The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian McTaggart on Astros Injuries, Lineup Decisions & What’s Next

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

Brian McTaggart on Astros Injuries, Lineup Decisions & What’s Next

If you love Brian McTaggart, you're going to get 10 solid minutes with him. And Brian, we were just talking that tomorrow with it being an odd time, and you're our Friday on-deck guests as well. You and Ross are going to spend like 15, 20 minutes with each other tomorrow. So we're going to really put you to work the next couple days. I know, exactly. You better have a lot of tidbits. Every one of your tidbits better be on the on-deck show tomorrow between 12 and 1 o'clock. I will be spilling tidbits over lunch.

I'll be glad to share for sure. All right. Let's get to it. I'm presuming because I didn't see anything. There's nothing on the McCullors update. Will you get something, I guess, tomorrow when you're in Chicago, correct? Yeah, that's right. We're not going to hear anything today.

So, yeah, I would suspect tomorrow morning when we meet you Joe in the dugout at Wrigley Field. We'll get word on what's next. But, yeah, all quiet there. Don't know what to expect there because, you know, I had no idea that was coming based on, you know, talking to Lance or anything. So, yeah, just kind of curious like everybody else is to see what's next for Lance. When you first heard it, I'm going to assume that you had the exact same thought that probably I did and many of the Astros fans, oh, no, here we go again.

And the second thing I thought, Brian, was if this is something that's going to potentially, you know, take a month or two, because inflammation, I mean, you know, every arm is different. But if it's a long time, there's got to be part of Lance that's going to be thinking, you know what, I did all I could. I can't continue to keep doing this. I can't keep continuing to try to come back, especially with my arm, my forearm, my elbow, just says when you're ready, you're ready to go,

but we're not going to make any sort of speedy recovery back from being injured. Yeah, I mean, I think there's two things with Lance is that, yeah, I mean, he has spent the better part of the last five years plus just recovering from injury after injury, basically two Tommy Johns. you know, he was out two and a half years before he came back last year. And talking with him in spring training, he talked like a guy who sounded like he had had enough that if this is the end of the line for him, he's content with it. I mean, I was like, wow, he's pretty comfortable where he is in his career.

But he's also a guy that has battled through injuries. And I think as long as there's a chance for him to play this year, he's going to try to do that again. And hard to say because we don't know what it is. But I think he'll do whatever he can to be on the field. But, you know, at some point this year, if it gets to the point where it gets to be too difficult for him physically, I think he's pretty comfortable just where he's at and, you know, with his career in his life at this point. Brian, we spent the first couple segments of our radio show today discussing the Astros offense as a whole. First month of the year thereabouts, basically covered up for one of the worst pitching months in the Astro's.

was a recent history with the walks and the high run total. And now it's in a deep, deep funk. So as you look at the full view of the Astros offense, are you waiting for part of what we saw in the first month to come back? Or is because of injuries and because of guys that are not normally playing six, seven days a week, is this what we're going to see more of over the next month or so? Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, I think it's probably somewhere in the middle of what they were.

in April and what they were in May. I mean, I don't think anybody expected what, you know, the way they were swinging the bats in April to continue. But, you know, they had Carlos Correa in April and, you know, he was having a pretty good season at the plate. Of course, he's out for the year. You know, Christian Walker has not had a good May so far hitting 191. Alvarez is hitting only 209 in May. He was the American League player of the month of April and even, you know, Paredes is is hitting 21 and the young guy the young corner outfielders are are just not hitting matthews um cam cams hitting 182 in may uh so those those are all issues i mean you you put young players out there um you're going to have to live and die with them a little bit but none of these guys

are really you know stepping up um and and giving them a big impact at this point and you look at triple a i mean and and who's behind them there's really not anyone at triple a you would feel really good about coming up and taking their spot. So until they start getting some of these guys back healthy, you know, maybe Loprfito. I know Pena is back in the lineup now in Myers, so maybe they can get it going. But they've got to get Alvarez going again. They've got to get Walker going again. And maybe one of these young corner outfielders to start stepping it up until they get Tremel

or Loprfito back and hope that they can be the answer. is just they're just a little short-handed offensively, just the way it is right now. Yeah, Brian, it feels like a couple weeks ago, we're like, oh, they're only three back. And then earlier this week, we were saying, now they're only five back. And now they're six back. And we keep waiting for some kind of corner to get turned. But it doesn't happen.

And even though it's only May 21st, but of course, you have been the champion of, how are we looking at Memorial Day weekend? And that's coming up. Yeah, you're right. In fact, after Sunday's game, there will be. one third of the way through the season. That will be game 54. So what, they're 20 and 31 now. So if they go to Wrigley and lose two or three, that's a 99 lost pace. That's where you want to be. Even though they're in a division that is not good, like you say, I mean, yeah, yesterday,

I was like, oh, they're only five out. Maybe they could get the four out, but no, they drop the game. Still, if you're 12, 13 under 500, that is a big hole to climb out of. And so, this corner that we're all waiting to be turned. I mean, it needs to start turning soon. So maybe they have the indicator on and they're waiting for the opposing traffic. But they got to start stacking some serious wins here soon. And it's not easy because, you know, the Cubs have been playing pretty well until recently. And, you know, going to Arlington, obviously, it's not going to be easy. So, yeah, it's got to happen sooner than later, I'll say. talking with Brian McTaggart, Astros.com, MLB.com.

We had Joe on yesterday and asked him about the oblique injury that not only is having El Tuve, I mean, you've had Yonair Diaz, Jake Myers, it's all around baseball. Just your thoughts, Brian, or people you've talked to around the league or players or whoever about this emphasis on bat speed we're seeing? And is it just almost kind of like we've resigned ourselves to it's eventually pitchers, arms are going to get hurt? Are we saying, like, eventually the oblique injury is going to be a problem for some of these hitters? I guess.

I mean, it seems to be way more soft tissue injuries than we've seen it years past. A couple of years ago, it seemed to be the quad. Everyone had a quad injury, and now it's the oblique. You know, our guy swinging harder now that, you know, you measure the metrics on that, but there's probably, you know, something to that. But, you know, I don't know. It's, again, it's one of these epidemics. just around the league and Astros would have had, I think, 22 different I L stints,

which is way more than any other team. So for the second year in a row, they've been affected by these things more than anybody else. And for the most part, they're not injuries suffered on the field, collisions or broken bones. For the most part, they're soft tissue injuries or pitchers getting injured. So I know they made a lot of changes in their medical department and their return-to-play procedures and their personnel. And guys are still getting injured. So I don't know what the answer is, frankly.

And, you know, we're not, we, you know, the media is not really allowed to interview the trainers or anything like that. So those are questions we really can't ask as far as the asteros are concerned. Brian, this will be a question we've asked probably once or twice already. Mike Burroughs could not have had a better march in spring training. And that does not count, obviously, because the results have not panned out during the course of the regular season. He has also given up more home runs than anybody else in, at least the American League, if not even baseball, what's, and it's like you're watching the first four innings and going,

damn, this guy is just throwing BBs, and then it's two outs and then full implosion. This is becoming a, unfortunately, a regular occurrence for him. Yeah, you're right. His pattern seems to be one bad inning, one bad pitch. He'll walk a couple of guys, give up a three-run homer. And with the way the offense is gone, that's enough damage. And with the way the offense is going,

and may, there's no room for damage like that. I mean, the starting pitching had stabilized itself a little bit than it, you know, had been in April when it was a complete disaster. And, you know, he's one of the reasons why he does give you five or six innings, but he's definitely got to cut down on the long balls. When he gets in trouble in the mid-iddings, he's got to get some outpitches and get out of this because, you know, they're counting on him to be one of their middle of the roadings.

rotation horses and he hasn't done it so far. You know, I think he'll pitch, what I guess he'll pitch in the Rangers series, maybe Wednesday now. So, you know, another chance for him to write this, but, you know, he does have a couple of really good starts under his belt, then a couple where he sort of walk in the fine line between giving you a quality start and then it just goes awry really quickly.

So it's, we keep saying it seems like he's close to stacking some good starts together, but he hasn't been able to do it yet. All right, last question. Where do you put a Wrigley field on your road trip stops among all the places you ever travel to watch the Astros and covered a game? Matt, it's up there. You know, just was it Fenway a couple of weeks ago? And that is really a fun place to watch the game, just with the atmosphere and the history.

And Wrigley is right there as well. Don't get much chance to go there anymore, so sort of looking forward to it. But I would put it probably, I kind of put Fenway and Wrigley in their own category, just because they're so unique. And, I mean, I would probably rank them first or second just as far as if I was sitting in the stands and watching a game, I don't think you can get much better

than Wrigley Field on the afternoon in the summer. Save travels to the Windy City and look forward to listening to you and Ross tomorrow with a 45-minute rundown of everything, every tidbit you've ever given in the history of tidbits tomorrow on the Friday on day show. Get ready, baby. I'll be the guy on the plane with the light on late at night working,

getting those tidbits going. Perfect. Thanks, Tag. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Thanks very much. That's Brian McTaggart of the Aastroos.com and MLB.com with us here on the program.