With retirement 'the worst job I ever had,' Strom returns to Astros

NEW YORK -- Moments after meeting Astros pitcher Tatsuya Imai on the outfield grass at Citi Field on a sunny Saturday afternoon, Brent Strom took him to the visiting bullpen and went to work. Strom was back in his element, doing what he does best and imparting the kind of knowledge manager Joe Espada hopes can help his pitching staff down the stretch.

Strom was at home in Arizona when he got a call earlier this week from Astros senior advisor Jeff Bagwell, asking him if he'd be open to coming out of retirement to rejoin the club as a pitching consultant for the remainder of the season. Strom looked at his wife, who gave him her blessing, and the next thing he knew he was on a plane bound for New York.

“It’s been a while since I’ve done this,” Strom said Saturday before the Astros' 6-2 loss to the Mets. “This I know -- the retirement job is the worst job I ever had. It’s a terrible job. I don’t recommend it to anybody.”

Strom, 77, said his return to the Astros, where was the pitching coach from 2014-21 and 1996, is more than just a “nostalgia tour.” He’s here to assist pitching coaches Josh Miller and Ethan Katz in any way he can in the final month of the season.

"It's exciting to come back,” he said. “Just a different set of eyes and ears. … It’s exciting to join a first-place team. I did a little bit of this last year with Pittsburgh, being a secondary guy, and it was great. I've had enough time in the spotlight to last a lifetime in the decade we had previously.”

The Astros’ pitching staff has been one of the worst in the Major Leagues this season, entering Saturday with a 4.63 ERA that ranked 25th in MLB, including a 5.11 ERA from their starters (28th). Houston’s staff entered Saturday with 553 walks, which tied for the most in the Majors.

The one area Strom said the club needs to improve is throwing first-pitch strikes. The Astros’ 60.1 percent first-pitch strike percentage entering Saturday is the seventh-lowest in the Majors.

“That’s a concern,” Strom said. “Obviously, we need to improve that. Possibly there’s some things on pitch sequences I think can make a difference with possibly just kind of changing the look we’re giving opposing teams. We’ve been so successful as a pitching staff in the past doing certain things [that] perhaps the league may have caught up with what our trends are and maybe we can alter that a little bit and have a little bit more success.”

Strom’s previous tenure as pitching coach coincided with the Astros' rise to dominance, culminating with the 2017 World Series title. Strom was able to blend analytics with his teachings and turn the Astros into a pitching factory. He helped take pitchers like Charlie Morton and Gerrit Cole to the next level and coached Cy Young winners in Dallas Keuchel (2015) and Justin Verlander (2019).

Strom left the Astros following the 2021 World Series loss to the Braves, saying the club was in good hands with pitching coaches Miller and Bill Murphy, who left to become the Pirates’ pitching coach after last season. Strom was the D-backs’ pitching coach from 2022-24 and spent the ‘25 season as the assistant in Pittsburgh.

“Once I found out I was going to get a chance to do this, I went onto my favorite sites, Baseball Savant and FanGraphs, and I did a deep dive as quickly as I could,” he said. “I have some ideas; I’m not going to share with you guys, but for the staff and Joe, just some ideas that might be different that they hadn’t thought about. I have more to do, for sure.”

Two of Strom’s biggest assignments are Imai and Mike Burrows, who’s expected to come off the injured list and return to the rotation next week. Imai and Burrows were the Astros’ two biggest offseason pitching additions and they have struggled -- Burrows had a 5.99 ERA in 94 2/3 innings before going on the IL in early July, and Imai has a 5.32 ERA in 67 2/3 innings. He was moved to the bullpen, where he’s pitched only three times in August.

“From what I saw [from Imai], he misses a lot of barrels and is just consistent,” he said. “He could be a guy that could be very valuable going down [the stretch]. Of course, my relationship with Burrows goes back to my Pirates days. Big fan of his. And Josh Hader, I knew from my previous time [in the Astros organization]. I know a few of them, but I have much more to learn.”