{"id":141091,"date":"2025-08-13T01:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T01:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/141091\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T01:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T01:13:09","slug":"astros-place-josh-hader-on-injured-list-due-to-shoulder-strain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/141091\/","title":{"rendered":"Astros Place Josh Hader On Injured List Due To Shoulder Strain"},"content":{"rendered":"

4:14pm:<\/strong> Espada tells the Astros beat that Hader will receive additional testing (link via Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle<\/a>). The team has not yet ascertained the severity of the strain and thus do not have a firm timeline on his potential return.<\/p>\n

3:15pm:<\/strong> The Astros announced that closer Josh Hader<\/a><\/strong> has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a left shoulder strain. An immediate timetable for his return was not revealed. Houston recalled lefty Colton Gordon<\/a><\/strong> from Triple-A in a corresponding roster move. The Astros also reinstated righty Shawn Dubin<\/a><\/strong> from the injured list and opened a roster spot by designating veteran reliever Hector Neris<\/a><\/strong> for assignment.<\/p>\n

Remarkably, this is the first time Hader has ever been placed on the major league injured list (excepting a brief 2021 placement on the Covid-related IL). He\u2019s not only been one of the sport\u2019s most dominant relievers but also its most durable reliever. Dating back to Hader\u2019s midseason debut in 2017, only Raisel Iglesias<\/a><\/strong> (who spent the entire \u201917 season in the majors) has more innings pitched. (Somewhat ironically, Neris ranks third among all relievers in innings pitched during that time.) From 2018-25, only two innings separate Iglesias (466 2\/3) and Hader (464 2\/3) for the MLB lead.<\/p>\n

After an up-and-down first year with Houston in 2024, Hader has been back to his typically dominant self in 2025. He\u2019s totaled 52 2\/3 innings and worked to a 2.05 earned run average while piling up 28 saves and punching out an outstanding 36.9% of his opponents against a quality 7.6% walk rate. Hader\u2019s sinker is averaging 95.5 mph, down about a half-mile from last season, and he\u2019s throwing his slider more than ever before \u2014 at a 41.4% clip. His colossal 21.1% swinging-strike rate is tied with Mason Miller<\/a><\/strong> for tops among all big league pitchers \u2014 starters and relievers alike \u2014 with at least 10 innings pitched this season.<\/p>\n

Hader is in the second season of a five-year, $95MM contract he signed as a free agent in the 2023-24 offseason. It\u2019s the second-largest contract ever for a reliever, both in terms of total guarantee and average annual value, trailing only Edwin Diaz<\/a><\/strong> (in both regards). That contract pays him an evenly distributed $19MM annually from 2024-28.<\/p>\n

As for the 36-year-old Neris, he\u2019s pitched for the Astros, Angels and Braves this year but struggled with all three. The right-hander has pitched a combined 26 2\/3 innings with just a 6.75 ERA to show for it. Much of the damage against him came early in the season with Atlanta, but Neris posted a 5.14 with the Angels and is at 5.40 in 11 2\/3 frames during what\u2019s been his third stint as a member of the Houston bullpen.<\/p>\n

While Neris has never exactly been a flamethrower, this year\u2019s 92.4 mph average four-seamer is a career-low, falling shy of last year\u2019s career-low 93 mph average. The 92.6 mph he\u2019s averaging on his sinker is also a career-low. Neris is generating fewer whiffs, chases and grounders than ever before on his go-to splitter as well.<\/p>\n

Since the trade deadline has passed, the Astros\u2019 only course of action with Neris will be to place him on outright waivers or release waivers. They\u2019re effectively the same thing for a player in Neris\u2019 situation at this point, as he has the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency anyhow and is quite likely to do so. If another club can get the veteran righty back on track, he\u2019d be postseason-eligible with that new team so long as he was signed prior to Sept. 1.<\/p>\n

With Hader on the shelf and Neris off the roster, the Houston bullpen will now look to righty Bryan Abreu<\/a><\/strong> as its anchor. He\u2019s the immediate favorite to pick up saves in Hader\u2019s place. Lefties Bryan King<\/a><\/strong>, Bennett Sousa<\/a><\/strong> and Steven Okert<\/a><\/strong> all have a 3.10 ERA or better on the season and figure to collect the majority of setup opportunities while Hader is out.<\/p>\n

Since the Astros don\u2019t have another shutdown righty beyond Abreu, it\u2019s at least possible that Abreu could see work in the eighth inning if the Astros\u2019 opponent has a run of tough righties, which would thus leave the ninth inning for one of that trio of lefties. That said, both King and Okert have been terrific against both righties and lefties. That gives manager Joe Espada plenty of options late in the game, but the loss of Hader is nonetheless a crucial blow as Houston tries to fend off a surging Mariners club that has rattled off seven straight wins to pull within one game of the AL West lead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"4:14pm: Espada tells the Astros beat that Hader will receive additional testing (link via Matt Kawahara of the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":141092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[11316,72336,34542,84152,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-141091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-colton-gordon","9":"tag-hector-neris","10":"tag-josh-hader","11":"tag-shawn-dubin","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115018806458965974","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}