Houston Astros: Three strategies to fill the 500 inning void in the rotation
By T.A. Mock
With the announcement of Lance McCullers’ Tommy John surgery, the Houston Astros now have 500 innings to fill in their starting rotation. Here are three strategies on how to do that.
The Houston Astros starting rotation in 2018 was absolutely ridiculous. They were historically good, posting elite strikeout numbers across the board and limiting opposing lineups two to three times through it. Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, and Dallas Keuchel were three of only eleven pitchers to breach the 200 inning mark.
Verlander was phenomenal in his first full year as an Astro, posting a 2.52 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, and 290 strikeouts in 214 innings pitched. That is outstanding for the 35 year old and he has been revealed as a finalist for the AL Cy Young award and he has a legitimate chance to win it.
Cole was outstanding in his first year as an Astro after being acquired from the Pirates over the offseason. He bounced back in a big way after a couple down years. He had a 2.88 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, and 276 strikeouts across 200.1 innings.
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Keuchel wasn’t lights out but he was very solid, especially the last three months of the season. In actuality, he really only had a bad start or two a month that really inflated his numbers in a bad way. But, he was very solid and enough so that the Houston Astros extended him a qualifying offer last week.
Lance McCullers was having a relatively solid season as well before he was injured swinging the bat later on in the season. His stuff was as wicked as ever and he consistently made batters look silly at the plate. Charlie Morton was also great this season for the second year in a row and provided quality starts all year long.
As I said, this rotation was great and truly carried this team this year. Unfortunately, McCullers had Tommy John surgery earlier this week and will miss the 2019 season. Morton is an unrestricted free agent and could still return or sign elsewhere. Keuchel, though he has a qualifying offer, is also a strong candidate to be on another team this year.
Between those three guys, the Houston Astros have exactly 500 innings to replace in their starting rotation. That is a lot of mileage to replace in one offseason. However, there are a few strategies the team could pursue to replace this production. Let’s take a look.