Astros suddenly have a real Opening Day roster dilemma after WBC exhibition

The Houston Astros crowded field for the final rotation spots still has more questions than answers. We've seen Nate Pearson get shut down due to an elbow injury that has put his status for Opening Day in doubt. We've seen afterthoughts like Jason Alexander get eliminated from the competition, but overall, we still don't have much clarity.

Due to the club's six-man rotation plans, more spots are up for grabs than what we'd normally see, and with that, we have a field that's high on intrigue and low on certainty. Perhaps the poster child for this is KBO breakout star Ryan Weiss.

Weiss came over with as much hype as a guy who signed for just $2.6 million could. He had flamed out in his first attempt to reach the big leagues, but after a 2.87 ERA campaign in Korea turned some heads, he found a second chance with Houston.

The most impressive part of Daejon Jesus's 2025 performance came at the very end, when he moved to the bullpen for the KBO playoffs. Now, fresh off an outing against Team Venezuela in a World Baseball Classic tune-up, the questions regarding whether the rotation or the bullpen is the best home for him are being renewed.

Ryan Weiss' showing against Team Venezuela is opening up the question of what role he should fill for the Astros

Much of the thinking regarding Weiss profiling better in the bullpen than in the rotation has to do with his arsenal. While he has four pitches — a fastball, slider, changeup, and curveball — the high 90s heater and biting slider are impressive, but the other two offerings are only good enough to provide a different look every once in a while.

Beyond that, Weiss can struggle with command at times, which is something that can be less of a concern when coming out of the pen. Finally, some scouts have noted that after the first couple of innings, his stuff can experience something of a downtick, and he might not be as effective the second and third time through the order. The reliever writing is on the wall there, but it's not that simple. Starters are more valuable, and Houston has a greater need in the rotation.

So far, Weiss has made two spring appearances and tossed a total of 4 1/3 scoreless innings. Both times, he was the trail man following the starter. It's the second appearance, the one against Venezuela, that really has us wondering.

In that outing, he went up against a star-studded lineup that included Ronald Acuña Jr., Jackson Chourio, Maikel Garcia, and Eugenio Suarez, among others. And in addition to not allowing a run, he struck out three batters and generated a game-high seven whiffs (47% whiff rate) over his two frames.

The downside to that was the command. Weiss issued two walks (in addition to giving up two hits) and landed his pitches in the zone just 44% of the time. It worked for him, partly because he got the Venezuelan hitters to chase 32% of the time, but over the course of a full start, you can see how this style could balloon his pitch counts fast. That could create a lot of short outings, which will tax an already short bullpen more.

Weiss definitely looks like he's got some nasty stuff, and while the idea of him holding it over a starting pitcher's workload is enticing, the reality is that might not be possible for him. He might be better off in the bullpen, but for that to work, the Astros will need someone else to step up and prove that they are rotation-ready. Everything about this seems unnecessarily complicated, yet here we are.