Star Astros closer Josh Hader will begin the 2026 season on the 15-day injured list, manager Joe Espada announced to the team’s beat this morning (via Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle). He’s been slowed by a biceps issue this spring after missing the final seven weeks of the 2025 season due to a capsule strain in his shoulder. Hader has progressed to throwing and pitched an encouraging bullpen session yesterday, Kawahara adds, but the team simply won’t have enough time to get him built up before the season begins. Righty Bryan Abreu will very likely be in line to close games for Houston while Hader is shelved.
Hader’s Opening Day status has been an ongoing question throughout camp. Both the left-hander himself and team officials have repeatedly expressed optimism about the manner in which he’s progressing through rehab while simultaneously declining to commit to an Opening Day timetable.
While it’s an obvious blow to the Astros’ early-season fortunes, it’s still relatively good news. There’s no indication that last year’s shoulder injury has carried over into the 2026 season, nor does it seem the biceps injury is particularly nefarious. The Astros’ track record when it comes to framing player injuries is worth keeping in mind, but to this point it seems there’s hope for Hader to be back in Espada’s bullpen relatively early in the season.
Abreu, 29 in April, is among the stronger fallback options any team has for its closer in all of baseball. The 6’1″, 230-pound flamethrower owns a masterful 2.30 earned run average across his past four seasons in Houston. He’s punched out at least 31.7% of his opponents in each of those four seasons and 34.3% overall. Abreu’s 10.4% walk rate could stand to improve, but he’s proven so adept at missing bats that the slightly elevated walk rate hasn’t been a real issue for him. Abreu sat 97.3 mph on his four-seamer last season, and his 16.6% swinging-strike rate since 2022 ranks sixth among the 280 big league pitchers who’ve tossed at least 200 innings in that time (trailing only Hader, Andrés Muñoz, Dylan Lee, Devin Williams and Ryan Helsley).
As for Hader, an exact target date for his return remains up in the air. His 2025 season was shaping up to be one of his best. Prior to his injury, that lanky southpaw tossed 52 2/3 innings with a 2.05 ERA, a 36.9% strikeout rate, a 7.8% walk rate (second-lowest in his career) and 28 saves in 29 opportunities. He’s entering the third season of a five-year, $95MM contract signed prior to the 2024 campaign.
