The Houston Astros have placed right-handed starting pitcher Hunter Brown on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 2, with a right shoulder strain, the team announced Sunday. There’s no word just yet as to the severity of the injury, but anything about the shoulder is always at least slightly worrisome with pitchers.
Brown is, of course, quite important, too. The Astros entered Sunday with a 6-3 record, good for first place in the AL West here in the very early going. Brown is their ace and Opening Day starter who finished third in AL Cy Young voting last season after going 12-9 with a 2.43 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and 206 strikeouts in 185 ⅓ innings.
The 27-year-old pitcher first felt something while throwing a bullpen on Friday, manager Joe Espada told reporters Sunday (via MLB.com).
So far this season in two outings, Brown is 1-0 with a 0.84 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 10 ⅔ innings. For whatever it’s worth, his velocity was down a bit last start, but it was nothing that would’ve raised any obvious red flags. It was fractional.
This marks the first time Brown has been on the IL in his major-league career.
Brown entered Sunday fourth on the odds board for the American League Cy Young, via Caesars.
As for the Astros, the remainder of their rotation at present is Mike Burrows, Cristian Javier, Tatsuya Imai and Lance McCullers Jr. Spencer Arrighetti and Jason Alexander are in Triple-A and are reasonable options to replace Brown. Brown was lined up to start Monday, however, and Arrighetti just pitched on Friday. Alexander, meanwhile, went on Wednesday and would be on regular rest Monday — meaning Alexander fits perfectly for now and if the Astros would prefer Arrighetti they could reconfigure things later. All of that is likely dependent on how just how long Brown is expected to be out.
Right-hander Christian Roa was recalled from Triple-A to take Brown’s roster spot.