Have the Houston Astros ever been “that” bad?

The Houston Astros got hot and fought to make the playoffs. Their recent turnaround has people wondering just how bad they were to begin with.

Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report believes that Houston has never been worse and that the early slump was mostly an illusion caused by numerous injuries.

The pitching staff is healthy and that is reflected in the stats.

In March/April of this season, Houston’s pitching staff ranked 26th in the league with a 5.01 ERA. In May, they climbed to 13th at 3.80.

As much of this jump is healthy in the starting rotation, the bullpen has also looked completely different.

The historic signing of Josh Hader got off to a rocky start as the reliever had his ERA up to 6.39. He has only been entitled to one point since the beginning of May. Only two relievers had an ERA above 4.00 in May, but neither of those pitchers are on the MLB roster.

Framber Valdez and Cristian Javier started May getting bombed out early, but both turned things around in their most recent starts. Justin Verlander is a slightly more complex case because he had as many good starts as bad starts in May.

The offense was already doing well overall, ranking in the top five in OPS to start the season, but it has also started to improve as its stars wake up.

The biggest change was Alex Bregman. At one point this season, his numbers were down to .189/.268/.252. His OPS is already at 0.637. He might not be on the Astros until the trade deadline, but he’s at least helping them win games right now.

While Houston may never have been a very bad team from a talent standpoint, they were certainly playing at a mediocre level. As this game-changing talent grew, the team began to grow overall.