Ace’s brother calls team’s start ‘embarrassing’

On the day his older brother Justin Verlander made his season debut for the Astros, Ben Verlander delved into the Astros’ problems on the latest episode of his podcast, released Friday, calling the team “embarrassing to watch.”

With three-time Cy Young winner Justin Verlander on the injured list, the Astros got off to a 6-14 start heading into a weekend series with Verlander on the mound in Washington, D.C.

“It is ridiculous what is happening there; it is embarrassing to watch,” Ben Verlander said on his Flippin’ Bats podcast. “It doesn’t look like they’re playing with much swag, with much ‘Hey, we’ve gone to seven straight ALCS appearances.’ It is time to turn it around, they’re way too talented to be playing like this.”

Ben Verlander put most of the blame on the pitching staff, which has been without starters Verlander, Framber Valdez, Lance McCullers, Luis Garcia and José Urquidy due to injuries. So far this season, Astros starting pitchers have a 5.05 ERA, ranking 27th out of 30 teams in Major League Baseball. The team ERA of 5.24 is ahead of only the Colorado Rockies and the bullpen has posted an ERA of 6.62 after the seventh inning.

Ben Verlander saved some of his rant for Astros first baseman José Abreu, who is off to a 4for-51 (.078) start at the plate in the second year of his three-year, $58.5 million contract. Since signing him before the 2023 season, Astros management often has touted “the back of the baseball card” for the 37-year-old Abreu, who has 261 career home runs and was the American League MVP in 2020. It’s a refrain manager Joe Espada repeated after Wednesday’s loss as well.

“They need to figure out what the hell to do with José Abreu,” Ben Verlander said. “I don’t often call out players. I don’t like to call out players and I’m not really calling out José Abreu in particular. But in this situation, when you have a player like José Abreu who isn’t hitting his weight this year, maybe not even half of his weight, you have to be able to look in the mirror and say we need to do something different here.

“You’re paying José Abreu like $19 million to be a productive first baseman this year and to put up some offensive numbers and he’s hitting like .100. You’ve got to figure it out and you need more than just your manager going up there at the end of the game, saying, ‘Why do I believe in him? Well, I believe in him because the back of his baseball card tells me to.’ There’s nobody that’s going to sit here and argue that José Abreu hasn’t had a fantastic Major League Baseball career, but this game is a what have you done for me lately sport and what have you done for me lately, José Abreu?”

Even with the awful start, the Astros still are favored by FanGraphs to win the American League West over the Texas Rangers, who are in first place at 11-9. So, even as cohost Alex Curry compared the Astros to the Golden State Warriors as both teams possibly come to the end of their dominant runs, Ben Verlander still has faith in his brother’s team.

“I do believe they will be fine and, again, they are still the odds-on favorite to win the AL West,” he said. “Nobody’s running away with that division, but am I concerned? From what I have seen to this point, I would say it is a very concerning start to the year. Not because I don’t believe in the team and the talent that they have, but it just feels different and it’s downright embarrassing right now watching the Houston Astros.”