If you want one clean explanation for why Joe Espada is under the microscope in Houston, start with the bullpen. That’s where the decisions keep piling up, and it’s where the Astros manager keeps choosing the most taxing path.
Espada has leaned on multi-inning relief more than any manager in baseball, and it’s not especially close. That would be easier to defend if the Astros were simply running out of starters who could cover innings.
In March and April, that argument carried some weight because the pitching staff was bad. Since then, though, the group has been more mediocre than disastrous.
The Astros are 24th in innings per start, but since May 1st they’ve been closer to the middle of the pack.
The usage pattern is still extreme. Five Astros relievers have appeared in 50 or more games this season.
Steven Okert leads the team with 68 relief outings even though he is on the shelf. Josh Hader has 44 appearances mostly because he missed the first couple of months, and he has been used only as the closer, which means he has had minimal multi-inning work.
The rest of the group tells the story:
Games
Multi Inning
Percentage
Steven Okert - 68, 12, 17.6
Enyel de los Santos - 66, 21, 31.8
Bryan Abreu - 63, 9, 14.3
A.J.
Blubaugh - 60, 34, 56.7
Bryan King - 57, 13, 22.8
Total - 314, 89, 28.3
Those numbers leave out anyone with fewer than 50 games, including Ryan Weiss, Kai-Wei Teng, Miguel Ullola, and Alimber Santa, all of whom were also used heavily in multi-inning spots. They also only count outings in which a reliever recorded four or more outs. Games where a pitcher entered in the middle of an inning and left after the next inning, without getting more than three outs, are not included.
That’s the heart of the criticism here: Espada keeps asking relievers to keep going after they’ve already burned energy escaping trouble. When a pitcher comes in mid-inning to clean up a jam, that first burst matters.
Then he’s expected to turn around and do it again, often with worse results. A.J.
Blubaugh is the clearest example. His ERA in single-inning outings was nearly 2,00.
In multi-inning outings, it was closer to 4,00, and most of the damage came in the second inning.
Last night followed the same script. Blubaugh entered in that kind of situation and gave up two runs in the next inning.
Enyel De Los Santos, who can make a case as the worst reliever in the bullpen, was also sent out for a second inning and allowed two more runs in that frame. The Astros lost 6-2.
Different relievers in those spots would not have guaranteed anything, but it would have improved Houston’s odds.
That’s why the “manager wins 10 games” talk doesn’t hold up. These decisions do matter, but they usually move the needle in smaller chunks.
Across a season, the effect is more like three to five games one way or the other. And bullpen usage is only one piece of the puzzle, alongside lineups and late-game substitutions.
There’s also the long game. When a reliever is stretched for multiple innings, he is unavailable the next day.
Do that often enough and the whole bullpen starts chasing itself from game to game. Blubaugh now leads the majors in relief innings, which is the kind of workload that can’t be ignored when people start asking why the Astros have so many injuries.
Espada entered the job with a strong reputation. He had been Dusty Baker’s right hand man during the championship run, said all the right things, and looked like a logical hire.
But answering questions well in an interview is not the same thing as managing a bullpen under pressure. That’s the risk with a first-time manager.
You only know what he says he’ll do until the games start forcing his hand.
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