Cristian

Javier

The 28-year-old right-hander walked two batters on the afternoon while striking out two. The lone tally against him came on a solo home run off the bat of Jordan Walker in the third inning. Javier generated eight swings and misses on 69 pitches on the day, registering a CSW of just 16 percent. He finishes the spring with a stellar 1.69 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and a 10/6 K/BB ratio over 10 2/3 innings in his three Grapefruit League starts. His first assignment for the regular season will come next weekend against the Angels.

The Astros will transition to a six-man rotation around mid-April when they hit a stretch of 13 consecutive games without an off-day. Hunter Brown and Tatsuya Imai are the only locks right now with Cristian Javier, Mike Burrows and Lance McCullers Jr. figuring to break camp in the rotation as well. The battle for the sixth spot in the rotation involves a combination of Spencer Arrighetti, AJ Blubaugh and Peter Lambert. The other option is to bring up someone like Jason Alexander or Colton Gordon a couple weeks into the year.

An encouraging day for Javier, who was pulled in the second inning of his previous start. He was back up to 92.3 mph with his fastball today, which is right between the 91.7 mph he averaged six days ago and his 2025 average of 92.9 mph. He gave up only two hard-hit balls, and he ended up with a 38 percent CSW.

Javier pitched around two walks in the first and retired the first two batters in the second, but he then went walk, HBP, single before being pulled at 52 pitches. It was technically his spring debut, but he did throw two innings against Venezuela last Tuesday and the Astros probably wanted three out of him today. Javier doesn’t seem like a quality option in 10- and 12-team mixed leagues right now.

Javier allowed three hits and didn’t record a strikeout, needing 30 pitches (18 strikes) to get through two frames. The 28-year-old righty showed some signs of renewed fantasy relevance late last year when he posted an encouraging 3.28 xERA and 21.7 percent strikeout rate over 37 innings across eight starts.

The A’s brought an unearned run in against Javier in the first inning on a double and an error. Two hits brought a run in to score in the fourth before Javier gave up one more in the fifth. His day would be done with two outs and a runner on in the inning. The inherited runner would eventually come in to score. The 28-year-old right-hander is in line to take a 4.62 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, and a 34/15 K/BB ratio across 37 innings into Sunday’s regular season finale against the Angels in Anaheim.

After a few tough outings lately, it looked like Javier was setting himself up for more trouble early in this game. He let runners reach scoring position in each of the first three innings and coughed up an early 2-0 lead his lineup spotted him. Yet, he settled in after that and retired 10 of the last 11 batters he faced. His command was spotty throughout, but the Rangers seemed to bail him out by swinging at worse pitches as this game wore on. Still, a win is a win. He’s scheduled to face the Athletics in Sacramento next in what will likely be his final start of the regular season.

Javier would have been on four days’ rest Tuesday, so this will give him the extra day after he threw a season-high 87 pitches last week in his sixth start back from Tommy John. This would seem to take Colton Gordon out of the mix to start; he could have pitched Wednesday after throwing 60 pitches in relief Friday, but it’s doubtful he’d be a candidate to go long on three days’ rest on Tuesday. Whether the Astros go with a bullpen game or call up someone could depend on how tonight’s game goes.

Javier averaged 92.0 mph with his fastball today, which is his second blip since coming off the IL. He’s been in the 93.0-93.5 range in four of his six starts for the Astros, with the previous exception being when he came in at 91.1 mph in his second start last month. Hopefully, this one proves to be another aberration. Javier is now 1-3 with a 4.78 ERA in his return from Tommy John. He should face the Rangers next week.

Coming off six hitless innings against the Angels, Javier allowed six hits, walked three and struck out four tonight. His stuff has been pretty good since he came off the IL, but the 12 walks in 20 1/3 innings have been a problem. He seems like a bad play in mixed leagues with a road start in Toronto due up next.