Houston Astros: Justin Verlander injury troubling for team

This weekend, Houston Astros starter Justin Verlander was pulled from a start against the New York Mets after experiencing tricep soreness in his right arm.

The Houston Astros received some bad news on Sunday. 2019 AL Cy Young award winner Justin Verlander was pulled from his start against the New York Mets after experiencing tricep soreness in his right arm.

Astros manager Dusty Baker tried to downplay the injury, saying, “we sent him for precaution and observation, and hopefully, it’s not [worse].”

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While with the Detroit Tigers, Verlander missed two months of the season after experiencing a similar injury back in 2015. That season, was one of the few times in which he pitched to a sub-500 record. What’s more, he started the fewest amount of games (20) for his career and posted an average fastball velocity of 93.6 mph; just 0.3 mph higher than his career-low.

While we don’t want to sound the alarm too soon, this injury could have some serious implications for the defending American League champions. They’ve already lost Gerrit Cole in free agency to the New York Yankees. Can they afford to lose Verlander too?

As it stands, the Astros rotation includes:

• Zack Greinke
• Lance McCullers Jr.
• Jose Urquidy

Pretty thin, if you ask me.

Now, about a week ago, I wrote about how fans should expect to see a bit of a decline from Justin Verlander. In saying that, I expected to see an aging veteran increase his ERA from 2.55 (with the Astros) to 3+; in other words, he’d go from elite to elite-adjacent.

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think injury would befall the Benjamin Button of baseball… and maybe it hasn’t. But what this most recent scare (cross your fingers) should show the Houston Astros and their fans is just how thin an incredible rotation turns into when their best pitcher suddenly goes down.

This offseason has been none too kind to the Astros organization and at times it’s of their own doing. Losing Verlander could potentially sink the organization, however, and that would be bad not only for the city of Houston but for the game of baseball altogether.

Fans want a competitive powerhouse to jeer on when the Astros come visiting their home cities this season. They don’t, however, want to beat a dead horse.