PT TOMORROW: AL West—HOU, we may not have a problem

Houston Astros

Dallas Keuchel and Charlie Morton have been lost to free agency, and Lance McCullers (RHP, HOU) will miss all of 2019 after Tommy John surgery, but their immediate replacements are at least capable and/or experienced. For three seasons between 2014-16, Collin McHugh (RHP, HOU) gave the club 180+ IP of sub-4 ERA ball out of the rotation before a 2017 elbow injury limited him to 63 IP and paved his 2018 move to the pen—where his stuff played up and translated into an 11.7 Dom and 1.99 ERA over 72 IP. Obviously he's unlikely to fare this well in his rotation return, or toss another 180 IP. But a seemingly healthy McHugh enters spring training as a near-lock for one of the vacated SP jobs, with little reason to suspect he'll...

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