In the standings, at this stage of the season, the Houston Astros’ 2025 season looks virtually identical to the last half decade. As of Tuesday afternoon, they were 7-9, the same record they’ve had, through 16 games, in every season since 2020, save last season when they were 5-11. Same old, same old, at least on paper.
However, this 2025 version of the Astros is just missing something. Maybe it’s the charisma that walked out the door every offseason since 2020, especially franchise icon Alex Bregman this past February, combined with the bland nature of the newcomers this offseason, but this team seems boring. There’s enough talent to achieve respectability, but when that talent isn’t playing up to snuff, this team has no juice.
So perhaps it’s that, as much as the actual need for another pitching arm, that makes the return of Lance McCullers so compelling and necessary. Not only is McCullers, who is reportedly just days away from returning from yet another arm injury, a familiar face, but he’s a familiar face who brings energy.
The last time we saw McCullers in an actual MLB game was in Game 3 of the 2022 World Series, in which he gave up five home runs, before the Phillies chased him off early in that game. During the offseason leading into 2023, McCullers suffered an arm injury, which eventually necessitated surgery. An aborted return in 2024 only compounded the frustration.
Now, McCullers is back to pitching in minor league games, and he seems ready to roll. This past Saturday, he threw four shutout innings for Sugar Land, allowing one hit and striking out five. He is set for what could be his final rehab start this Saturday, pitching for Corpus Christi against Midland. Astros GM Dana Brown said over the weekend that he would be “very encouraged” if McCullers returned to the Astros for the Royals series, April 25 through April 27.
It’s become hard for Astros fans to process the McCullers experience. On the one hand, there is no more died in the wool “H-Town” athlete than McCullers, who famously screamed “bury me in the H” from the floats in the championship parade back in 2022. On the other hand, McCullers has never pitched a full (non-COVID) season in his big league career. The one full year he made it through the regular season, he was forced out of the playoffs with an arm injury.
Here are the things you need to remember, if you’re skeptical about a McCullers return making an impact, or even lasting beyond a few months:
When healthy, McCullers has been good
If you looked at someone with McCullers’ career stats, and ignored how many seasons it took to accrue them, you’d be quite impressed. A career record of 49-32, with a 3.48 ERA and 10 strikeouts per nine innings is nothing to sneeze at. However, McCullers arrived in the big leagues in 2015. This is the 11th season that he’s been a Houston Astro. He’s been a starting pitcher that entire time and has just 49 wins, because he’s missed three full seasons and parts of nearly every other season. My point is that, when McCullers is healthy, he is generally very good, and the Astros could use some “very good” right now.
McCullers is animated and interesting
As mentioned above, this is, point blank, a very boring baseball team right now. When you look at the names that have left since 2020 — George Springer, Carlos Correa, Yuli Gurriel, Alex Bregman — those are not only some of the best players in franchise history, but they are heart-and-soul, big personality guys. They’ve been functionally swapped out, over time, at their positions, for Jake Meyers, Jeremy Pena, Christian Walker, and Isaac Paredes, respectively. That’s damn near a lobotomy on this team’s personality. McCullers, at the very least, gives the team some personality again.
A six man rotation may be what this team needs
Last season, the biggest story in the first two months was the spate of injuries to the pitching staff, specifically the starting rotation. A staff that had already lost Luis Garcia and Jose Urquidy to Tommy John surgery the year before, then lost Cristian Javier to the same thing during last season. Veteran Justin Verlander dealt with a variety of maladies that limited him to 17 starts in 2024. Even the ultra-durable Framer Valdez missed a few starts with injury. I bring this up because we are only two weeks into the season, and the Astros have already lost Spencer Arrighetti to a fluke broken thumb. They’re forced into using youngster Ryan Gusto. McCullers’ return allows them to alleviate some of the burden on the current rotation, and move to a six man rotation, as the days off in-season begin to dwindle.
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