Astros’ Cristian Javier to have Tommy John surgery

HOUSTON — Astros starter Cristian Javier will undergo Tommy John surgery Thursday, a league source said Tuesday, dealing a crippling blow to a Houston rotation that’s absorbed too many of them.

Javier sought the opinion of renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. Keith Meister, who recommended the reconstructive surgery that typically carries a 12- to 14-month recovery.

In a best-case scenario, Javier could return late in the 2025 season, in which he will make $10 million. Javier posted a 3.89 ERA across seven starts this season.

Javier’s impending operation follows news on Monday that rotation-mate José Urquidy may also need Tommy John surgery. Urquidy, like Javier, sought a second opinion from Meister.

Both pitchers are now primed to miss the remainder of this season and a sizable chunk of 2025, prompting serious concerns about the club’s established starting pitching depth as it claws back toward .500.

Without Javier or Urquidy, Houston has five healthy starters on its 40-man roster with substantial major-league experience: Justin Verlander, Framber Valdez, Ronel Blanco, Hunter Brown and Spencer Arrighetti. Neither Arrighetti nor Blanco has thrown more than 125 innings in any professional season.

The team expects both Luis Garcia and Lance McCullers Jr. to return at some point after the All-Star break, but given that both are recovering from their own elbow surgeries, their effectiveness and durability cannot be counted on.

“We’re always in the market for pitching,” general manager Dana Brown said on Monday, while reiterating his club will be buyers at the trade deadline.

“If there’s an opportunity where we don’t have to mortgage the farm and there’s a starter that we can get, we’ll get a starter.”

Javier required a trip to the 15-day injured list on April 18 with what the team described as “neck discomfort,” but missed just 18 days.

In the three starts upon his return, Javier allowed 11 earned runs across 11 1/3 innings. The velocity on his pitches plummeted during his final outing on May 21, prompting manager Joe Espada to say Javier “isn’t quite there yet.”

Three days later, Houston placed him on the injured list with what it described as “right forearm discomfort.”

Last spring, Javier signed a five-year, $64 million extension that ties him to the Astros through the 2027 season. The deal will pay Javier $21 million during each of the 2026 and 2027 seasons.

Brown, then in his first year as GM, engineered the extension after Javier emerged as one of baseball’s most unhittable — and unflappable — starters in 2022. He sported a 2.54 ERA and 0.948 WHIP while allowing 5.4 hits per nine innings across 30 appearances.

Javier started two combined no-hitters during the 2022 season: one in Yankee Stadium and another during Game 4 of the 2022 World Series.

Regression found Javier during the 2023 season, in which he threw a career-high 162 innings and acknowledged pitching slightly overweight. Javier lost 15 pounds this winter in hopes of rediscovering his 2022 form.

Instead, his season is over after seven starts.

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(Photo: Troy Taormina / USA Today)