Bennett Sousa injury's forces Astros to deal with painful truth ahead of Opening Day

Injuries wrecked the Houston Astros in 2025, and they're already doing a pretty good job of derailing the team's hopes at the beginning of the 2026 season. Houston was already scheduled to be without closer Josh Hader, and now fellow reliever Bennett Sousa will open the year on the injured list.

Sousa suffered an oblique strain, and according to Astros manager Joe Espada, the southpaw will "be down for a while." That doesn't paint an optimistic picture, and Sousa's absence will only magnify Houston's biggest weakness heading into the season — the bullpen.

Sousa made 44 relief appearances last season for the Astros and posted a 2.84 ERA while striking out nearly 30% of the opposing batters he faced. With Sousa now headed to the IL, the duo of Bryan King and Steven Okert represents Espada's only left-handed relief options, and their workload just increased.

Hader's injury already forced Bryan Abreu to take over closing duties when the 2026 season gets underway. With the bullpen ranks getting thinner, most fans and pundits assume that AJ Blubaugh, Kai-Wei Teng, and one of Roddery Muñoz or Christian Roa will grab the final few spots in the Astros Opening Day roster.

Bennett Sousa's injury will put further stress on the Astros bullpen

Houston's relief corps was an underrated strength of the team in 2025. The Astros bullpen was tops in MLB with 10.05 K/9 and eighth in ERA (3.70). But the long ball haunted Houston relievers last season. Obviously, part of the bullpen's 1.26 HR/9 can be attributed to playing half their games at Daikin Park, but the 81 home runs allowed were the seventh-most in MLB last season, and is a stat that can't be ignored.

Abreu, Okert, and King did the heavy lifting for Houston last season, but asking those three hurlers to combine for 236 appearances again in 2026 is an otherworldly request.

Kaleb Ort was fourth on the team in 2025 with 49 appearances, but was let go during the offseason. Hader and Sousa combined for 92 relief outings and over 100 innings. Those are high-leverage situations too, and not easily replicated by the likes of Blubaugh, Teng, Roa, and Muñoz.

Fans were continually clamoring for the Astros to add to the rotation and the lineup this offseason — and rightfully so — but neglecting to fortify the bullpen could torpedo Houston's season rather quickly. The hope is that both Sousa and Hader are back in short order, but that doesn't seem to be realistic at the moment.