The Astros finished the month of April with a lowly 12-20 record. They were tied for last in the AL West, tied for the worst record in the American League, and only above the 10-21 NY Mets in all of baseball.
How do they look vs. the other teams in the American League?
- Offense
- .265 BA (1st) / .346 OBP (1st) / .784 OPS (1st) / 168 runs (1st) / 40 HRs (3rd) / 13 SBs (13th)
- Starting Pitching
- 5.56 ERA (15th) / 14 IP (13th) / 1.570 WHIP (15th) / 160 Ks (7th) / 85 walks (15th worst) / 18 HR (9th most)
- Relief Pitching
- 6.63 ERA (15th) / 6 saves (12th) / 134.1 IP (2nd) / 1.71 WHIP (15th) / 28 HRs (1st – most) / 133 Ks (3rd) / 90 walks (1st – most)
There really is no surprise here as the Astros have joined up one of the best offenses in all of baseball with both a starting rotation and a bullpen staff that is the worst in baseball.
It might be the best argument around that pitching is more critical than hitting as adding great hitting to rotten pitching resulted in a rotten result.
Here is a quick stat chart of the Astros’ pitchers in the month of March/April.
| Name | Gm | W | L | Svs | IP | ERA | WHIP | Ks/9 IP | BAA | OBPA | OPSA | BAbip | IR/ IS |
| Hunter Brown | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 10.2 | 0.87 | 1.031 | 14.3 | .135 | .256 | .418 | .250 | N/A |
| Mike Burrows | 6 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 31.2 | 6.25 | 1.674 | 9.4 | .315 | .378 | .901 | .378 | N/A |
| Lance McCullers Jr. | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 31.1 | 6.32 | 1.404 | 9.5 | .237 | .346 | .776 | .300 | N/A |
| Peter Lambert | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 15.1 | 3.52 | 1.239 | 11.2 | .211 | .318 | .581 | .316 | N/A |
| Cristian Javier | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 9.1 | 12.54 | 2.357 | 3.9 | .351 | .500 | 1.041 | .355 | N/A |
| Tatsuya Imai | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 8.2 | 7.27 | 2.077 | 13.55 | .219 | .432 | .682 | .368 | N/A |
| Ryan Weiss | 8 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 21.2 | 6.65 | 1.985 | 10.4 | .300 | .406 | .939 | .356 | N/A |
| Spencer Arrighetti | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 2.00 | 1.111 | 10.5 | .169 | .300 | .585 | .233 | N/A |
| Kai-Wei Teng | 12 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 19.2 | 2.75 | 1.017 | 8.2 | .197 | .260 | .612 | .220 | 9/2 |
| Enyel De Los Santos | 11 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 11.1 | 5.56 | 1.500 | 7.9 | .277 | .333 | .447 | .780 | 4/0 |
| Colton Gordon | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.1 | 11.57 | 2.571 | 10.6 | .467 | .500 | 1.433 | .517 | 3/1 |
| Cody Bolton | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 9.1 | 5.79 | 1.714 | 10.6 | .242 | .395 | .729 | .318 | 0/0 |
| Christian Roa | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8.2 | 5.19 | 1.962 | 6.2 | .313 | .465 | .965 | .346 | 5/2 |
| AJ Blubaugh | 13 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 18.1 | 5.89 | 1.473 | 7.4 | .239 | .333 | .781 | .250 | 10/1 |
| J.P. France | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.2 | 8.10 | 1.650 | 5.4 | .240 | .387 | .787 | .250 | 1/0 |
| Bryan Abreu | 11 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 9.1 | 12.54 | 2.786 | 15.4 | .289 | .491 | 1.148 | .389 | 3/0 |
| Jayden Murray | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 6.00 | 2.000 | 7.5 | .318 | .429 | .792 | .389 | 3/1 |
| Bryan King | 10 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 11.2 | 3.86 | 1.371 | 10 | .244 | .358 | .692 | .344 | 7/4 |
| Steven Okert | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 4.50 | 1.214 | 5.8 | .224 | .304 | .712 | .231 | 13/6 |
| Bennett Sousa | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.1 | 13.50 | 3.750 | 20.3 | .250 | .625 | .875 | 1.000 | 1/0 |
| Roddery Munoz | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 15.75 | 3.250 | 13.5 | .368 | .520 | 1.467 | .400 | 3/1 |
| Jason Alexander | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 22.50 | 2.500 | 4.5 | .250 | .455 | 1.080 | .167 | 0/0 |
Note – I added the IR (Inherited runners) / IS (Inherited runners who scored) stat for the relievers.
- Starting Pitcher of the Month – Spencer Arrighetti – Sure he only started 3 games, but he won all three and was the most dependable starter where that bar was set very low.
- Runner-up – (Tie) Hunter Brown – Do I pick Brown, who was great in his only two starts or Peter Lambert who was solid in three starts? I hated to do it, but I picked Brown. I would love him to win the May award, but we know that is not likely.
- Relief Pitcher of the Month – Kai-Wei Teng – This was an easy pick, especially when considering he was even better as a reliever than his overall numbers – putting up a 2.16 ERA and 0.900 WHIP in his 11 relief appearances.
- Runner-up (Tie) – Bryan King – King was pretty good, which this month boosted him into the second spot in the reliever of the month “race”. His 3.86 ERA was OK. He allowed 4 of 7 inherited runners to score, which is below average. But that floated to the top of a putrid bullpen performance.
Here is a quick stat chart of the Astros’ position players in the month of March/April.
| Name | ABs | Runs | Dbls | HRs | RBIs | BBs | Ks | BA | OBP | OPS | BAbip |
| Isaac Paredes | 99 | 15 | 4 | 3 | 15 | 9 | 18 | .253 | .339 | .723 | .282 |
| Jose Altuve | 112 | 20 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 17 | 24 | .250 | .349 | .742 | .294 |
| Jeremy Pena | 43 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | .256 | .304 | .653 | .297 |
| Christian Walker | 116 | 19 | 9 | 7 | 24 | 13 | 23 | .293 | .366 | .918 | .310 |
| Cam Smith | 105 | 16 | 5 | 4 | 15 | 14 | 34 | .219 | .317 | .698 | .275 |
| Yordan Alvarez | 118 | 25 | 9 | 12 | 27 | 21 | 14 | .356 | .462 | 1.199 | .323 |
| Yainer Diaz | 92 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 14 | 3 | 15 | .250 | .268 | .627 | .273 |
| Jake Meyers | 37 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 8 | .243 | .326 | .704 | .276 |
| Carlos Correa | 106 | 20 | 7 | 2 | 14 | 15 | 21 | .274 | .361 | .757 | .321 |
| Joey Loperfido | 58 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 19 | .276 | .348 | .711 | .400 |
| Brice Matthews | 58 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 25 | .207 | .270 | .649 | .323 |
| Christian Vazquez | 49 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 11 | 5 | 8 | .327 | .389 | .920 | .359 |
| Taylor Trammell | 29 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 9 | .345 | .424 | .873 | .500 |
| Dustin Harris | 24 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 5 | .167 | .250 | .500 | .200 |
| Nick Allen | 20 | 5 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | .250 | .318 | .618 | .333 |
| Daniel Johnson | 13 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | .154 | .313 | .466 | .200 |
| Shay Whitcomb | 11 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 7 | .091 | .167 | .530 | .273 |
| Braden Shewmake | 10 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | .200 | .200 | .700 | .167 |
- Positional Player of the Month – Yordan Alvarez – Yordan was All-World for one of the worst teams in the MLB. If you could have taken this one month performance and added it to his relatively meager 48 games in 2025, that team would have easily made the playoffs.
- Runner-up – Christian Walker – He has been very good so far in 2026 with the type of production that the Astros expected when they signed him before the 2025 season.
- Biggest Surprise (Positive) – Probably Walker as there was a feeling that he was on the down side of his career after a poor 2025.
- Runner-up – Christian Vazquez – In limited at bats, he has been extremely productive after having poor performances ever since he left the Astros in 2022.
- Biggest Disappointment – Tatsuya Imai – Others have worse numbers, but the disappointment comes from the fact that his failures are somehow tied to an emotional rather than physical problem. The Astros spent a hefty amount of money on Imai and are committed to 3 years of him if he never gets rolling.
- Runner-up – Oh how things have changed. Last April the tied runner-ups were Alvarez and Walker. This time we will pick Bryan Abreu, who not only has not filled the Josh Hader closer spot – his performance has dropped him to where he is only being used in blow-outs….if then.
Some Comments on March/April
There are some interesting and puzzling things that happened to the Astros so far in 2026:
- What is worse? Having the worst bullpen in the AL by almost every statistical statistic or having that terrible bullpen throw the most innings of any bullpen in the majors.
- Yordan is leading the majors in BA, OBP, SLG, OPS, Games, Hits and HRs. I wonder if he drives the bus to the airport.
- Some of the individual pitchers walks/ 9 innings vs. Ks/ 9 innings are beyond belief. Imai – 11.4 walks/ 9 IP vs. 13.5 Ks/ 9 IP. Abreu – 14.5 walks/9 IP vs. 15.4 Ks/ 9 IP. Cristian Javier – 9.7 walks/ 9 IP vs. a piddly 3.9 Ks/ 9 IP.
- The MLB average ERA is 4.17. Only 5 of the 22 Astro pitchers this season have ERAs under 4.17. In fact the lowest of those 17 ERAs above average was Christian Roa at 5.19. Yuck.
- The MLB average WHIP is 1.330. Again only 5 of the pitchers have WHIPs better than that.
- I could go on, but you get the idea. This is an awful pitching staff from top to bottom. Can they hold on until they get more help back? Can they hold on until some of the ones who are not on the IL improve.
As usual, it is your turn to comment. Any awards you disagree with? Any new ones you want to award?
ALL THINGS ASTROS 