PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- The Astros have yet to announce their rotation to begin the season beyond Opening Day starter Hunter Brown, but manager Joe Espada said Saturday the club would employ a five-man starting pitching rotation for the first two weeks of the season.
That decision helps paint a clearer picture of how the rotation could shape up when the season gets underway next week. The Astros plan to transition to a six-man rotation April 10 at the beginning of a stretch of 13 consecutive days without a day off, and they will carry multiple long relievers in an eight-man bullpen to open the season.
“We’re trying to decide the rotation, but also who falls into that long man in the bullpen,” Espada said before Saturday's 7-5 win over the Mets at Clover Park. “We’ll carry a few of them now that we’re going to a five-man rotation to start the season. Keeping in mind some of our starters’ number of pitches might not be there that first go-round, so we want to keep those guys protected and keep the back end of our bullpen protected.”
Espada said the Astros won’t decide the final roster until after the final exhibition game Tuesday against Triple-A Sugar Land at Daikin Park. Rosters must be set by Wednesday morning.
Who are the rotation locks?
Brown, who finished third in American League Cy Young voting last year, will make his first Opening Day start when the Astros face the Angels on Thursday in Houston. Right-handers Tatsuya Imai and Mike Burrows, who had great springs with their new team, will likely get starts in that series. Right-hander Cristian Javier, who returned from Tommy John last year, will also begin the season in the rotation, leaving one rotation spot open.
Who’s up for the fifth spot?
That’s probably between right-handers Lance McCullers Jr. and Spencer Arrighetti at this point. McCullers has the leg up with the way he threw the ball this spring (three earned runs in eight innings) and his track record. Arrighetti, who was injured for most of last year, didn’t start a game in Grapefruit League play, and instead made three multi-inning relief appearances.
Arrighetti, who allowed six earned runs, five walks and struck out 12 in eight spring innings, left camp Tuesday to fly to Houston for the birth of his twins. He threw in the bullpen at Daikin Park on Friday and will pitch in Tuesday’s exhibition finale in Houston, along with McCullers. No starter has been named for that game.
What about long relief options?
Espada said he would like to carry “multiple” long relievers, which gets easier to do with lefties Josh Hader (biceps) and Bennett Sousa (oblique) opening the year on the injured list. Arrighetti could begin the season in the bullpen and be used in relief to piggyback behind a starter for two weeks, and then get slotted into the rotation when it’s expanded to six men.
The Astros have three other long relief options on the 40-man roster: right-handers AJ Blubaugh, Kai-Wei Teng and Ryan Weiss. It seems likely that at least two of them will make the Opening Day roster. Non-roster right-handers Peter Lambert and Christian Roa are in the mix, as well.
“Some of the long relievers could [also] be one-inning guys, 1 1/3-inning guys -- finish an inning and go back out,” Espada said. “They were used that way during Spring Training, and the plan is to start the season using them that way.”
Weiss, signed in December out of Korea to a one-year, $2.6 million contract with an option, has said multiple times this spring he prefers to be a starter, and his contract has incentives based on innings pitched. He’s been stretched out to 53 pitches in Grapefruit League play and could be a long reliever in Houston or a starter at Triple-A to begin the year.
Teng, acquired in a trade with the Giants in January, has been stretched out to 49 pitches this spring, but has walked six batters in 9 2/3 innings, which included one Grapefruit League start. He posted a 7.30 ERA over 12 big league games (seven starts) with San Francisco over the past two seasons.
Blubaugh made his Major League debut last year and made three starts and eight appearances out of the bullpen, where his stuff played up. He had a 1.27 WHIP in 11 innings as a starter and 0.68 WHIP in relief with 20 strikeouts. He’s thrown as many as 2 2/3 innings in relief this spring.