With Hunter Brown, Tatsuya Imai and Cristian Javier already on the injured list roughly one month into the 2026 season, the Astros’ starting pitching depth has been tested, to say the least. But could a new option to help fill those holes be emerging?
Houston general manager Dana Brown, joining SportsTalk 790 for his weekly appearance on Wednesday, said there have been “conversations” about moving right-handed reliever Kai-Wei Teng into the rotation.
Acquired in a January trade from the Giants, Teng has been quietly excellent in his long relief role for the Astros. He’s carrying a 1.65 ERA in 10 appearances with 16 strikeouts in 16 1/3 innings. He most recently tossed 2 2/3 scoreless against the Guardians on Tuesday, preserving a Houston lead before Cleveland put up a six-run eighth.
“Kai-Wei Teng's been pretty good. We're having some conversations in terms of maybe potentially starting him as well, building him up,” Brown said. “He's been a starter also in the past. He gave us 2 2/3 really good, quality innings and kept things at bay. Got us to the end of the game before we lost it. He definitely stepped up for us and bridged the gap to get to the back-end guys.”
Teng potentially moving into the rotation wouldn’t be a groundbreaking change, as he started seven games for the Giants in 2025, posting a 6.37 ERA across 29 2/3 innings. He also started one Spring Training game for the Astros and spent the vast majority of his time in the Minor Leagues as a starter.
The 27-year-old relies on a four-pitch mix, featuring a primary sweeper that gets a lot of chase (36.4%) and whiffs (32.6%). His four-seamer has also ticked up this season, currently averaging 94.7 mph after being 93.2 in 2025 and 93.6 in 2024. It has topped out at 96.8 mph.
Perhaps the Taiwan native can provide some answers as the Astros continue to navigate a bumpy 10-16 start.
“The blessing on this is that we haven't experienced an injury where we're going to lose anyone for the season,” Brown said. “This is baseball. These are baseball injuries. These things happen. We gotta fight through it. You've gotta tread water for a little bit.”