Astros See Encouraging Signs in Lance McCullers’ First Spring Start

West Palm Beach, Fla. – For the first time in nearly two years, Lance McCullers Jr. stepped on a mound in game conditions wearing an Astros uniform and looked like the pitcher Houston once banked on for October heroics. The 32-year-old right-hander needed only eight pitches to retire the side in order during Friday’s Grapefruit League opener, touching 94.6 mph with his fastball and flashing the sharp break that once made his knuckle-curve a household name in Houston.

The tidy inning was more than symbolic for a pitcher who has spent the majority of the last four seasons on the injured list. After inking a five-year, $85 million extension in March 2021, McCullers has logged barely a third of a season’s worth of innings in two of the four campaigns and missed the entire 2023 and 2024 schedules because of season-ending ailments. The mounting absences turned fan frustration into something uglier—McCullers acknowledged receiving death threats—but the Astros never cut ties with the longest-tenured arm on their staff.

Facing an ultimatum he issued himself this winter—walk away from baseball if his body fails again—McCullers arrived at spring training on a mission. The early returns were impossible to ignore. His first live inning of 2026 ended in 92 seconds, a quick-strike reminder of the efficiency that once anchored Houston’s rotation.

“I thought it was solid,” McCullers said afterward. “I was happy with the way I was moving… A quick inning. Need some more of those in my life.”

The velocity spike is the headline. In 2025, when McCullers managed 16 injury-scarred appearances, his fastball sat in the mid-80s and opponents teed off for a 6.51 ERA. On Friday the heater averaged 93.7 mph and peaked at 94.6, re-approaching the 95-plus territory he lived in during the last full season he pitched, 2021. The uptick didn’t happen overnight; McCullers spent months throwing bullpens that started in the mid-80s before creeping into the low-90s ahead of his spring debut.

He laughed when asked about the process, pointing across the clubhouse to hard-throwing teammate Hunter Brown. “You always throw your bullpens in the off-seasons… not for like Hunter who throws 100 mph all the time, but for us normal folk you gotta kind of build up.”

Re-establishing the fastball is critical. Without it, McCullers became a two-pitch pitcher reliant on slider and curve, sequences opponents anticipated with increasing confidence. A revived four-seamer not only gives him a third credible option but also rebalances the trademark curveball that helped secure two World Series titles in Houston.

The path forward forks quickly. McCullers will be a free agent next winter, and the Astros have no obligation beyond 2026. One route ends with another shutdown—an all-too-familiar script for a pitcher who has never thrown 140 innings in a big-league season. The other could redefine a career that has teased brilliance but never consistency, a contract-year resurgence that would serve both player and club.

One inning in February will not decide which road McCullers travels, yet eight crisp pitches and a radar-gun reading near 95 mph are objective signs that the right-hander’s story in Houston is not yet finished.

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