Thank you 6-man rotation.

Looking back at this season, one thing that stuck out to me was how healthy the team stayed (though Brantley was sorely missed) throughout the year.

According to Spotrac:

• The Astros had 15 players (T-2nd fewest) spend a total of 863 days (3rd fewest) on the IL
• The numbers are even lower once you take in the fact that 333 of the days are between Josh James, Parker Mushinski, Blake Taylor, & Taylor Jones
• Only the Orioles and Guardians had fewer numbers, and you could make a case that both of these teams overachieved thanks in part to their lack of injuries
• For context, the league average was 24.6 players and 1466.7 days
• The 2021 Astros had 32 players spend 1,797 days on the IL

Looking at notable injuries for pitchers:

• Ryan Pressly (neck/knee) – 38 days
• Justin Verlander (calf) – 18 days
• Jake Odorizzi (leg) -49 days
• Lance McCullers Jr. (forearm) – 132 days

It's amazing that in this era of pitching when arm injuries seem to be an everyday occurrence, we didn't have any elbow/shoulder injuries at all (Lance's was sustained in 2021). Some of that is definitely luck, but a lot of credit goes to how well the workload was balanced.

Key Takeaways:

• First off, it's important to point out that there are some flaws in looking at the total number of injuries. Obviously, it would hurt more to lose your ace for the year than the 40th man.
• I want to give huge shoutouts to the training staff for taking care of the players and the coaching staff for managing their workloads.
• Last season, we saw fatigue start to set in, especially for younger arms like Garcia. This year, it felt like every pitcher besides Verlander and McCullers was at their peak at the end of the season.
• I think that the 6-man rotation was a huge benefit to keeping pitchers fresh. The starters were well-rested and able to go 5+ innings every game, which meant that the bullpen wasn't taxed much. It also helps that we had 6+ studs in our rotation.
• There's certainly an argument for keeping guys like JV and Framber on 4 days rest to squeeze 5-6 more starts. If the division race is tight, I could see that argument, but with how deep the rotation currently is, it's hard to justify the extra workload.
• A lot of credit also goes to guys like Seth Martinez and Hunter Brown who filled in as needed and gave us a lot of innings at a high level.
• As an organization that consistently plays an extra month of baseball, I hope that we are able to continue to give guys plenty of rest and prepare for them to peak at the right time.