The Astros announced a pair of roster moves earlier today, recalling right-hander Shawn Dubin from Triple-A while optioning fellow righty Brandon Bielak to Triple-A. As noted by the Houston Chronicle’s Matt Kawahara, Dubin told reporters that he was joining the club as a reliever.
That comes as little surprise, considering comments from manager Dusty Baker in recent weeks indicating the club didn’t consider a six-man rotation sustainable given the hits the club has taken to its starting depth. This move appears to leave Bielak as the odd man out as Houston reverts to a five-man rotation. While Bielak had pitched to a roughly league average 4.37 ERA in 47 1/3 innings since his call-up to the big leagues at the beginning of May, the move comes as little surprise considering Bielak’s significant struggles since the calendar flipped to June.
Since the beginning of the month Bielak has been shelled for 13 runs (12 earned) in just 16 1/3 innings, leaving him with a 6.61 ERA and a whopping 1.107 OPS against over his past three starts. Struggles with command seem to be the root of Bielak’s troubles, as he’s allowed six walks, four home runs, and hit a batter over that timeframe while recording just nine strikeouts.
Bielak’s woes coincide with what has proved to be a difficult stretch for the Astros. Houston has posted a 4-9 record over the last thirteen games, leaving the club with a 39-33 record that places them third in the AL West, 5.5 games behind the Rangers for the division lead. As the club attempts to right the ship, they’ll trot out a starting five of Framber Valdez, Cristian Javier, Hunter Brown, J.P. France, and Ronel Blanco.
Valdez, Javier, and Brown, of course, starting the season in the club’s rotation and have formed the backbone of a starting staff that ranks 2nd in the majors with a 3.30 ERA in spite of injuries to Luis Garcia, Lance McCullers Jr. and Jose Urquidy. France has played a major role in the rotation maintaining that solid performance, with a 3.42 ERA in 47 1/3 innings for the big league club since making his MLB debut earlier this season.
Blanco is perhaps even more surprising, as the 29-year-old entered the rotation at the beginning of June after struggling badly in his major league debut last season (7.11 ERA in seven appearances) and posting middling numbers as a member of the Houston bullpen earlier this year, with a 4.50 ERA in 12 innings. Since returning to the big leagues as a starter, though, Blanco has recorded two solid outings against solid offenses in Toronto and Anaheim, posting a 3.18 ERA in 11 1/3 innings of work. While Blanco’s 13% walk rate leaves reason for concern going forward, the Astros clearly feel secure enough with his performance to hand him the keys to a rotation spot over Bielak.
Replacing Bielak on the active roster is Dubin, whose first appearance with the big league club will constitute his big league debut. It’s been a long path to the majors for Dubin, who arrived in the Astros organization after they selected him in the 13th round of the 2018 draft. While he managed to post solid numbers in the minors from 2019 to 2021, Dubin has struggled in more recent seasons, with his 4.78 ERA in 58 1/3 innings at the Triple-A level in 2022 ballooning to a figure of 7.96 in 26 innings while repeating the level this season.
Despite those worrisome results, Dubin figures to be an asset to the club’s bullpen while he’s on the roster thanks to his ability to pitch multiple innings. Of his nine appearances at Triple-A this season, Dubin has recorded at least six outs in seven of them. He’ll likely provide long relief for a bullpen that has recently relief on Seth Martinez for multi-inning outings.
Terrible. That 8.31 ERA should easily translate to major league success
Astros now have Dubin and Dubon. Now they just need to call up Duban, Duben, and Dubun to have the market cornered.
I prefer the Rangers. Hungry like the wolves they are w Duran + Duran
How bout Dierden for the outfield. Then could have Dubon in LF and Dierden in CF and Tucker for Right. But I think Bielak needed to go down. Blanco today should have been taken out after 5. He is not a proven starter and has not gone more than 5. But this game started promising. The bullpen is a mess. Seth, Maton did good and Abreu. But we need a shake up. Maybe Dusty even. Put Espada in to manage.
The off-season was marred by bad decisions: overpaying Montero, letting Gurriel go, the Daulton Varsho trade that fell through, not signing a veteran SP or a decent LHRP, signing Abreu, resigning Brantley. It was apparent then that all these were bad decisions. Now they are on the precipice of collapse
Varsho isn’t that impressive this season and Yuli has .660OPS when I checked a week ago. Not exactly solutions.
You’re dead on thought about the off-season moves. The one that baffles me most is Brantley. They know his body. How could they be so wrong about his readiness to play?
Yeah they miss Yuli and his dead on impersonations of other ethnicities
All those terrible signings were on Jim Crane, who thought he could be a MLB GM. Hopefully he learned his lesson and lets Dana Brown do his job without messing it up further.
Wish they’d stop pussyfootin’ and bring up Dierden.
Assuming that’s Dirden, the one with the 86 wRC+, 28 percent strikeout rate (even worse 17 percent swinging strike rate) and below-average exit velocities in AAA. Not sure he solves much.
how do you like being third in the division? maybe even for a day?
“This move appears to leave Bielak as the odd man out of a 5 man rotation”. You think? Kinda hard to be in the rotation when you’re in Triple A. Unless you’ve got a pretty strong zoom connection
Astros are missing the “can-do” attitude that characterized their championship run back when. Back when the likable clan of Altoove-Bregman-Correa and Beltran made them such a fun bunch to root for. I think Al Gore used it to launch his campaign for a new generation. “Yes we can! Yes we can!”
Jose Urquidy is throwing off the mound and will be back in July. JP France has looked really good and Blanco passable so they will go with a rotation of Valdez, Javier, Brown, France and Blanco until Urquidy gets back. Brantley and most importantly Yordan Alvarez should also be back in July. Stros have had lots of injuries- given that 5.5 out is nothing. Not proclaiming a division title but anyone who counts them out is a fool.