Lance

McCullers Jr.

McCullers gave up six hits but just three hard-hit balls tonight, albeit against a Triple-A lineup. His upside isn’t nearly what it was and the chances of him making 25-30 starts are pretty slim, but the Astros will be content if he’s just an average starter when he’s able to take the mound. He’s expected to face the Red Sox next week in his first outing.

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 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.

McCullers had an impressive 36 percent whiff rate, but he also only threw 53 percent of his pitches for strikes on the day. Hes trigged to get ahead in the count with his four-seamer and had to go to his changeup often to begin at-bats. However, his changeup looked good, and his sinker took some pressure off his four-seamer and allowed a fair amount of weak contact. McCullers threw 58 pitches in this one and could be up to around 75 pitches in his first start of the season, which keeps him on the fringe of fantasy relevance.

Both runs came on a two-run home run by Coby Mayo; however, McCullers did allow five hard-hit balls in just three innings, which isn’t great. He did post a 27 percent whiff rate and 35 percent CSW and threw 65 percent strikes, so it wasn’t all bad. McCullers also sat 93.2 mph on his four-seam fastball, which is up over one mph from what he averaged during the season last year. He also held the velocity through all three innings, which is a good sign. We can’t say how long McCullers will stay healthy, but he does appear to be healthy right now heading into the season.

The 32-year-old right-hander needed just eight pitches to retire CJ Abrams, Jacob Young and Dylan Crews in succession. He worked exclusively out of the stretch in this one and averaged 94.0 mph on his fastball, a big jump from the 91.5 mph that he averaged during the 2025 season. It remains to be seen if he’ll be given an opportunity to start or if he’ll be utilized out of the bullpen to open the season. Either way, a return to relevance from a fantasy perspective seems unlikely.

He struck out four. The run came on a Mike Trout homer. McCullers missed the previous two weeks with hand soreness. He’ll end this season healthy after missing both 2023 and ’24 with elbow woes, but there wouldn’t seem to be a whole lot to be encouraged about with his 6.51 ERA and a 61/39 K/BB in 55 1/3 innings over 13 starts and three relief appearances. His fastball was down about two mph from where he was before the elbow injuries. As he enters the final season of a five-year, $85 million contract, the Astros still figure to give him every opportunity to win a rotation spot next spring.

The 31-year-old hurler had been shelved since September 12 due to soreness in his right hand. He’ll give the Astros an option for length out of the bullpen behind AJ Blubaugh as the Astros need to win to keep their postseason hopes alive on Saturday night. McCullers holds an uninspiring 6.88 ERA and 1.85 WHIP across 52 1/3 innings on the season.

That will unfortunately end the 31-year-old right-hander’s 2025 season. He finishes the year with a disappointing 6.88 ERA, 1.85 WHIP and a 57/38 K/BB ratio over 52 1/3 innings in 15 appearances (12 starts).

The runs came in his second inning of work. With one run already in, Luis Rengifo hit a dribbler down the first base line and then ran on the grass, causing McCullers to make a bad throw to first for a single and an error. Rengifo really should have been called out on the play, but hitters usually are able to get away with it. It’s currently unclear if McCullers will get a chance to go back into the rotation next weekend. He came into today with a 6.89 ERA in 12 starts.