Real hero of Astros’ combined no-hitter should have fans wondering why team waited so long

By now, the vast majority of Houston Astros fans are aware that the team threw a combined no-hitter behind a strong start from *checks notes* Tatsuya Imai. There was certainly some good fortune involved for Imai, given how the game started and his lack of strikeouts, but it was a great effort from both the pitching staff and the defense that deserves all the praise in the world. However, the real hero of the evening may have been Alimber Santa.

In short, Santa came up huge for the Astros. The 23-year-old righty reliever had just been called up to the big leagues and was making his big league debut. You will struggle to find many scenarios to make one's MLB debut more pressure-packed than in closing out the final two innings of a no-hitter. However, that is exactly what Santa did, and looked really good doing it.

In fact, Santa looked so good that it makes one wonder what took the Astros so long to get his major league opportunity.

Alimber Santa probably should have gotten the call to the majors from the Astros a while ago

It isn't like Santa was this unknown commodity until very recently. He has been on the Astros' prospect lists for a long time and looked good for most of the 2025 season. It was defensible for Houston not to call him up last season as he got bumped to Triple-A and struggled, and the big league bullpen was appreciably better back then.

However, waiting as long as they did THIS season is less forgivable. Santa has been pitching well all year long in the minor leagues, and the Astros' bullpen has been in a bad spot going back to spring. Josh Hader has been hurt, Bryan Abreu was terrible in April, and the Astros have the 29th-ranked bullpen by fWAR in baseball so far. It is honestly disheartening that Santa wasn't in the mix before now, and it probably cost Houston some games.

This isn't a problem with the Astros' process, per se. If their judgment was that Santa wasn't ready enough to warrant putting him on the 40-man roster, there is at least logic to that. However, that they came to that conclusion while watching a steady stream of crappy relievers fail and Santa is at Triple-A shoving does bring the front office's judgment into question. It is great that Santa is here now, and the no-hitter was a fun moment, but it also highlights yet another questionable decision by the team itself.

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