With the Houston Astros off to a halting, 2-4 start as they open their quest for a ninth straight season of playoff baseball, their starting rotation has been a pleasant surprise for the most part. In the early going, the Astros’ five starters have compiled a solid ERA of 3.71, giving up just four home runs in 34 innings, a rate of just 1.06 per nine innings.
The Astros’ best single performance so far has come from 25-year-old second-year big-leaguer Spencer Arrighetti, who earned a call-up last year as Houston’s top-ranked pitching prospect, and No. 3 overall in the Astros system. The 2021 sixth-round draft pick put in six solid innings last Saturday, allowing the New York Mets just one run as he recorded one of the Astros’ two victories.
The rotation’s No. 1 starter, Framber Valdez, has pitched a solid if not spectacular two outings as of Thursday, with a 1-1 record and 3.75 ERA in 12 innings for the 31-year-old lefty, now in his eighth season, all spent in Houston.
Luis Garcia’s MRI Results Were Not Great
Ronel Blanco, Hunter Brown and Hayden Wesneski hold down he rest of the five-man starting staff â but how long can this version of the Astros rotation hold out? The answer will need to be â pretty long. Because the club’s starting pitching depth has been badly damaged by injuries. On Thursday, the Astros got the bad news that their injury crisis is only getting worse.
The team learned that Luis Garcia, who won 15 games in the Astros’ World Series-winning season of 2022 but underwent Tommy John surgery and missed almost all of 2023, suffered yet another in a series of setbacks to his rehabilitation process.
Recovery from Tommy John surgery typically takes between 12 and 18 months, meaning that with his surgery in May of 2023, Garcia could have been expected to return in 2024 sometime, and by early in the 2025 season at the latest â if his recovery timeline had been normal.
But that did not happen. Garcia appeared to be processing well, even making two rehab starts in the summer of last season. But he failed to recover well from the second rehab outing, and was shut down for the rest of the year.
The setbacks continued in 2025. During Spring Training, Garcia reported soreness in his surgically repaired elbow prior to a scheduled live batting practice throwing session. He was evaluated by team doctors, but the club wanted further medical imaging.
On Thursday, the Astros announced that Garcia’s latest MRI revealed âinflammation in his right elbow.â The result? The 28-year-old native of Bolivar, Venezuela, will be shut down from throwing for another four weeks. At that point, he will be reevaluated, but the new setback in all likelihood means that Garcia is headed for the 60-day injured list, making his return date even more uncertain.
Three Other Starters Remain Out of Commission
Garcia is one of four out-of-commission starters on the Astros roster. Lance McCullers Jr., who has not pitched in a big league game since October 3, 2022, after pitching that entire season with an injured flexor tendon that he suffered in the 2021 postseason, is scheduled to make his second rehab start on Saturday.
J.P. France, an 11-game winner for the Astros in 2023, remains on the 60-day IL recovering from surgery for a torn right shoulder capsule. And Christian Javier, who won 11 for the Astros in 2022 and 10 in 2023, was moved to the 60-day list on Wednesday as he recovers from a Tommy John procedure he had last June.
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