For the 2026 season, the Houston Astros pen has been the worst in the majors. Going into yesterday May 19, it carried a 5.82 ERA on the back of the second largest workload in the AL, being asked to cover 201 innings, second only to the White Sox’ 207 innings.
The good news is it’s been getting better.
| March/April | Mar/Apr AL Rank | May | May AL Rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SP Innings/Game (Rank 1 is most) | 4.5 | 14 | 4.96 | 10 |
| RP Innings/Game (Rank 1 is least) | 4.2 | 13 | 3.92 | 10 |
| RP ERA | 6.63 | 15 | 4.19 | 11 |
| RP xFIP | 5.12 | 15 | 4.75 | 13 |
| RP WHIP | 1.71 | 15 | 1.40 | 11 |
| RP BB/9 | 6.0 | 15 | 4.2 | 9 |
| RP K/9 | 8.9 | 4 | 7.3 | 13 |
| RP BAA | .270 | 14 | .245 | 9 |
The Astros bullpen still hasn’t been great. Bryan Abreu almost threw away last night’s game literally with a hit by pitch followed by a wild pitch. In May, the Astros pen ranked in the bottom half of most categories, but it’s been a lot better than their abysmal March/April, where they ranked dead least in most categories. This is part of regression to the mean.
It comes on the heels of the bullpen being asked to do just a little bit less work each game. Starting pitchers are getting just a few more outs each time out, and while the bullpen is still taxed, just that small burden alleviation has improved the pen’s results, even with the removal of its most effective piece Kai-Wei Teng from the pen into the rotation.
Josh Hader should come back soon, which can only help the bullpen more. And with the Astros’ decreased offensive output, on the decline even before the Correa and Altuve injuries, getting wins is going to require more high leverage bullpen innings.
Today, the Astros bullpen backs up Mike Burrows, the only pitcher from the Astros opening day starting rotation to not go on the IL. He will face Joe Ryan of the Twins in the series’ rubber match. 2025 All-Star Ryan sports a 3.20 ERA across 10 starts with 9.2 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9. He escaped an injury scare 3 starts ago when he was pulled after 2 batter with elbow soreness, and has since has two 6 inning starts allowing just 1 earned run in each.
This post will be updated with starting lineups as they are made available.
The game will be broadcast at 12:40 p.m. CT on SCHN with radio coverage on KBME 790 AM.
We hope you will join us and the rest of the Launch Angle community for the game! The turnout has been amazing on the TLA Discord Server for the game threads, even during this trying season. I’d tell you misery loves company, but even with the Astros losing, it’s still been pretty fun in the gamethreads.
Join us again for today’s game. Just join the Discord server using this link: https://launch-angle.com/discord .
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Feature photo from @astros on X, Source Link
Amazing how the bullpen can improve if they don’t have to cover 6 or 7 innings.