It has been such a rough first month of the season for the Houston Astros. While it started great with a 6-3 record, the Astros have lost 16 out of their last 21 games. The injuries and pitching have just been disastrous.
Most of the starting rotation is recovering from injuries, such as ace Hunter Brown and Cristian Javier, with a grade 2 shoulder strain. Tatsuya Imai is dealing with arm fatigue, while Cody Bolton has a back injury. Spencer Arrighetti has been the only reliable starting pitcher. Lance McCullers Jr. and Mike Burrows have not been good enough. Besides that, Peter Lambert is new to the scene.
Astros Bullpen Has Been Taxed
That typically means the bullpen takes on a bigger role with a strong workload. The Astros bullpen has had to come into games much earlier than usual, and it’s been a common theme. They’ve had to handle way too many innings at this point in the season.
Typically, that would pose more of a challenge, especially with All-Star closer Josh Hader starting the season on the 15-day injured list. The Astros have been able to handle the innings in terms of workload. The reason for that has been the multitude of long relievers available in the ‘pen. The problem has been the quality of relief. That is few and far between. The Astros bullpen is still the worst in baseball, even though they may not necessarily deserve the title. Some bad luck and terrible circumstances have not helped.
The bullpen has a 6.27 ERA, the most amount of earned runs, WHIP, walks, and home runs.
The Astros Bullpen Is Constructed Differently This Season
The construction of the bullpen with the long relievers by general manager Dana Brown was due to all the injuries suffered last season. The front office believed they were better suited to handle injuries this time around with the pitching depth. There are plenty of arms available, but all they’ve done is give up runs.
The Astros are relying on names that just haven’t been too reliable in the past, but offer the ability to eat up innings.
Long Relief Bullpen
A major league team would usually have an option for long relief available, but the Astros have more than that. Those arms have already come through big time for Houston. Kai Wei-Teng has been the most impressive of the lot.
The 27-year-old was acquired in a trade from the San Francisco Giants on January 30th. This is his third season in the big leagues, and he made seven starts last season for the Giants. It feels as if the right-hander has turned the corner with Houston. Teng has posted a 2.75 ERA in 12 games, along with 18 strikeouts and a 1.02 WHIP. He’s given up six runs in 19.2 IP.
Teng has been the Astros’ best reliever at this point, and it would probably be wise to keep him in the bullpen instead of a starter. He got one start against the Baltimore Orioles and gave up five hits and two runs in three innings. Teng threw 2.1 scoreless innings in the Astros’ first win of the season and earned the win. His best outing was 2.2 shutout innings against the Cleveland Guardians. He’s been able to go multiple innings six times so far.
This Astros Signing Has Worked Out So Far
AJ Blubaugh is someone who emerged for the Astros as bullpen talent last season. The 25-year-old made 19 starts in his first season with Triple-A Sugar Land last year. While he struggled at the minor league level, Blubaugh was excellent in the majors. He made 11 appearances that included three starts and posted just a 1.69 ERA in 2025. He recorded 35 strikeouts in 32 innings. This season, he’s been thrown into the fire at times, which has caused some high numbers.
While Blubaugh has a 6.23 ERA this season, he had two back-to-back poor outings in early April that inflated those statistics. Besides that, he’s done pretty well for the most part. Blubaugh threw 2.1 innings and gave up one run, along with three strikeouts, on Opening Day. 27 of his 41 pitches were strikes. He came back with two perfect innings in the series finale on March 29. Blubaugh has electric stuff, and his fastball plays. He’s given up just one run in his last 6.1 innings.
Struggles From Astros Long Relievers
Additionally, Ryan Weiss is someone who can also eat up multiple innings. The 29-year-old righty has moved around a lot throughout his career and was a starter in Korea. Weiss started great for the Astros in his first three appearances from the bullpen. Posting a 1.50 ERA in his first six innings, along with seven strikeouts.
Weiss threw two scoreless innings against the Red Sox on March 30 and followed up with three scoreless innings against the Athletics on April 3. It’s been downhill ever since. Weiss was moved to a starter role in mid-April after all the injuries. That’s one of the reasons why he was brought to the Astros. It’s been a mixed bag, and he doesn’t have the capacity to go very deep into games.
Still Question Marks in the Astros Bullpen
Weiss has given up at least two runs in each of his last five outings and hasn’t gotten past four innings in each one. It hasn’t been good enough at the moment. Weiss’ last start was 3.2 innings of three-run ball. Right-hander Nate Pearson still hasn’t made his debut yet. He was on the 15-day IL with elbow soreness and is expected to pitch in the bullpen. He was one of the first Astros signings in the offseason and is going through rehab assignments. Pearson has made six MLB starts in his career, but was used in the bullpen with the Cubs. It will be interesting to see what he’ll bring to the mix.
The Astros need to think about trying Blubaugh as a starter. They’ve already called up Jason Alexander, who could also be a good option. While there are names available, the consistency and quality are just not there besides Teng. The Astros really need this group to step up and come through to help out a struggling starting rotation that has failed to go deep into games. Houston’s bullpen has been significantly better when the starters can go at least five innings.
Main Photo Credit: Jamie Sabau-Imagn Images
