Injured Astros Pitcher Takes Important Step Toward Return

The Houston Astros have a number of injured pitchers right now, but one of them is taking a huge step in his return from injury.

During the team's Sunday pregame radio show, Astros general manager Dana Brown announced that starting pitcher Spencer Arrighetti would be able to throw his first off the mound side sessions this Tuesday per Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle.

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Arrighetti has made just two starts in 2025 and thrown just 9.2 innings before dealing with a thumb injury that landed him on the injured list. He is also still a few weeks away, but this is a big step.

The 25-year-old got a chance last year pretty much out of necessity, but Houston ended up finding a promising backend starter.

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Overall, as a rookie, Arrighetti posted a 4.53 ERA with 171 strikeouts in 145 innings of work with a 1.407 WHIP.

The strikeouts were obviously exciting throughout, but he really came into his own later in the year and was a big talking point entering this campaing.

Over his final 10 starts of the year, he had a 2.72 ERA with 67 strikeouts in 53 innings of work. His only real issue has been walks, but even that started to look better as the year went on.

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Arrighetti has fantastic breaking stuff and his fastball is looking improved. He forces a ton of whiffs.

His first start of 2025 went great, but his second short went a bit off the rails. Overall, he has pitched 9.2 innings and has given up six runs with eight strikeouts.

It has been another season with a ton of injuries for the Astros. They have already started 11 different pitchers. Arrighetti might have been the biggest loss based on his momentum from last season.

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There's been a ton of movement in the rotation as of late, but they really seem to be finding a groove with the group of pitchers they have right now.

Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown have been elite over the last month. Lance McCullers Jr. and Ryan Gusto are settling in. Even Colton Gordon and Brandon Walter are giving solid performances.

Adding in Arrighetti would give them a full breadth of solid options for the second half of the year.

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