Astros' roster move just made offseason trade with Pirates, Rays look awful

Of all the moves that the Houston Astros made last offseason, few have been as disappointing as the trade for Mike Burrows. After assembling a Rube Goldberg Machine of a three-team deal to land Burrows, Houston thought that they were adding the rotation arm that they sorely needed. Unfortunately, Burrows has been anything but that while wearing an Astros uniform.

After a series of uneven (at best) starts in the first half of 2026, Burrows fully collapsed against the Nationals on Monday while giving up 10 runs (seven earned) over 4.1 innings of work. It had become clear that Burrows wasn't missing enough bats to succeed in the big leagues and when he got hit, he got hit hard.

With that realization, Houston just decided to act decisively. On Tuesday, it was reported that the Astros were surprisingly optioning Burrows to the minors. In a corresponding move, Houston is calling up Alimber Santa.

Astros make surprisingly bold move to option Mike Burrows to the minors

The real story here is Burrows, who Houston placed a massive bet on, alongside Tatsuya Imai, to stabilize their rotation in the wake of Framber Valdez's departure in free agency. The causes of Burrows' struggles have been scrutinized for months now, including changes in his pitch usage as well as to his arm slot being popular explanations.

Whatever the cause, the end result has been a 5.99 ERA that has felt even worse and a growing problem with the home run ball. Given that Burrows isn't even arbitration-eligible yet, the Astros are heavily incentivized to try and get Burrows right, especially considering what they gave up to acquire him. Hopefully, a trip to the minor leagues and away from the bright lights will allow him to fix whatever issues he has.

However, that does little to help the Astros right now. The team has stabilized after a very rocky start to the season and they did get Hunter Brown back from injury to help the rotation out. That said, they do not have the starting pitching depth to cover adequately for the loss of Burrows, especially with Imai being such a wild card at the moment. Dana Brown is going to have his hands full saving the Astros if Burrows can get fixed quickly, and it could be the last straw when it comes to Brown's tenure as GM.

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