WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Jim Crane pitched at the University of Central Missouri and still holds the school’s single-game strikeout record, so he can speak from experience. Many of his remarks to reporters often feature one of baseball’s beloved axioms, one his Houston Astros club is struggling to achieve.
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“You can never have enough pitching,” Crane is fond of saying.
The Astros don’t, and it could force Crane and his baseball operations department into action. Questions surrounding the club’s starting rotation intensified Friday after right-hander José Urquidy pulled himself from a minor-league game with what manager Joe Espada described as “a sore elbow.”
Espada said Urquidy walked off the mound following his 43rd pitch. He was scheduled to throw 60. Team doctors were evaluating Urquidy on Friday afternoon, so he was unavailable for comment.
Espada, who was present when Urquidy walked off the mound, said he did not sense any noticeable signs of discomfort beforehand. Other than to call the circumstance “not ideal,” Espada refrained from elaborating further until Urquidy saw the team’s physicians.
Generally, though, pitchers who complain of elbow pain aren’t playing catch a day later. Even if Urquidy is just shut down for a few weeks, the calendar would make it almost impossible for him to be ready for the start of the season.
Fourteen days remain until Opening Day, and the Astros are down to seven healthy starting pitchers on their 40-man roster. Three of them — Ronel Blanco, Brandon Bielak and Shawn Dubin — have teamed up to make 29 major-league starts. Bielak, who is out of minor-league options, is responsible for 21 of them. Dubin is behind schedule in spring training after battling shoulder soreness and has yet to face hitters.
Ace Justin Verlander will start the season on the injured list with shoulder inflammation. He still has not faced hitters in spring training, but he said Friday that might occur during his next outing. Lance McCullers Jr. and Luis Garcia are still recovering from elbow surgeries and aren’t expected back until well after the All-Star break.
General manager Dana Brown acknowledged to The Athletic on Thursday night that he is monitoring the starting pitching market, which still includes reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery. Urquidy, Snell and Montgomery are all represented by Scott Boras.
If Urquidy must miss any length of time, signing any available starter might become almost mandatory for Houston to survive an early-season gauntlet. The Astros begin their season with 20 games in 21 days. Seven of them are against the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers, three more are against the Atlanta Braves, and they open their season with a four-game set against the New York Yankees. A stretch of 22 games in 23 days from April 30 to May 22 looms, too.
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Brown and the coaching staff had plans to deploy a six-man rotation during some of those parts of the schedule, but it’s worth wondering how feasible that would be with the Astros’ current pitching staff.
Presuming Urquidy is not ready for the season, Houston would start the season with Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, Hunter Brown, J.P. France and Blanco in its rotation. Brown and France are coming off career-high workloads as rookies in 2023. Blanco has never thrown more than 126 innings in any professional season.
Houston tried to acquire Snell and closer Josh Hader from the San Diego Padres at last August’s trade deadline, but neither pitcher ever “got on the board,” according to Crane. Hader signed the largest free-agent contract of Crane’s ownership tenure this winter, a five-year, $95 million pact that arrived in direct response to Kendall Graveman’s season-ending shoulder injury.
Whether Urquidy’s exit Thursday will prompt a similar one is a legitimate question. The oft-injured 28-year-old had excelled in his first three Grapefruit League starts, striking out six across nine innings of one-run ball.
Urquidy was scheduled to start Thursday’s Grapefruit League game against the Washington Nationals, but the Astros moved him to a minor-league game Friday to allow more of their major-league relievers to get into the game.
Houston is already projected to carry the largest Opening Day payroll in franchise history, and the club has crossed the first competitive balance tax threshold for the second time in Crane’s ownership tenure. According to Cot’s Contracts, the Astros have a projected luxury tax payroll of $258,828,810 — a smidge over the second, $257 million CBT threshold.
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(Photo of José Urquidy from March 9: Jim Rassol / USA Today)
