Astros daring offseason gamble is already paying off this spring

The Houston Astros sure bet big on Mike Burrows this offseason. Prior to signing Tatsuya Imai, it seemed as if Burrows was going to be the one and only big splash in the starting rotation. And boy was that splash costly.

In the three-way deal, Houston had to give up two of their top prospects in Jacob Melton and Anderson Brito. Brito was the top-ranked arm in the system, while the Rays brass couldn't stop raving about Melton's five-tool potential. For a farm system that was already light on high-end talent, losing these two promising youngsters stung. To lose them for a pitcher with a lengthy injury history who has thrown a total of just 99 1/3 innings in the majors seemed like a huge risk.

This isn't to say that Burrows doesn't have talent and potential. The 26-year-old built himself up from a 2018 11th-round pick to a top prospect, and that was no accident. Still, rising through the minors is different than having success at the big league level, and with so many questions in the rotation, adding another gamble seemed foolish.

Spring training stats might not mean much, but the early returns on the former Pittsburgh Pirates hurler's showing have been fantastic, and might prove that the Astros knew what they were doing after all.

Mike Burrows ' impressive performance in spring training hints that the Astros might be vindicated in their gamble

Through two spring appearances, Burrows now has five scoreless innings on his resume. He's struck out a whopping 31.6% of batters so far while surrendering a razor-thin .118 batting average against. One point of emphasis for Houston with Burrows is unlocking his sinker. The club believes that in doing so, they could set him on a trajectory similar to that of Hunter Brown, who perfected the offering last season en route to a third-place finish in the AL Cy Young race.

Burrows' sinker was an afterthought last season, accounting for just 6% of his pitches, but in his last outing against the Pittsburgh Pirates, he leaned on it more often than his four-seamer at a rate of 22% versus 20% for the conventional heater. That sinker proved to be dynamic, inducing a 40% whiff rate.

With Joe Espada enamored with the right-hander's mentality, the top prospect pedigree, the early success of the tweaks to his repertoire, and the impressive performance so far, this is setting up to be a move that the team can hang their hat on and could prove pivotal to the Astros' postseason hopes.

They'll need more than just Burrows meeting or exceeding expectations, but his proving them right will go a long way towards stabilizing a starting rotation that desperately needs certainty and production behind Brown.