Here’s why Astros won’t budge and will give Lance McCullers Jr. every chance to stick

Houston Astros fans have been eager to see Lance McCullers Jr. take the mound again, and they'll get their chance this Sunday. McCullers is scheduled to return to the Astros' rotation for the team's upcoming series against the Chicago White Sox.

When he's healthy and pitching up to his potential, McCullers is an All-Star caliber pitcher who would unquestionably make Astros a better team. The problem is, McCullers has been completely unable to stay off the IL and hasn't pitched in the majors since 2022.

With McCullers' rehab finally going according to plan, it's likely we will see him make his first big league start in nearly three years within the next week — assuming his bullpen sessions go well. Given how long McCullers has been out of action and the extent of the arm injuries that he's working back from, the Astros will be careful to manage his workload at first

For fans, they may be willing to move on very quickly if McCullers is a shadow of his former self. However, don't expect the Astros to be so hasty. If you're looking for reasons why Houston will take their time, the Astros have almost 18 million.

Lance McCullers Jr. contract is going to buy him a lot of leeway with Astros

Astros fans already know that McCullers' contract has been among the worst in baseball the last few years. It isn't McCullers' fault per se, but if you are paying a pitcher $17.7 million a year and he isn't playing at, all regardless of the reason, that's not ideal.

However, that very contract is a reason why Houston is going to give McCullers every chance to get right. The Astros have already had to eat a pretty big chunk, and have since invested heavily in getting McCullers healthy once again. Houston is not going decide to put him out to pasture after a couple starts unless he's physically incapable of getting big league hitters out.

We have seen the Astros do this before. While the team eventually moved on from Rafael Montero, he made numerous bad appearances while Houston was trying to get any semblance of value from what was arguably the worst contract they had on the books. The same goes for Jose Abreu, a player who the team had to basically drag around in hopes that he would start earning his keep. The Astros eventually parted ways.

In an ideal world, McCullers comes back and immediately pitches well, giving the Astros some fantastic pitching depth going forward. However, expect the team to give him a long leash to figure things out, even if he struggles upon returning from the injured list.

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