Astros’ season may be made or broken by how their rehabbing arms do this week

If the Houston Astros are going to turn their season around, it will need to start with their pitching staff getting healthy. Along those lines, Tuesday figures to be a day of importance, considering Tatsuya Imai, Josh Hader, and Nate Pearson are all expected to pitch for Triple-A Sugar Land as part of their respective minor-league assignments.

Of the three, Pearson isn't as consequential as the others. The former Toronto Blue Jays first-round pick signed with the Astros early in the offseason, and the initial impression was that he would be ticketed for Houston's rotation. That path became blocked with the arrivals of Imai and Mike Burrows, but Pearson certainly could still be a part of an improved Astros' pitching staff moving forward.

It's never been a matter of stuff or velocity for Pearson, as those are two reasons why teams have been willing to give him a chance to figure things out. The problem has been with his command. The concern is that he's struggling with walks during his rehab assignment. The 29-year-old has walked over 29% of the hitters he faced during his assignment. Walks have already been a problem for the Astros this season, so Pearson will need to harness his command if he's going to be a true option for the pitching staff.

Tatsuya Imai and Josh Hader could spark Astros' turnaround

More importantly, the Astros will need Imai and Hader to be the best versions of themselves if they are going to have any chance of climbing back into the conversation of contending this season.

It's a much more problematic reality for Imai, considering the Astros still aren't sure what the best version of the 27-year-old actually is. Imai was a top-of-the-rotation pitcher in Japan, but so far, Imai has lived up to the mixed evaluations on his MLB profile since joining the Astros. Briefly, he's flashed the ability to dominate hitters, but far more often, he's struggled finding outs.

Hader is straightforward situation. Assuming he's healthy and the All-Star closer he's been for most of his career, that is going to stabilize Houston's bullpen and take pressure off Bryan Abreu.

The Astros are getting healthy, and now, it's going to remove one of the excuses Dana Brown previously used to explain the team's poor start to the season. If the losing ways continue, the next step will inevitably include firings, possibly starting with Joe Espada.

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