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Astros insider thinks this Houston pitching prospect could make surprise rotation bid

Eric Cole
Eric Cole

Climbing Tal's Hill

Hooks pitcher Miguel Ullola throws a pitch on Opening Night at Whataburger Field on Friday, April 5, 2024, in Corpus Christi, Texas. / Angela Piazza/Caller-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Houston Astros rotation is in a tough spot heading into the 2025 season. While the team has made a number of moves to address the lineup and to trim the payroll, the Astros' starting staff has been largely unaddressed after losing Justin Verlander and Yusei Kikuchi. There are also a number of injury concerns.

Luis Garcia, Lance McCullers Jr., and Cristian Javier should — at least in theory — return at some point during the season to help the cause, but there are no certainties. Even if those three do bounce back, that doesn't help Houston early on during the season where the rotation will be comprised of Framber Valdez, Hunter Brown, Ronel Blanco, and some real question marks after that.

Miguel Ullola is an intriguing dark horse option for Astros' 2025 rotation

Spencer Arrighetti pitched well enough last year to get another chance to stick, but that leaves one rotation spot pretty much unaccounted for. While guys like Colton Gordon and Ryan Gusto are probably the favorites heading into spring training, Astros insider Brian McTaggart believes that pitching prospect Miguel Ullola could make a push for the job in camp this year.

There is a lot to like about Ullola. His mid-90's fastball really plays up in the zone, and combined with his power slider, the right-hander misses a ton of bats as evidenced by his 171 strikeouts in 130 ⅓ innings last year. He's also fairly deep into his development after spending the vast majority of the 2024 season in Double-A along with a quick cameo in Triple-A.

If that was the whole story, Ullola would be among the prohibitive favorites for the Astros' rotation spot this spring. However, Ullola has real control issues to consider. His 77 walks last season is just not sustainable and a big reason why he only managed to post a 4.28 ERA despite all those whiffs. Those concerns were deep enough that the Astros didn't add Ullola to the 40-man roster in order to protect him from this year's Rule 5 draft.

With a strong spring where he shows he can pound the strike zone and still get roughly the same swing and miss, Ullola may be the highest upside option for the Astros rotation. However, that is a big ask and given that he's also not on the Astros' 40-man roster whereas pitchers like Gordon and Gusto are already, it may take a huge performance for him to break camp with Houston.

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Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.