The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian McTaggart Talks Astros Off-Season

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

Brian McTaggart Talks Astros Off-Season

Okay, we got a lot of stuff to get to, so let's get serious here. Brian McTaggart, MLB.com, Astros.com, our weekly guest here on a sports talk 790. We've been talking about that, like I said, a million things to get to. Let's start with Tattooia EMI. I looked pretty good yesterday. There have been a lot of talk about not necessarily the velocity of his fastball, but the shape of his fastball. How do you think that's looked so far in spring?

And obviously, the results were good yesterday. Yeah, he looked really good. I mean, face nine hitters and what he struck out four, I believe. Yeah, I mean, he's looked better than I probably had anticipated. And I know the Astros were sort of, you know, trying to get a feel for him and his routine and, you know, all that stuff. But, you know, I think they got to be very happy. It's going to be really fun to watch here as he gets stretched out. You know, last couple of weeks of spring, he gets up to five and six innings to see what he's capable of doing. But he's got a lot of weapons, you know, got the reverse slider, which, you know, drew raves early in camp. And it's, you know, it's. certainly looks like they, you know, might have really done a really nice job getting this guy and getting him in the rotation because it looks like he's going to be a big, big part of that rotation this year. Yeah. And same thing with Mike Burroughs, just your thoughts on what we've seen from him and then the follow up to that. If you had your crystal ball out, just at this

moment, how the rotation would slot starting opening day. Yeah, Burroughs has been great too. I mean, he's looked better than I thought he would as well. I mean, he works at a really good pace. He throws strikes. And I think I think he's going to be fun to watch because the defense has to be on their toes. I mean, he kind of reminds me of Oswald, you know, back in the day at the pace that he works at. So yeah, I mean, I think they're close probably to setting the rotation. We all know Hunter Brown is going to go game one. I still don't know if they're going to go with a four or five, I mean, a five or six man rotation. I know they will do six for a lot of April, but I think for the first week or so, they might be able, they won't need, they won't need a six start

for a while. So, I mean, I guess it will probably be EMI in the second game. McCullors, game three, or Burroughs. I'm just sort of guessing here. But I guess a better way to put it is there's four guys that are locks in the rotation right now, and that's Emae, Burroughs, Brown, and McCullors, and Javier. So I think those five guys are locks in the rotation. I think Erigetti, even though he pitched really well yesterday, is probably not guaranteed a rotation. spot yet and you know if they go to six man he's probably the six man but they have to feel really good about their starting pitching depth at this point yeah it's crazy bryan i know everything we say here is with the caveat of it's it's only spring training but i mean i don't remember a spring

where you've had this many good arms just putting up goose eggs and and you know am i with the the goose eggs yesterday but ergetti yeah it gives up the home run yesterday but six strikeouts over three innings. I mean, you know, even Jason Alexander, he had one bad outing, but then a really strong one, and then they already sent them to the minor leagues like, all you're going to be one of the best arms in Sugar Land. So it's crazy how this competition is shaping up. And, you know, I think we all thought, okay, you know, we're going to be optimistic about this pitching staff. But, I mean, I've been wowed, but what they've done so far this spring. Yeah, that was their goal in the offseason was to go out and add pitching depth. And they added, you know, six or seven arms. And the fact that

they were able to send Jason Alexander to minor league camp, you know, three weeks before open a day, despite him pitching really well in a couple of games in the spring. I mean, that's what they wanted. They wanted that quality of starter at AAA that they can bring up. And the same with Colton Gordon, another guy who pitched pretty well. He was, he was among the first cuts of camp, so he's going to be in the AAA rotation. So there's two guys right there that you feel good about that they can call upon that, yeah, they really did a nice job adding, even some of the guys that we don't talk about, but a non-raster guy like Peter Lambert has really put himself in position to make the team as a long reliever.

You know, they added Tang who is going to get the start on Friday, and he's in position as well to give them multiple innings out of the bullpen. So they've got a lot of arms, a lot of quality arms, and the important thing is they have a couple of guys in the bullpen who can pitch two or three innings. They're also optional. Guys, they can move back and forth between the minor leagues all year without any problem. Brian McTaggart, MLB.com, Astros.com, with us here on a sports talk 790. Let's go to the position player side with the outfield.

Now, three weeks into games, we had a lot of questions about how things would possibly slot coming into spring. And I just don't know. How does it look to you, Brian? Because it doesn't seem like a lot of those questions are really getting answered. Yeah, I mean, you know, the outfield is still a mix of guys. And I think that's probably the area on the club that's probably the biggest unknowns. I mean, there's still a chance Jake Myers could get traded. And that's why Joe Espada hasn't yet saying, hey, Jake Myers is my starting center fielder because he might not be.

And then beyond the end, you know, you got the young guys. You got Loporffito. You got Cam Smith. You got Zach Cole. All three of those guys can play all three positions. And then Taylor Tremel has had a really nice spring as well, swinging the bat, running the basis. So he's put himself in the mix. And I think if they broke camp today, Tremel probably makes the team.

So, you know, the injury to Pena probably opens a roster spot maybe for Bryce Matthews. You know, he can play some second and some outfield. But, yeah, I mean, I think the outfield is just, we're going to take this down to the wire. And, you know, you got to remember, they still could make another trade if they trade buyers. You know, they still would like to trade Paredes. And if they do, they'll get a left-handed bat, which is going to be an outfielder. So this roster can still look different here in a couple of days when they get to open a couple of weeks when they get. it's opening day.

How concerned, Brian, should fans be with the overall spring numbers? And I get it's small sample size. You're talking starters playing, you know, half the games, guys who are going to be working at Target in a year, you know, coming in the later inning. So it's not a full easy samples to look at, but I mean, dead last in home runs, worse than baseball batting average 189,

slugging 297, OPS at 620. I mean, it's some ugly offensive numbers. numbers, how concerned should we be? I don't think very concerned or all. I mean, I mean, these guys are that, the established players are down here working on their swings, tinkering with things. So guys, I know Alvarez has struggled in the spring. I mean, I would not be worried.

The guys that, the guys that need to hit a little bit in the spring are, you know, the youngsters competing for spots. And we've seen the bats come around a little bit. We know Cole hit a homer yesterday. Loparfito swung it a little better. but the position players, Walker, Alvarez, I mean, Jordan Alvarez could go low for 30 in the spring and have four hits on opening day and everything's right. So, yeah, these games are so weird.

You're facing pitchers late in the game who are in class A ball. So, I mean, half the bats are going to guys from minor league camp. So it's not anything to worry about it. I mean, if you want to worry about, you know, maybe some of the younger guys competing for a spot that aren't hitting, but the overall numbers mean nothing and the star players if they're not hitting, you don't worry about that. They'll be ready to go, you hope, on opening day. Obligatory in-field question.

What's the latest on Jeremy Pena's status and just the logjam we've been talking about for months now? Yeah, status quo. And, you know, it's sort of resolved itself a little bit here for the short term because Pena is going to open the season on the IL. I mean, they haven't announced that yet, but, I mean, you know, it's going to happen. And so they'll be able to put Paredes at third, and Cray, it's short for opening day. And Cray has been playing short here in the last couple of days in Great Fruit League play. So Pena, you know, he suffered the injury a week ago.

So he's a week away from getting reevaluated, which I guess would mean another X-ray to see where he's at. So, but he's out there on the field doing all the drills. I mean, he's out there with the short stops fielding the ball and flicking at the second base with his glove. And the only thing he really can't do is get the ball and throw and swing him. bat, which are two major things, but it certainly looks like this is not going to be a long-term injury that goes deep in April. I think he'll be back sooner than later. Yeah, I mean, I don't think this changes a whole lot. They still, if he comes back healthy, they still have one too many infielders, and they still need a left-handed bat because their lineup is so right-handed.

And so I think that's still going to be something to watch is that, you know, I think we'll still could see a trade here in the next two weeks on the infield. And quickly, Brian, with the hater news, that he's going to open up on the injured list. Give me your opening day, let's say they're up 3-0 heading into the 7th. Who's your 7th, 8th, 9th inning guys? Yeah, well, I'll go backwards. I mean, obviously, a brave is going to be the closer because he's, you know, he's your best reliever. You know, Brian King did a really nice job in sort of a, you know, seventh inning setup role. So, you know, I think he's in there as well.

You know, seventh inning might come down to matchups. You know, you got you got Stephen O'Kirk, Benet-Souza, parallel. lefties. You know, if Peter Lambert makes it, he's a guy that can come in and throw really hard. You know, Tang's going to be in the bullpen as well. Is Eniel Delasanto is going to be in the mix? So I think, you know, I think that ninth and eighth inning roles are pretty set. I think beyond that it's going to come down to matchups where there are in the game and there's a lot of different ways they can go because they have, you know, they have a lot of versatile arms down there and guys that can throw multiple innings.

great first meeting with Brian McTaggart we're going to have him every week here throughout the Astros season bringing you coverage like nobody's business Brian let the folks know what you got going on on the website yeah a lot of good stuff on the website we got I'm going to have an opening day roster projection coming coming tomorrow so you know keep an eye out for that and that always gets a lot of click so it's something that changes daily and yeah so yeah just go to astros.com and you know we got to a lot of good stuff on there. All right. Thanks a lot. Brian, appreciate it. And we will talk to you every week throughout the season.

You're welcome. All right. Thanks, guys. All right, there you go. Brian McTaggart, Astros.com, MLB.com. Great with stuff with him as always.