Houston Astros Top Pitching Prospect Finally Meeting Expectations

It took a while, but one of the Houston Astros top pitching prospects finally looks like what he was billed to become when he was in the minors.

May 30, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Houston Astros starting pitcher Spencer Arrighetti (41) throws against the Seattle Mariners during the first inning at T-Mobile Park. / Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

There were a lot of pitchers for the Houston Astros who were thrown into the fire early this season.

With injuries to multiple of their expected contributors immediately, that became a sign of things to come as even more starting arms hit the injured list at some point throughout the year.

The replacements did not handle things well.

The Astros were constantly being shelled by opposing lineups, giving their own normally prolific offense no chance to win them games while they were dealing with these issues. This was a huge reason why they got off to such a slow start and put themselves in a major hole regarding their postseason chances.

Based on some recent news coming out about injured starters Jose Urquidy and Cristian Javier, it seems like Houston might have to brace themselves for being without those two for an extended period of time.

Nothing has been made official, but the tone surrounding their current evaluations don't sound positive.

That's why their top pitching prospect's recent performances couldn't have come at a better time.

Spencer Arrighetti struggled mightily in his first Major League action, allowing 13 earned runs over 10 2/3 innings of work during his first three starts.

But the No. 3 ranked prospect in their pipeline entering the season has seemingly started to find his groove, and is coming off the best performance of his career against the Seattle Mariners on Thursday where he threw six shutout innings while only allowing two hits and striking out eight batters.

For the month of May, the 24-year-old had an ERA of 4.36, earning three wins in his six starts.

This is a great sign for the Astros.

MLB Pipeline has seemingly graduated him from prospect status as it looks like he's going to be part of Houston's Major League roster going forward, especially if Urquidy and Javier do have to miss extended time.