The Astros are down to the kind of September math that leaves no room for passengers. After getting swept by the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend, Houston still sits one game ahead of the Texas Rangers with 12 games left, and every roster spot suddenly carries real weight.
That’s why the pitching staff deserves a hard look. Houston has leaned on a shaky group all season, and the idea of keeping underperforming arms around simply because the calendar is short doesn’t make much sense now.
One obvious name is Imai. He hasn’t just been moved to the bullpen - he’s been effectively erased from it.
Since July 27, he has made only five appearances, and he couldn’t even crack the game Sunday when the Astros were already buried 11-0 against the Rays. Houston has made it pretty clear it has no interest in using him, and the team has basically been short a reliever for nearly seven weeks.
That can’t keep going.
A better option could be Roddery Munoz, the Rule 5 pick Houston made this offseason. The Astros don’t go that route often, which made Munoz notable from the start.
He struggled early, got designated for assignment on April 6, and has since settled in with Triple-A Sugar Land. In 51 appearances for the Space Cowboys, he’s 4-5 with 12 saves in 14 chances, a 3.00 ERA, and 73 strikeouts against 19 walks in 51 innings.
That’s enough to say he’s earned another shot.
Bryan King is another pitcher who has simply fallen apart at the wrong time. For much of the last 2.5 seasons, he had become a trusted leverage arm for Houston and was in the middle of his best year.
Then July 10 hit, and everything changed. Since then, he has given up 24 runs, 22 earned, over his last 16.2 innings and has been demoted twice in that stretch.
Joe Espada even left him unused in Sunday’s blowout loss. The Astros had reasons to hope he would straighten things out, but he’s now become a liability.
If Houston wants a replacement, Kai-Wei Teng is at least an interesting swing. He recently turned in a pair of scoreless innings in relief against the playoff-bound Oklahoma City Comets, and for a low-leverage arm who can potentially give multiple innings, that’s worth another look. Teng had shown promise before arm fatigue and injury slowed him down this season.
Then there’s Blanco, whose season has turned into a painful watch. He’s back from Tommy John surgery, but the velocity is down and the command hasn’t been there.
In 36 innings with Houston, he has a 7.11 ERA. On Sunday, he gave up five earned runs in 4.1 innings, allowed two home runs, and produced only four swings and misses on 62 pitches.
That has been the pattern at the big-league level this year. With his velocity still down, the Astros should be thinking about shutting him down rather than pushing him into a situation where another injury becomes a concern.
A possible answer is Santos, who was just named Astros MiLB Pitcher of the Month for August. Once a highly regarded prospect and a second-round compensatory pick in 2020 - the pick Houston received for Gerrit Cole’s signing with the Yankees - injuries and inconsistency slowed him down.
This year he moved to the bullpen and has taken off. He went 4-2 with three saves and a 3.38 ERA at Double-A Corpus Christi, striking out 82 in 53.1 innings, then got promoted to Triple-A Sugar Land and has been dominant there too.
In 10 innings for the Space Cowboys, he’s allowed one earned run, struck out 16, and given up only two hits. In lower-leverage spots, his bat-missing stuff could play immediately.
In Other News...
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The urgency around the clubhouse is hard to miss, especially with the Astros needing the next few weeks to look a lot more like their usual standard if they want to keep their postseason path clear. Joe Espada is managing under that kind of pressure, too, with his job security tied to how far this team goes, which makes every game in a crowded American League race feel a little sharper than the last. [Read more 🡒]
Astros Still Face One Stretch Run Threat Despite Edge Over Texas
Houstons path through the final stretch looks better than the one Texas has in front of it, and that matters with just 12 games left on the regular-season calendar. The Astros hold a one-game lead over the Rangers and also own the tiebreaker, while nine of their remaining games come against clubs below .500, giving them a schedule that should help preserve the edge if they take care of business.
Still, the division race is not the only piece worth watching. Seattle has the easiest remaining schedule in the group, even if the Mariners sit five games back, and the White Sox and Guardians are also sorting out playoff positioning with their own differing paths ahead. For Houston, the benefit of a softer finish only matters if the Astros avoid giving those clubs any opening. [Read more 🡒]