Spencer Arrighetti started the 2026 season at Triple-A. He is now pitching in the company of Justin Verlander and Roger Clemens.
After five more scoreless innings Friday at Wrigley Field, Arrighetti’s ERA through his first seven starts of the season stands at 1.32—the ninth-lowest ERA through seven starts in Astros history. Since 2000, only two Astros have posted a lower ERA through their first seven starts: Verlander, who stood at 1.13 through seven in 2018, and Clemens, who was at 1.10 through seven in 2005.
Those are not names you typically invoke when discussing a 26-year-old right-hander who was optioned to the minors after a rough spring training and recalled only because injuries decimated the rotation around him. But here we are.
Arrighetti has started six of Houston’s 21 wins this season. The Astros are 6-1 in his seven outings. In his last two starts, he took a no-hit bid into the eighth inning against the Texas Rangers, then walked four and hit two batters in five scoreless innings against the Cubs—the latter the worst he said he’d felt about his stuff all year.
“Even when guys are putting bat to ball, they’re missing it a little bit,” Arrighetti said Friday. “I think those things are a better predictor of how I’m actually doing in terms of throwing it.”
That’s the understated version of what the numbers are saying. Opponents are hitting .159 against him. His ERA entering Friday was the best among qualified American League starters. The two hits he allowed against Chicago—back-to-back flares clocked at 67.8 and 62.4 mph off the bat—tell you something about the quality of contact he’s generating.
None of this was expected. Arrighetti made the Astros’ Opening Day roster in 2025, then broke his thumb in early April and missed most of the season. He came to spring training this year with something to prove and instead posted a 6.25 ERA in exhibition play, earning a return trip to Sugar Land. He went 3-0 with a 1.26 ERA in three Triple-A starts before the big league rotation started coming apart at the seams.
He has not let it come apart further. In a season defined by injury and inconsistency at the top of the rotation, Arrighetti has been the one name you can pencil in and trust. For a 21-31 team still within reach of a division it has owned for nearly a decade, that matters more than the ERA next to his name, though that number is pretty hard to ignore, too.
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