Hunter Brown will make his return to the Astros rotation tomorrow. Houston lists him as the probable starter for the second game of this week’s series against the Tigers, where he’ll match up against former rotation mate Framber Valdez.
Brown has been out since April 2 with a Grade 2 shoulder strain. The injury came just two starts into the season for last year’s third-place AL Cy Young finisher. Brown had allowed only one run while recording 17 strikeouts through his first 10 2/3 innings. He got through both starts without issue but reported discomfort during a between starts throwing session and went for an MRI that revealed the strain.
Houston was obviously not going to replace Brown’s production while he was injured. He broke through as a true #1 starter with a 2.43 earned run average across 185 1/3 innings a season ago. He finished eighth in MLB with 206 strikeouts and tied for fourth with 21 quality starts. Brown has made four rehab starts going back to May 24. He reached five innings and 78 pitches in Triple-A on Wednesday.
Starting pitching has been an issue for the Astros all season. Brown’s injury is the biggest factor. They’ve also gone the past two months without Cristian Javier because of a shoulder strain of his own. He’s on a rehab stint and should only be a week or two away from rejoining the rotation.
Offseason acquisitions Tatsuya Imai and Mike Burrows have been major disappointments, though they’ve at least gotten stronger than expected work from Spencer Arrighetti and Peter Lambert. Swingman Kai-Wei Teng has held a rotation spot for the past six weeks. He made consecutive strong starts in mid-May but has gotten knocked around by the Pirates and Angels, respectively, in his past couple outings. Teng will start tonight’s series opener against Detroit.
The Astros will need to open space on the active and 40-man rosters to officially reinstate Brown from the 60-day injured list. Bryan King, Alimber Santa and AJ Blubaugh are the only pitchers currently in the bullpen who have minor league options. King certainly isn’t getting sent to Triple-A, and Blubaugh and Santa have both pitched well.
If they don’t want to make any changes to the bullpen, they could option Teng postgame and remain on a five-man rotation. Burrows has an option remaining as well and has pitched very poorly of late, but it seems unlikely the Astros would demote him after trading two of their better prospects (Jacob Melton and Anderson Brito) to acquire him over the winter. For the 40-man move, Lance McCullers Jr. or LaMonte Wade Jr. are candidates for a transfer to the 60-day injured list.
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