Spencer Arrighetti’s heroics have helped, but he can’t save the Astros by himself

In hindsight, the Houston Astros' decision to demote Spencer Arrighetti — considering him the team's sixth-best starter — looks rather foolish. Through three starts, he's proving how wrong they were.

Arrighetti has thrown two gems sandwiched around a start in which he didn't have the best feel for his stuff, but still grinded through five relatively effective innings. The Astros are now 3-0 when handing him the ball.

Arrighetti's last performance might have been his best. Taking the bump against the streaking New York Yankees, he twirled seven innings of one-run ball. In that start, his curveball was particularly dominant, and the overall package seemed very sustainable.

Unfortunately, Arrighetti can't do it all alone, and his excellent performance has done little to actually stabilize the Astros' putrid rotation.

Lance McCullers Jr., unsurprisingly, has killed any early optimism with his recent struggles. Mike Burrows' ridiculous home run issues have derailed some other underlying traits that make it seem like he could actually be effective. Adding injury to insult, the devastation that claimed Hunter Brown, Cristian Javier, and Tatsuya Imai has forced the club to turn to some truly uninspiring options.

Spencer Arrighetti needs support to help save the Astros' season

Some believe that the Astros are basically beyond repair. The best move they can make to fix their rotation woes is flipping an asset like Isaac Paredes for a competent starter. There are two problems with that strategy. First, no one is making any trades of consequence until much closer to the July 31 deadline, by which point it will be far too late. Second, his underwhelming start has tanked his value.

There might be a way to salvage things, though. In order for it to work, it will require a quick turnaround. The Astros will need a turnaround from Burrows. The former Pittsburgh Pirates hurler hasn't posted elite underlying metrics, but he's been pretty much universally above average.

The 26-year-old owns a 73rd percentile chase rate, a 66th percentile whiff rate, a 54th percentile strikeout rate, and a 57th percentile walk rate. Combine that with some contact metrics that also rank above-average — a 67th percentile average exit velocity, a 62nd percentile hard-hit rate, and a 54th percentile barrel percentage — and you can see him turning his 3.83 xERA into a reality and settling in as a solid mid-rotation option. He just needs to get the homers under control.

Next is the injection of Kai-Wei Teng into the starting rotation. Teng is set to start for the first time on April 28 against the Baltimore Orioles. After posting a 2.16 ERA over 16⅔ innings out of the pen, if he can nail the transition, it would give Houston three reliable starters, including Arrighetti and Burrows.

Three out of five isn't the best ratio, but it's better than how things have gone so far in 2026. If the Astros know they have a good shot to win three out of every five starts because of the rotation's performance, it can keep them afloat. That might be enough to save the season.

Imai is set to start a rehab stint on April 28, setting him up for a return at some point in May. Brown is progressing through his throwing program with a late May or early June target date to return. Assuming no setbacks and Imai becoming the pitcher Houston was hoping for, the rotation could actually be in pretty good shape for the remainder of the season.

There's a lot of ifs and buts, starting with Burrows and Teng flanking Arrighetti in the realm of usefulness, but it's all within the realm of possibility. If that comes true, the Astros might be able to get the ship turned around.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow