An Astros rotation already lacking significant depth and entering the year 2023 has received two major blows in the past few days.
Starting pitcher Jose Urquidy was placed on Monday’s 15-day injured list with a shoulder complaint, and Monday night brought more troubling news. Starting mate Luis Garcia left his start against San Francisco in the first inning with an elbow injury, and Astros manager Dusty Baker noted that Garcia will be out indefinitely after the game with an MRI scheduled for Tuesday.
It’s unclear how long each pitcher will be out of Houston’s rotation. But in the short term, Baker now faces a serious problem.
The two injuries further complicate a difficult dance for Baker. Starting the season with Justin Verlander, now in Queens, and Lance McCullers Jr. on the injured list, he took what is perhaps the team’s greatest strength and placed a legitimate question mark outside of Staff aces Framber Valdez and Cristian Javier. Now where exactly will Baker turn to with a pair of keys out of his arms? Let’s go through some options:
Internal Candidates
This remains the most likely path for Astros right now, with exploration for access via trading likely closer to the July 31st deadline. There are some relatively attractive opportunities within the organization at the moment.
Brandon Bielak is almost guaranteed a rotation spot after a strong showing on Monday, which included six strikeouts in four innings to relieve Garcia. Bielak isn’t the strongest arm, although his experience – with eight career starts under his belt – and performance should give him the upper hand.
– PitchingNinja Twitter
Who could take last place behind Bielak? The most likely candidate is right-hander JP France, who was protected by the Astros in the Rule 5 draft this offseason. Although there may be other possibilities at play. Right-hander Ronel Blanco dominated Spring Training competition with just one earned run in 17 innings, and Forrest Whitley has some upside potential following the hype. Given his past struggles at Triple-A Sugar Land, I’d be cautious about calling up Whitley. Although Baker could try to give Whitley a one-start trial in a pinch.
External options?
Astros CEO Dana Brown isn’t afraid to be aggressive considering he’s proposing a slew of potential contract extensions this summer, and perhaps the same logic will apply in the trading market. Where might the Astros look for guns? Let’s take a look at the bottom of the league table. Perhaps the NL East bottom-feeder in Washington — a phrase that was frankly unthinkable in October 2019 — will part ways with a low-cost veteran arm in Trevor Williams or Chad Kuhl, and a similar path could be taken in Oakland, though the A as (theoretical) divisional rival. The most appealing option could be in Kansas City, where Zack Grienke’s less-than-stellar homecoming could see him returning to a contender.
None of the above options are particularly attractive, but as May approaches, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than the league’s worst-performing teams wanting to sell. Instead, Brown will likely need to keep his proverbial prospect powder dry, hoping to get enough production through internal replacements before we really hit the dog days of summer.
