmarish start to this season that continued in his club’s 9-4 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday at Daikin Park.
Abreu has a 14.73 ERA through nine outings. His fastball velocity is down about 2 mph on average from last year, and both it and his slider have been hit hard. Abreu says he is healthy. His struggles, still, have already dislodged him from the interim closer role for a pitching staff being wracked by injuries.
“It’s been a tough beginning of the season for me and for the team as well,” Abreu said Friday night. “It’s basically keep moving forward, don’t put a lot of stress in my head and try to clean everything up and go out there and compete.”
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That is not a straightforward process, Abreu acknowledged, given his early results.
“The mental game is kind of tougher than it looks like,” Abreu said. “It’s basically a lot of overthinking, a lot of questioning of myself. And it’s been tough. But with the help of the teammates, the coaches and the mental (coaches), it’s kind of easier to go out there and day by day try to keep pushing forward.”
Abreu appeared the Astros’ most important reliever entering this season. With closer Josh Hader on the injured list due to biceps tendinitis, Abreu stood to inherit ninth-inning duties and anchor a bullpen that would try to bridge leads to him.
That plan lasted less than 20 games. Abreu has been scored upon in seven of nine outings. And while he is not the sole reason for Houston’s majors-worst ERA, or its 8-13 record, he has taken two losses and his ineffectiveness has cast the Astros’ bullpen into further disarray.
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The task right now, simply, is how to get Abreu right, a previously unthinkable problem for a pitcher who led MLB relievers in strikeouts last season and posted a 2.40 ERA over the last three years. Nothing from Abreu yet this season has resembled that form.
Three of Abreu’s last five outings have come in low-leverage situations. Last Sunday, manager Joe Espada used Abreu in the eighth inning of a game Houston trailed by five runs in Seattle. The night before, Abreu had walked three batters in the ninth inning of a tied game before allowing a walk-off single.
Wednesday, Abreu inherited a two-run lead in the seventh against Colorado and recorded four outs in a scoreless outing, his second in a row. On Friday, he drew the seventh with Houston trailing the Cardinals by a run. He got one out before allowing a double, a walk and a three-run home run.
With two right-handed batters due up in the first three spots in the seventh, Espada “thought that was a really good pocket” for Abreu. He retired Iván Herrera but walked Jordan Walker with four sliders out of the zone after Alec Burleson doubled. Nolan Gorman, a left-handed hitter, then homered on a fastball.
“We’ve got to continue to give him opportunities and prepare him to pitch,” Espada said. “He’s one of the best relievers in the game. And the only way we can tap into that again is continue to give him opportunities. Prep him, get him ready, show him some video, mechanical changes if he needs it. That was the seventh inning, down one, clean inning. Just trying to set him up for success.”
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Astros officials cited mechanical issues to explain Abreu’s velocity dip early in the season. He has averaged 95.4 mph on his fastball, compared to 97.3 mph last year. Gorman turned on an inside 96.4 mph fastball for the fourth home run Abreu has allowed in nine appearances.
The walk to Walker was the 13th that Abreu has allowed in 7⅓ innings. His 37.5% whiff rate induced before Friday was on par with his career mark. But nine of 13 batted balls opponents had put into play against him were hard-hit, with an exit velocity above 95 mph.
“Basically, I’m missing a lot of the time the target,” Abreu said. “I just have to go out there and try to hit the target more often. The shape of the slider has been good, the velo on the slider is good. A little inconsistency on the fastball velocity. So it’s just getting everything out there and try to stop overthinking it and execute better.”
Abreu’s slider, which averaged 8.4 inches of glove-side break last season, was averaging 4.2 inches of break entering Friday, per Baseball Savant. Asked about his fastball velocity, Abreu said the dip could be a result of “a little bit of lack of confidence in my delivery right now.”
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“It’s a little messed up and I don’t want to be forcing my arm doing the wrong delivery, because that can cost me an injury, so I’d rather be as natural as I can and try to get the velo up there,” Abreu said. “Sometimes I can hit 98 (mph), but the very next day I can be like 95. So it’s something I can be working on (to) try to keep as clean as I can my delivery, my mechanics, so the velo can come back.”
Avoiding using Abreu is not a feasible idea, especially with how heavily Houston has relied on its bullpen in the early going. Just three teams had more bullpen innings entering Friday than the Astros, who have used their full relief complement just to cover games amid injuries and ineffectiveness in their rotation.
Righting Abreu still feels imperative, meanwhile, for a team trying to keep its rough start from spiraling. Hader was moved to the 60-day injured list on Friday and won’t be eligible to return until late May. The Astros must finish games in the interim, though just one MLB team has fewer save opportunities so far.
Closing or not, Abreu has been critical to recent Houston bullpens. His start has already been potentially costly from an individual standpoint to the right-hander, who will be a free agent after this season. Both he and the Astros can only benefit from turning it around — and quickly.
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“When things don’t go well you can struggle with the level of confidence, but I have not seen that out of Bryan where he’s not ready to compete and be the best he can be,” Espada said. “So we’ve just got to continue to help him and guide him through this.”