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The Houston Astros right-handed starting pitcher Hunter Brown will “refrain from throwing for a few weeks” after suffering a Grade 2 right shoulder strain, the team revealed Tuesday. Brown is already on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to April 2.

Brown is, of course, quite important to a Houston team trying to get back to the playoffs. The Astros entered Tuesday with a 6-5 record, good for second place in the AL West here in the very early going. Brown is their ace and Opening Day starter who finished third in AL Cy Young voting last season after going 12-9 with a 2.43 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and 206 strikeouts in 185 ⅓ innings.

So far this season in two outings, Brown is 1-0 with a 0.84 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 10 ⅔ innings. For whatever it’s worth, his velocity was down a bit last start, but it was nothing that would’ve raised any obvious red flags. It was fractional.

This marks the first time Brown has been on the IL in his major-league career.

At the time of his injury, Brown had the fourth-best odds for the American League Cy Young, via Caesars. 

  • Tarik Skubal, Tigers, +200
  • Garrett Crochet, Red Sox, +550
  • Max Fried, Yankees, +850
  • Hunter Brown, Astros, +1200

As for the Astros, the remainder of their rotation at present is Mike Burrows, Cristian Javier, Tatsuya Imai and Lance McCullers Jr. Spencer Arrighetti and Jason Alexander are in Triple-A and are reasonable options to replace Brown. Brown was lined up to start Monday, however, and Arrighetti just pitched on Friday. Alexander, meanwhile, went on Wednesday and would be on regular rest Monday — meaning Alexander fits perfectly for now and if the Astros would prefer Arrighetti they could reconfigure things later. All of that is likely dependent on how just how long Brown is expected to be out.

Right-hander Christian Roa was recalled from Triple-A to take Brown’s roster spot.