Right-hander Cristian Javier has been scratched from his scheduled start against the Nationals this afternoon and will be placed on the injured list, Astros manager Joe Espada told reporters (including Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle). Right-hander Hunter Brown will take the ball against the Nationals today in Javier’s stead, while righty Spencer Arrighetti is being recalled to replace Javier on the club’s active roster.
Javier has been a rare bright spot in what has been a brutal start to the 2024 campaign for the 7-15 Astros. None of that can be pinned on the 27-year-old righty, however, as Javier has dominated to the tune of a 1.54 ERA and a 3.66 FIP in 23 1/3 innings of work across four starts so far this season. Unfortunately, he’ll now take a seat for at least 15 days, though Espada indicated (as relayed by Kawahara) that the goal of Javier’s placement on the injured list was simply to “give him time” to recover, suggesting a fairly short absence could be on the table.
Even if Javier’s trip to the injured list is a fairly short one, it’s still tough news for the Astros. The club just returned veteran ace Justin Verlander from the injured list last week, and now Javier will join Framber Valdez, Jose Urquidy, Luis Garcia, and Lance McCullers Jr. on the shelf for the time being. Of that group, only Valdez appears to be nearing a return. The lefty was placed on the injured list earlier this month due to elbow soreness but avoided a more serious injury, with Kawahara relaying that Espada even left the door open to Valdez returning to the club’s rotation sometime this week to pitch alongside Verlander and J.P. France against the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
If Valdez can return in the coming days, it should be a fairly seamless transition into the rotation with off-days on Monday and Friday allowing the club additional flexibility if necessary. The southpaw made just two starts prior to going on the injured list at the beginning of the month but looked good in both of them, pitching to a 2.19 ERA with a 3.55 FIP and 10 strikeouts in 12 1/3 innings of work.
Should Valdez need a bit longer before he’s ready to be activated, the Astros figure to turn to Arrighetti to make a start at some point. The 24-year-old rookie made his MLB debut earlier this season and struggled badly in two starts, allowing nine runs on 11 hits and five walks in just seven innings of work, though he did manage to notch eight strikeouts. If Arrighetti doesn’t end up being needed to make a start in the coming days, the Astros could instead look to use him to bolster a bullpen that has posted a worrisome 5.29 ERA to this point in the 2024 season, better than only the Rays among AL clubs.
Astros trending down…. Lots of holes and underperformance in their roster.
Having 5 of their 6 starting pitchers injured might have something to do with it don’t you think ?
That plus Hader and Presley getting blown up.
Crane and Bagwell’s negligence in the 2022-2023 offseason cannot be overstated
You are proving my point….
Hey Nick, nothing in your article says why Javier was placed on the IL. I believe it is a neck issue, no?
Yeah it was kind of strange that he didn’t include what the injury was or even if it wasn’t reported.
“Time to recover” from what? I was wondering how the Mets were the team getting in trouble for IL placements if this was going on
Guess he decided to kick the can down the road.
Baseball Gods are telling the Astros this in not their year. If this keeps up, it’s time to trade some veterans and replenish the farm system.
All offseason I wanted them to trade Bregman and Valdez to address their lack of pitching depth
So if you’ve decided you’re not competitive, do you then allow Jose Abreu to continue to embarrass himself so you get your money’s worth?
He’s posting negative WAR values, as well as negatives in other metrics. He’s so awful they would actually get more for their money if they STOPPED playing him.
He should have brought his own pillows to sleep with on the road. Hotel pillows can do damage to your neck.
I hear MyPillows are cheap these days.
Those aren’t pillows!
So if they fail to make the playoffs, does that mean Bregman is expendable? Hmmm
It is crazy they hire Espada and the Astros fall apart. Framber and Javier on IL. Verlander no surprise. Urquidy either. Pitching woes from Brown and Espada continuing. So our only good pitcher is Blanco. Verlander unsure at this point. This does not look like a team.
The rotation was going to be a question mark this year no matter what. Brown and Javier both struggled last year and though it looked like France had a good year, he ran into quite a bit of luck if you look at his underlying numbers. Blanco was a nice surprise, if they didn’t have him they’d be in even worse shape.
How is Verlander “unsure” ?
That was my question. He looked pretty locked in the other night. Excellent command. Highly efficient with his pitch counts. Seemed pleasantly surprised himself in the clubhouse interview. As for Javier, I really don’t get the whole ‘neck stiffness’ thing. How does this happen? Did it start to bother him coming off his last start? Or just in the last day or so? #SMH
While SP health is certainly the biggest factor behind the team’s early struggles, it doesn’t really have any connection to who sits in the management seat. I realize fans are wanting someone/anyone to direct frustration toward, but I would suggest the new mlb rules.
It does in this instance. Click was lowballed due to a supposed dispute between Baker/Click, which makes sense because Dusty was a terrible manager. Everything going wrong right now can be attributed to that breakdown.
It was much more than that.
Click also did not see eye to eye w/ Jim Crane and was trying to push his own ideas rather than “not rock the boat” as directed.
It’s understandable for a GM to want to manage his own way, but not to go against the owners wishes and instructions.
The owner wanted to keep as much of the system and people as possible. Click wanted to bring in his own people and change things like he believed would continue the winning.
Then Click shot his mouth off about not liking his extension offer at the GM meetings so was fired before he could even accept the new offer.
I’m aware – which is why I blame Crane/Brown for how bad this season has been. Instead of Crane/Dusty recognizing that Click had valuable insight, Crane decided that he would be unprofessional. I wish Crane would sell the team because it is evident that he’s in “tilt” since he knows he messed up
15 days to recover from what?? How can you write an article about an injury and never report what the injury is?? Or at the very least say that it hasn’t been released. Very strange.