The Houston Astros’s marketing campaign for this season might be “Built for This.” But with the MLB trade deadline approaching, a better mantra might be “All Hands on Deck.”
The Astros have been hit hard by the injury bug in recent weeks and it leads to an intriguing strategy at the trade deadline. Houston could be getting reinforcements such as Yordan Alvarez and Jeremy Peña back at some point before the postseason but their starting rotation has been up in the air.
While the rotation could use some work with Cristian Javier and Luis Garcia on the injured list, there’s another hurler that has put his spot in jeopardy and may have made himself expendable as the trade deadline approaches.
Lance McCullers Has Played His Way onto the Astros’ Trading Block
Lance McCullers has been one of the most successful homegrown pitchers in Astros history and he parlayed his performance into a five-year, $85 million extension in March 2021. While McCullers went 13-5 with a 3.16 ERA in 2021, a flexor tendon strain in his right arm caused him to miss a large chunk of the 2022 season before he went 4-2 with a 2.27 ERA down the stretch on the way to a World Series championship.
Unfortunately, this was a sign of things to come. McCullers didn’t pitch in 2023 or 2024 after undergoing surgery to repair the flexor tendon and remove bone spurs. His first extended action since 2022 hasn’t gone well either as McCullers has gone 2-3 with a 5.82 ERA and is the only regular starting pitcher for Houston that has a negative wins above replacement (-0.4) this season.
The Astros are unlikely to pull the plug on McCullers considering they need pitching depth to make their way through the regular season and into the playoffs. But his future becomes a talking point over the final year of his contract.
McCullers will make $17 million next season and could be brought back as filler for the back end of the rotation. But it’s also a large chunk of change for a player that hasn’t been healthy for the past few seasons. Could a team desperate for pitching help make a deal that sees the Astros eat some of that salary to get the contract off the books? Or could a team just make a trade period in hopes of getting McCullers back to his peak form?
These are things to consider not only ahead of this month’s trade deadline but once the season ends and it’s made McCullers’s future complicated as his big deal nears the finish line.