Cristian

Javier

We already knew Javier would be sidelined for more than a few weeks with the injury, so this may not meaningfully change his recovery timeline. He was originally placed on the injury list on April 10th, so this now means he can’t return until early June.

This seemed like an inevitability when Javier was pulled from Wednesday’s start due to tightness i his shoulder and is now official. With a Grade 2 strain, he’s going to be sidelined for more than just a couple of weeks. J.P. France was recalled from Triple-A Sugar Land to take his place on the Astros’ active roster.

It’s a massive concern for Houston’s rotation, which lost ace Hunter Brown to a shoulder issue earlier this week. Javier left the contest with a trainer after attempting to warm up for his second inning of work after allowing one run on three hits in the opening frame. The 29-year-old righty will head for further evaluation and imaging to determine the severity of the issue. He’s in serious jeopardy of missing his next start, a rematch against the Rockies at home, on Tuesday. It would likely be AJ Blubaugh moving into the rotation in his absence with Spencer Arrighetti expected to come up and replace Brown already.

The 29-year-old right-hander also issued five walks on the night while recording a pair of strikeouts. The A’s scratched out a run against him in the second inning and added three more in the third — including a two-run double by Max Muncy. They added another pair in the fourth before Javier was mercifully lifted from the game. He got 10 swings and misses on 82 pitches on the night, posting an uninspiring CSW of just 23 percent. He has now allowed six runs in each of his first two starts and will carry a miserable 12.96 ERA and 2.28 WHIP into a brutal matchup against the Rockies at Coors Field on Wednesday. He shouldn’t be anywhere near any fantasy lineups.

Javier was very fortunate to not receive a loss in this one, as he not only struggled, he exited with the team trailing 6-0. Houston would score the next 11 to take him off the hook. He struggled to locate anything with four walks and just one strikeout, and he gave up a pair of homers in a less-than-inspiring first outing of the year. Javier will look to bounce back against the Athletics next week, but this was pretty ugly.

Espada added that Spencer Arrighetti will open the season back at Triple-A Sugar Land before being an option once they expand to a six-man rotation. It’ll be Cristian Javier and Tatsuya Imai taking the ball over the weekend against the Angels before Lance McCullers Jr. starts Monday’s series opener against the Red Sox.

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.