Houston Astros Appear to Be Working to Protect Young Starting Pitcher, Will Skip His Turn in Rotation

The Houston Astros will be skipping rookie Hunter Brown's next turn through the starting rotation.

Most likely in an effort to manage his innings, the Houston Astros are going to skip young starter Hunter Brown's next trip through the starting rotation.

The following update comes from the Rotowire fantasy baseball portal:

The Astros will skip Brown's next turn through the rotation, Danielle Lerner of the Houston Chronicle reports.

ANALYSIS
Brown was originally scheduled to pitch again Wednesday against Miami, but the team will delay his next start in favor of Justin Verlander. Brown will be available out of the bullpen during Houston's upcoming series with the Marlins and will start Friday against Seattle if he isn't used at all against Miami. The 24-year-old righty holds a 4.23 ERA and 1.29 WHIP on the season and surrendered five runs over six innings in his last start against Baltimore.

The 24-year-old Michigan native has already thrown 123.1 innings this season, which is closing in on the most innings he's ever thrown at the professional level.

He threw 126.1 combined innings in 2022 and 100.1 combined innings in 2021 across all levels.

Entering play on Sunday, the Astros are 68-50 and in second place in the American League West. They are 2.5 games behind the Texas Rangers in the division and currently own the second spot in the AL wild card picture.

The Astros will finish a series with the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday before starting a new series on Monday night in Miami against the Marlins.

Game one of that series will be at 6:40 p.m. ET as Framber Valdez gets the ball against Braxton Garrett.

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