Astros may give this top pitching prospect a chance after Lance McCullers Jr.'s injury

The hits just keep on coming for the Houston Astros. While Lance McCullers Jr. hadn’t been good to start the 2026 season (or end the 2025 one), he had taken the ball every fifth day. That may be in jeopardy after he left his last start with a broken fingernail that made pitching more difficult than it already is.  He had pitched decently through two innings against the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers, but the fingernail broke in the third, and he just couldn’t finish the job. 

While McCullers isn’t officially out for his next start, scheduled on Tuesday against Seattle, if the nail hasn’t healed by then, it would be difficult to give him the ball. His work in the third before being replaced looked like this:

Walk
Double
Walk (with two wild pitches during the PA)
Flyout
Walk
Strikeout
Home Run

McCullers Jr. wanted to stay in the game, which is great, but he wasn’t doing the Astros any favors. In a rotation that is already short-handed, where do they turn? The options at Sugar Land are short with Jason Alexander a possibility if McCullers Jr. requires an IL stint. But another choice could be one of their top prospects, Miguel Ullola, ranked 11th in the organization by MLB Pipeline and Baseball America. He has flashed a lot of good and a fair amount of bad in his second stint in AAA. 

If Lance McCullers Jr. misses time or struggles to rebound, the Astros may have to call up Miguel Ullola

Ullola has a great fastball even though the velocity isn’t elite. It averages just 93.6 MPH, but he gets a ton of whiffs and opponents simply can’t square it up. The 9.4 percent hard-hit rate on the pitch is absurdly low. Opponents are hitting just .188 on the four-seamer in AAA. His cutter is hit harder, but opponents are having trouble with that, as well as his curve. 

He gets a ton of strikeouts - Ullola has 35 in 28.1 innings after striking out 131 in 113.2 innings last year - and limits hits well because of all that weak contact. He gavce up just 75 hits last year and has allowed just 23 this year. While Ullola allowed three home runs to start the year, that’s still a solid rate, particularly in the Pacific Coast League. 

Unfortunately, Ullola struggles to throw strikes. It’s a flaw that pitchers can sometimes succeed with in the minors, but generally struggle with once they get to the big leagues, at least starters. He walked 78 batters in 2025 and has already walked 20 this season. He got the job done last year, generally, with a 3.88 ERA, but those numbers have come back to earth this season in Sugar Land. The lack of control is interesting because you typically don’t see it in pitchers who lack the elite velocity and have clean deliveries, but Ullola is the unfortunate exception to that rule.

They’re few and far between options for Houston as they search for another arm. Ethan Pecko is another top prospect who has just gotten to AAA and has been solid in a couple of starts, but they’re just that. They do have Brandon Bielak back in the organization and could go back down the Colton Gordon road if they wanted to try that or maybe could get Josh Hendrickson his first taste of the big leagues. If those options feel underwhelming, well, it’s because they are.

The reality is that even if McCullers Jr. can make his next start, do the Astros even want him to? He’s up to a 7.41 ERA this year, though the peripherals are a little better than that. He’s not exactly getting the job done in a rotation where that’s, unfortunately, much more the norm than the exception. If Ullola can give them a little prospect boost to help try to launch them back into the race in a mediocre division, that may be the best possible play at this point.

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