Spencer

Arrighetti

Arrighetti walked four, but he gave up just two hits and induced 20 whiffs against arguably the game’s worst lineup. It’s his fifth career 10-strikeout game. We’re not sure that means much going forward, considering that from here on in, he’ll mostly be facing teams that wouldn’t have Troy Johnston batting cleanup, but he does have another nice matchup coming up against the thrifty Guardians next week.

Arrighetti offers some immediate streaming appeal, even in shallow mixed leagues, when he takes the ball against the Rockies in Daikin Park on Wednesday night. The 26-year-old righty was limited to just seven starts due to injuries last year and has been rather hit-or-miss from a performance standpoint in the majors over the past two seasons. It’s a strong enough matchup that he’s worth embracing the volatility, especially in deeper mixed leagues.

Arrighetti will make his return to Houston’s rotation for his season debut with an extremely favorable matchup against Colorado away from Coors Field. There’s some definite streaming appeal for fantasy purposes, even in shallow mixed leagues.

The official word comes from Astros manager Joe Espada after Arrighetti joined the club on their taxi squad. The 26-year-old righty will get the ball on either Wednesday or Thursday at Daikin Park. It’s a tasty matchup right out of the gate, which gives Arrighetti some streaming appeal in deeper mixed leagues as he replaces an injured Cristian Javier (shoulder) in Houston’s rotation.

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.

Ugh. Brown came out of Friday’s bullpen session complaining of some soreness in his shoulder and will now hit the shelf for at least a couple of weeks as the Astros allow it to calm down. Hopefully that’s all it is and the Astros’ ace is able to return before the end of April. Christian Roa was recalled from Triple-A Sugar Land in a corresponding move, though that’s likely just as a fresh bullpen arm until Spencer Arrighetti arrives to take Brown’s spot in the Astros’ rotation.

The 26-year-old Arrighetti allowed just one hit and one hard-hit ball. He’s likely to join the Astros when they expand their rotation from five to six starters next week.

It’ll likely be a temporary demotion for Arrighetti since Astros manager Joe Espada told reporters he’ll be an option once they expand to a six-man rotation at some point in April. The 26-year-old righty was limited to just seven starts due to injuries last year. He’ll offer some appeal as a streaming option in deeper mixed leagues once he returns to Houston.

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.