Javier an 'X-factor' in Astros' bullpen
ATLANTA -- The end of the regular season could have been discouraging for Cristian Javier. The right-hander who finished third in American League Rookie of the Year Award voting for his work as a starter in 2020 had been moved to the Astros’ bullpen, where he had an up-and-down season, ending it with a brutal 7.53 ERA in September.
And yet, the 24-year-old has emerged as a key member of Houston’s pitching staff in October. Javier has been crucial in bridging the frames between the starters and high-leverage bullpen arms in the playoffs, including 1 1/3 scoreless innings in the Astros’ series-tying Game 2 victory on Wednesday in Houston. Over nine innings this postseason, he has recorded 15 strikeouts and issued five walks and four hits without allowing a run.
“He's really been a bonus for us,” pitching coach Brent Strom said on Thursday. “He's kind of an X-factor in this bullpen.”
The bullpen is still new to Javier. He made his Major League debut on July 25, 2020, and he pitched to a 5-2 record with a 3.48 ERA in 12 games (10 starts) last season. Javier started his first nine outings this year, but when the Astros became overloaded with starters, they moved Javier to the ‘pen. But he struggled with fastball command, walked too many batters and was ineffective against left-handed hitters.
“We asked a lot of him by putting him in the bullpen. He’s never done that before,” Strom said. “This is a guy that really dominated Double-A with a great fastball. He has a really good slider, so it really plays well against right-handers.”
The Astros saw that success vs. righties and determined how he could do the same facing lefties.
“What we did was just get him back to being a little more up-tempo. We sped up the delivery slightly to kind of let momentum take over instead of being real careful trying to throw strikes,” Strom said.
Persistence and buying into a new role paid off. Javier’s three scoreless innings in the Astros’ American League Championship Series-tying Game 4 win helped route their path to the World Series.
“He works at it, he really works at it,” manager Dusty Baker said. “There was about a month there he was out of sync, so he went back to work. I got to give Strommy and Miller [pitching coach Josh Miller] and Murph [Minor League pitching coordinator Bill Murphy] a lot of credit for helping him get back on sync without overworking him, and really keeping him ready for us to try to win games, too.
“He could have squawked … but he embraced it and then went to work on it.”
Javier’s success has been driving the Astros, and it’s easy for his team to pull for him, too. Strom described him as the “essence of humbleness,” where the “we” in team is more important than a role of starter or reliever.
“This is one of the nicest young men I've been around in my life,” Strom said.