Brent Strom is back in Houston. Astros skipper Joe Espada announced this afternoon that the veteran coach with return to the team as a pitching consultant for the rest of this season (links via Chandler Rome of The Athletic and Brian McTaggart of MLB.com). Strom will meet the team in Queens and be in the dugout starting with tomorrow’s series against the Mets.
The 77-year-old Strom emerged as perhaps the game’s most highly-respected pitching coach during his previous run in Houston. He began his coaching tenure with Houston for the 1996 season. The former big leaguer had a brief stint with the Royals and spent time coaching in the St. Louis farm system before returning to Houston over the 2013-14 offseason.
It was during that second run that Strom developed his reputation for blending old school feel with pitch data. He served as Houston’s pitching coach from 2014-21, a stretch in which the Astros were fifth in ERA and fourth in strikeout rate.
That included Cy Young seasons from Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander. Gerrit Cole developed into a consistent top-of-the-rotation force, while the Astros got strong work from unheralded pickups like Charlie Morton and Collin McHugh. They also had a particular knack for developing international signees who’d never been marquee prospects (e.g. Framber Valdez, José Urquidy).
Strom left the organization after the ’21 campaign. He spent three seasons as the lead pitching instructor with the Diamondbacks and was Pittsburgh’s assistant pitching coach last year. Josh Miller has been Houston’s pitching coach for the last five seasons. The Astros hired Ethan Katz as their assistant pitching coach last winter. They don’t have a designated bullpen coach.
Houston’s pitching staff has been a disappointment this season. Most of their offseason acquisitions haven’t panned out, which surely contributed to owner Jim Crane’s decision to move on from GM Dana Brown on Monday. Minor league signee Peter Lambert has been a great find, but bigger swings for Tatsuya Imai and Mike Burrows haven’t worked.
The rotation has a 5.17 ERA, the third-worst mark in MLB (above only the Rockies and A’s). The bullpen has been quite good since a nightmare April. The Astros enter play tonight in the Bronx with a 66-67 record that still has them a half game up on Texas for first place in a bad year for the AL West.
