The Houston Astros have had one of the worst pitching staffs in 2026 with a 4.81 team ERA. They just traded away a piece of their staff and one of their longest-tenured players.
The Astros have traded right-handed starting pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. and left-hander Colton Gordon to the Milwaukee Brewers in a salary dump, according to MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart.
McCullers has been on the 15-day injured list since May 19 due to right shoulder inflammation, so the Brewers are essentially taking a flier on him. He reportedly waived his no-trade clause to make this move possible.
The nine-year MLB veteran has pitched just eight games this year, posting a 6.86 ERA over 39.1 innings.
McCullers’ Houston Astros Tenure
The Astros drafted McCullers in the first round of the 2012 draft out of high school. This made him the second-longest-tenured player on the team behind second baseman Jose Altuve. Now, Altuve is all that remains from the 2017 World Series team.
McCullers would make his debut in 2015, pitching to a 3.22 ERA in 22 starts. In 2017, he would make his first and only All-Star appearance, despite pitching to a 4.25 ERA in 22 games.
However, he would make his real impact in the playoffs. That year, he would pitch to a 2.61 ERA in five postseason games.
Unfortunately, the rest of McCullers’ career would be maligned by injuries. He would suffer an arm injury late in the 2018 season and would subsequently undergo Tommy John surgery.
Because of that, McCullers would miss the entire 2019 season. But the injuries just kept coming.
In late 2021, he suffered a flexor tendon strain that would cause him to miss most of the 2022 season. While he would win another World Series that season, he would struggle in the postseason.
This would come back to bite him in 2023 spring training, when he would have a flexor tendon and bone spur surgery that would cause him to miss the entire 2023 and 2024 seasons.
He hasn’t been the same since coming back from that, pitching to a 6.50+ ERA in both 2025 and 2026.
How Will the Team Fare Now?
This season has not gone as planned for the Houston Astros. The Astros have dealt with several major pitching injuries, and it hasn’t helped that when healthy, a lot of their guys aren’t performing well.
At one point, McCullers was one of the only healthy Astros starters, with Cristian Javier and Hunter Brown having long-term absences.
However, Javier and Brown are now healthy.
The Astros’ rotation will now likely consist of Javier, Brown, Peter Lambert, Spencer Arrighetti and Tatsuya Imai.
So, in theory, McCullers’ absence doesn’t hurt the team at all on paper, although Imai has struggled greatly this season with a 6.06 ERA in 13 games. In fact, this frees up money at the Trade Deadline for the Astros to be aggressive.
Houston is just three games back from the AL West lead and 1.5 games back from the last AL Wild Card spot.
With a weak American League this year, the Astros have the ability to be aggressive buyers, despite being four games under .500 and third in their division.
This McCullers trade has now made that a reality.
Astros Trade Second-Longest-Tenured Player, 2-Time Champion