Lance McCullers Jr. having successful return vital to Astros’ novel rotation plans

Eric Cole

Texas Rangers v Houston Astros / Tim Warner/GettyImages

Most Houston Astros fans have heard by now that Lance McCullers Jr. is scheduled to make his first start of 2025 on Sunday. It'll his first appearance in the big leagues since 2022. It's been a long road back for McCullers and fans are excited to see what he's capable of after all this time. McCullers' showing on Sunday could greatly affect Houston's rotation plans for the month of May.

Obviously the Astros could use a healthy and effective McCullers back in their rotation. Spencer Arrighetti is dealing with a broken thumb and no one knows when Luis Garcia will return to the Astros roster. Ryan Gusto has been great, but can he continue to be as effective as the season wears on? That's a big ask.

McCullers' performance against the Chicago White Sox on Sunday is actually crucial to their long-term plans. Given the Astros' schedule, there's talk that they may want to employ a six-man rotation this month.

Lance McCullers Jr.'s success is the key to potential six-man rotation solution for Astros

Houston is crossing their fingers in hopes that McCullers hits the ground running. From May 9-25, Houston will play 17 consecutive games. Having confidence in McCullers every time he goes out to the mound could allow Houston to go with a six-man rotation in order to give their starting pitchers a bit more rest during the off-day drought.

McCullers isn't the only option to make that happen, but he's by far the easiest. The Astros could bring back top pitching prospect AJ Blubaugh later in the month despite his rough MLB debut. But that is not a sure thing, and it seems like Houston wants him to get his confidence back while pitching in the minors before they give him another shot in the big leagues.

Thankfully, Astros fans won't have to wait long for the answer to these questions. If McCullers throws well on Sunday against the White Sox, the Astros will enter a rough stretch of their schedule with the pitching staff as an area of strength. If not, that stretch of games without any rest is really going to test Houston's fortitude.

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Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.