The Houston Astros certainly don’t want 2024 to play out like 2023: they are not willing to watch the Texas Rangers, a division rival, take a playoff matchup against them and win the World Series again.
Houston remains an incredibly talented team with proven regular-season and postseason performers.
They have playoff monsters Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, and Alex Bregman, plus Kyle Tucker, Yainer Diaz, Jeremy Pena, and many other top hitters.
Pitching-wise, they have a healthy contingent of talented arms headlined by the top two starters of the 2022 team that won it all: Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez.
If anything, they needed to bring in a bullpen piece given that they lost Hector Neris in free agency.
It’s safe to say they replaced him with the best of the best: they signed left-hander Josh Hader to a five-year, $95 million contract.
It’s the largest contract ever given to a reliever, and Hader is very much deserving of it due to his 2.50 career ERA.
FOX Sports: MLB posted a short video of the talented left-hander throwing a bullpen session.
Here comes the
(via @SportsTalk790)pic.twitter.com/Y2enWQim1W
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) February 16, 2024
You can see the ease with which the ball comes out of his hand.
Thanks to a deceptive fastball and a deadly breaking ball, Hader has been able to save 165 games before turning 30.
He also has 648 career strikeouts.
The shocking part?
They have come in just 388.2 innings.
You didn’t read that wrong: that is the number.
Hader is coming off a ridiculously good season in 2023 with the San Diego Padres, with an impossibly low 1.28 ERA in 56.1 frames.
He is going to look very, very good in that Astros bullpen together with Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly.
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