The Astros fielded a right-hander Blair Henley to Triple-A Sugar Land this afternoon, as reported by The Athletic’s Chandler Rome on X. The 27-year-old rookie does not have the required service time or prior on his resume required to decline the assignment, meaning he will be back. in the minor leagues to serve as undrafted depth for Houston going forward.
Henley was drafted by the Astros in the seventh round of the 2019 draft but his development was dismissed early in his professional career. He made just one appearance in an Astros uniform in 2019 before the 2020 minor league season was canceled, returning in 2021 to make just five appearances before undergoing Tommy John surgery. The rehab process after going under the knife caused him to miss not only the 2021 campaign but all of 2022, and Henley entered the 2023 season as a 26-year-old in Double-A with just six professional games under his belt. .
The righty’s results left something to be desired in that first wire-to-wire professional season, as he contributed a 5.06 ERA in 106 2/3 innings spread over 25 appearances, including 17 starts. Henley’s 22.3% strikeout rate was good enough, but his 11.1% walk rate left something to be desired as he produced ground balls at a strong 51.2% clip. There was some luck (including a 64.4% strand rate) baked into Henley’s results in Double-A, however, and his 4.48 FIP painted a very encouraging picture of his performance heading into 2024.
Those solid peripheral numbers were enough to earn Henley a promotion to Triple-A entering this season, and the right-hander has shown improvement in terms of results with 13 starts at the level. In 60 innings of work, Henley has pitched to a 4.50 ERA against his peripherals from last season. Unfortunately, a look under the hood at Henley’s performance suggests that he was actually retarded at almost every step. His ground ball rate dropped to 48% and his strikeout rate dropped to just 19.2% while his walk rate increased to an unimpressive 13.2%. Perhaps his biggest concern was his struggles with the long ball, as he allowed nearly a quarter (24.4%) of his fly balls to go home runs during his first stint in Sugar Land.
Despite those concerns, the Astros didn’t hold off on calling the right-hander up to the majors in April, both because his Triple-A debut went so well (he struck out six and allowed three runs in five innings of work ) but also because the club did not have both Justin Verlander again Framber Valdez in circulation at that time. Those rotation problems have gotten worse since then, as the Astros currently rely on a four-man rotation for Valdez, Ronel Blanco, Hunter Brownagain Spencer Arrighetti and other rotation depths currently on the shelf.
Even that bad rotation wasn’t enough for the Astros to give Henley another start in the majors after a rough start. That stretch in early April saw Henley give up five runs on four hits, three walks, and a hit batsman while recording just one walk and failing to record a hit. That leaves Henley with a career 135.00 ERA and 39.16 FIP at the big league level. Both of those numbers will drop if the rookie gets another chance in the majors, but it appears that Henley will have to right the ship at the Triple-A level before Houston gives him another look at the highest level.
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