Javier to return Saturday against Tigers

NEW YORK — Cristian Javier will return from the injured list to start Saturday for the Astros against the Tigers in Detroit, a welcome development for a team seeking more consistent starting pitching.

Javier was placed on the 15-day IL on April 21 due to “neck discomfort,” an issue he later attributed to sleeping awkwardly. The righthander had a 1.54 ERA in his first four starts this season.

Javier will slot between Framber Valdez and Justin Verlander in the three-game series in Detroit. That will mark the first time this season the Astros have had their projected top three starters active at the same time. Verlander made his season debut on April 19, returning from an offseason shoulder issue. Valdez spent most of April on the injured list due to elbow inflammation.

The Astros entered Thursday’s series finale at Yankee Stadium with a 5.31 ERA from their rotation, the fourth-highest mark in the majors. Only the Rockies, Marlins and White Sox, the teams with the three worst records in the majors, owned a higher rotation ERA. Houston entered Thursday with the majors’ fourth-worst record, at 12-24.

Verlander, Valdez and Javier combined to start 12 of the Astros’ first 36 games. The trio combined for a 3.29 ERA in those outings. All other Astros starters totaled a 6.53 ERA in that stretch — even factoring in the excellent first month of Ronel Blanco, who carried a 2.09 ERA to the mound Thursday in New York.

It’s unclear how the Astros will adjust their rotation upon Javier’s return. Hunter Brown was on turn to pitch Saturday. Javier could supplant Brown or rookie Spencer Arrighetti in the rotation, but the Astros could also use six starters amid a stretch of playing 16 straight days that began Tuesday.

“At some point, we would like to potentially go to a six-man,” manager Joe Espada said Thursday. “So, we’ve just got to wait and see how everything falls regarding those guys.”

Brown owns an 8.89 ERA in seven starts. Arrighetti has an 8.44 ERA over his first five majorleague starts. J.P. France is on the Triple-A injured list with a shoulder ailment. Houston has just one other starter on its 40-man roster — Blair Henley, who did not last an inning in a spotstart in April at Texas — possibly limiting its options if it does decide to deploy a six-man rotation.

The first inning has been an issue for Astros starters, but for Brown and Arrighetti in particular. Entering Thursday, the Astros had allowed the most firstinning runs (40) and the highest batting average (.346) and OPS (.995) in the first of any major-league staff. Opponents had scored 21 of 40 first-inning runs off Brown or Arrighetti, leaving the Astros to often play behind in those games.

“We’re trying to make adjustments,” Espada said when asked about that trend. “We have to be better at trying to keep those first couple innings from getting away from us ... So it’s trying to (get) the pitchers to understand how to make better pitches early in the game, induce contact earlier in the game, get quality of pitches from the get-go to be better. Those are areas that we look at and try to improve as a team.”

Javier’s return could prove a benefit there. Both Javier and Valdez are unscored upon in the first inning in their four starts. Verlander did not allow a first-inning run until his fourth start Tuesday in New York.

Urquidy ready to begin rehab

Astros right-hander José Urquidy is scheduled to begin a minor-league rehab assignment on Sunday with a start for Triple-A Sugar Land, Espada said.

Urquidy is returning from a forearm muscle strain sustained in spring training. He is tentatively slated to throw four innings or 60-to-65 pitches in his first rehab start, Espada said.

That suggests Urquidy might need three rehab starts to build up his pitch count before the Astros would consider activating him. Urquidy has faced hitters twice in live batting practices.

Urquidy was projected to open the season in Houston’s rotation before suffering a forearm strain in mid-March. The righthander made a career-high 28 starts in 2022, then posted a 5.29 ERA in 16 outings (10 starts) last season around a three-month absence due to a shoulder injury.

Outfielder Chas McCormick is also expected to begin a rehab assignment this weekend with Sugar Land in his return from a hamstring injury. The length of McCormick’s rehab assignment will depend on “how he bounces back from each game,” Espada said.

“We want to make sure that the hamstring feels 100 percent and when he comes back we don’t have to deal with that anymore,” Espada said.