Astros lose key rotation piece as worst fears are confirmed

Given that the Houston Astros did not do all that much to address some key rotation departures last offseason, they really couldn't afford to lose who they had in house. While Justin Verlander was way past his prime and Yusei Kikuchi can't seem to pitch well for anyone except the Astros, they did cover a lot of innings that were, at least partially, supposed to be covered by Hayden Wesneski. Unfortunately, those plans have just been blown out of the water now that we have more clarity on his elbow injury.

Wesneski had performed pretty well through his first six starts with Houston, but he recently started dealing with some soreness in his arm. Over time and after some very cagey comments about his status and a lack of clarity as to when fans could expect to see him back on the field, more and more folks began to fear that Wesneski could be headed for a long absence.

Those fears proved to be correct as after the Astros scrappy 4-3 win over the Rangers, it was revealed that Wesneski needs Tommy John surgery and his 2025 season is done.

Hayden Wesneski needs Tommy John surgery, highlighting Astros' lack of reliable rotation depth

This is obviously brutal news for the Astros as well as Wesneski. No matter what flavor of Tommy John he ends up having, his 2025 season is over and he is going to miss at least the first couple of months of 2026. Odds are that it will be even longer than that if it is indeed traditional Tommy John surgery with late in the second half of 2026 perhaps being the most likely return timeline.

In the technical sense, the Astros have enough starters to cover for Wesneski as they have had to do so since the beginning of May when Wesneski first went down. However, removing him completely from the equation means that Houston no longer has any margin for error. Spencer Arrighetti needs to come back soon. Lance McCullers Jr. really needs to find consistency and pitch deeper into games? Hunter Brown needs to be the ace that he has looked like so far.

Houston does have Wesneski under team control through 2028 as an arbitration eligible player. Normally, that would make him an easy keep on their roster. However, with the prospect of missing most of 2026 in addition to this season, there is no guarantee that Wesneski won't get non-tendered this coming offseason.

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