Joe Espada just revealed huge Astros rotation concern that is a true balancing act

For most of the offseason and spring training, we've been under the impression that the Houston Astros would use a six-man rotation to open the season. There was logic on several fronts to support the decision.

For one, it would keep NPB import Tatsuya Imai on the same schedule he has been used to. Another important aspect was that the sheer number of seemingly indistinguishable arms competing for rotation spots makes carrying an extra starter a way to extend the audition process and have the cream rise to the top by the time it truly matters.

There's a real cost to carrying the extra starter, however. Adding an arm to the rotation means one less arm can hang in the bullpen. Over time, that can lead to excess strain on the relief corps and eventually burnout, which can cause poor performance and injuries.

Joe Espada pulled back the curtain during an in-game interview against the Orioles and made it clear that the early-season schedule, including 26 games in 28 days, has Houston uncertain of whether to carry five or six starters due to a variety of conflicting priorities.

Joe Espada makes it clear that the Astros' rotation decisions will be determined by weighing competing priorities

When asked by the broadcast crew to map out whether the club was going to go with a five-man or six-man rotation, Espada was undecided.

"We have not made that decision yet, but we're trying to keep in mind the 26 games in 28 days in April," Espada said. "Keeping in mind, also, our bullpen. When you have a six-man rotation, you're carrying one less reliever. So, I want to make sure that we have the right guys on the staff to start the season."

"We have so many good arms," he continued. "We want to be smart who we bring and how we deploy them. Also, that first two weeks of the season, our starters are not really built up to go that 100-110 pitches, so we want to keep that in mind, also."

Espada went on to say it was really fun to see all of the options compete and how they've all made the decision difficult, and are hunkering down with Opening Day two weeks away.

There's some real tension here between carrying the 13 best pitchers and carrying the 13 guys best suited to execute the roles that are asked of them. For example, you might like your sixth starter better than your seventh reliever, but your sixth starter can't function the same as your seventh reliever can if you end up only running a five-man rotation.

If we're reading between the lines, it seems that the schedule issue will force their hand to go with a traditional staff. They'd probably prefer the sixth starter, but they recognize that it is playing with fire, especially with the starters' short outings over the first couple of weeks further taxing the bullpen.

There's a downside to that, though. It means either taking a starter like Ryan Weiss or AJ Blubaugh and turning them into a reliever, making it more difficult to stretch them out and go to a six-man rotation later on once the schedule opens up. The way to avoid that would be sending that sixth-starter type to Sugar Land to stay stretched out, but that would mean potentially carrying an inferior talent to start simply because that player is a reliever.

Either way, it won't be an easy call. But it will be an important one.