WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Ask Astros manager Joe Espada what he likes about pitcher Mike Burrows and he’ll mention his arsenal of pitches, his work ethic and the fact that he’s got five more years of team control. There’s another trait Espada enjoys in the right-hander as much as anything else.
“He’s got a little bit of red-ass in him, which I like a lot,” he said.
For those not familiar with baseball clubhouse lingo, Espada means that Burrows -- the 26-year-old the Astros acquired from the Pirates in exchange for two prospects in a three-team trade in December -- has a competitive drive on the mound.
“It means [Espada] sees the fire, which I appreciate,” Burrows said. “It’s a compliment. … It’s not forced. It just kind of comes out of me. I think I’ve kind of always been like that on the mound, or [doing] anything competitive, really.”
Burrows was one of four starting pitchers the Astros acquired last offseason in their effort to beef up their depth in the wake of losing workhorse Framber Valdez to free agency. Burrows made his first Grapefruit League start in a Houston uniform in Sunday’s 6-5 loss against the Cardinals at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches and gave up one hit, one walk and struck out two batters in two scoreless innings.
“It felt good to wear the jersey and get out there and pitch and see batters,” he said. “I was just happy I was in the zone and letting my stuff play and seeing the swings on the ball from the opposing hitters.”
Burrows, who was paired with Astros catching prospect Walker Janek (No. 3), worked at a fast pace and threw 14 of his first 15 pitches for strikes (he landed 19 of his 24 pitches for strikes overall). He generated seven whiffs on 17 swings.
“Overall, I wouldn't say it was exactly where I wanted, but it was in the zone and forcing swings, which was good,” he said.
Drafted by the Pirates in the 11th round in 2018, Burrows’ ascent to the Majors was delayed by Tommy John surgery in 2023. He made his Major League debut with one game in 2024 and pitched in 23 games (19 starts) last season, including a notable outing against Houston. In his third career start on June 4, 2025, in Pittsburgh, he threw 5 1/3 scoreless innings with no walks and six strikeouts and caught the eye of Espada.
“The performance was great, the stuff was really good, and after the game I found myself going into our system and digging deep into the player,” he said. “You have your scouting report, but once you see him perform at that level, I want to know more about the guy. Burrows is one of those guys you write down in your notes, ‘Hey, if this guy is ever available and he’s got X amount of years available, let’s get him.’”
Six months later, the Astros sent two of their top prospects -- center fielder Jacob Melton and right-hander Anderson Brito -- to the Rays in a trade that netted them Burrows, who has only 99 1/3 career innings in the big leagues under his belt.
“We know how good he was, but just seeing him live was one of those things that kind of gives you a little jolt,” Astros general manager Dana Brown said. “We started looking at the information and the data, and we started to think about a few things that maybe we could do to even get him to the next level.”
Burrows relied mostly on four pitches last year -- four-seamer, changeup, slider and curveball -- but the Astros are hoping he can throw his sinking two-seamer more and give him a weapon to right-handers, similar to what Hunter Brown did in 2024. Burrows threw the pitch just 5.6% of the time last season.
“We think it could be really even more effective to right-handers,” Brown said. “He's got the good changeup. We’ll have him throw his changeup more to righties too at times. So there's some things that we thought that we could do with him that could even get him to take another step forward.”