Houston Astros Shockingly Release Their Past World Series Champion

The Houston Astros have made the decision to move on from one of their past World Series champs this offseason.

Feb 14, 2024; West Palm Beach, FL, USA; Houston Astros starting pitcher Jose Urquidy (65) look son during spring training at CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

It was known that some tough decisions were going to have to be made by the Houston Astros' front office this offseason, and the first one has come in.

According to Chandler Rome of The Athletic, they have outrighted starting pitcher Jose Urquidy off their 40-man roster which made him a free agent after he cleared waivers.

The 2022 World Series champion has been with the organization since 2015 when he was signed as an international free agent. He first made his Major League debut in 2019 where he appeared in nine games and started seven of them, but he really made a name for himself in the playoffs that year.

Urquidy had four outings and one start, giving up just one earned run across his 10 innings pitched, including when he became the first Mexican-born pitcher to win a World Series game since Fernando Valenzuela.

Throughout his tenure with the Astros, the right-hander posted a 3.98 ERA and ERA+ that was four points above the league average across his 79 outings, 70 starts and 405 innings pitched.

Unfortunately, his recent injury history limited him to only 16 appearances the past two years.

Since he underwent Tommy John surgery in June, there is no guarantee he would pitch at all this upcoming season either.

Houston will save around $3.75 million in salary by not going through arbitration with Urquidy, and because they seem to have a loaded rotation coming back next year with Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers Jr. set to return, they clearly felt better served to save this money and use it elsewhere.