When the Houston Astros signed Japanese star Tatsuya Imai in January, it was a move that general manager Dana Brown was going to help ease the loss of left-hander Framber Valdez. Slotting him behind Hunter Brown at the top of the rotation made too much sense.

However, as nobody can predict, injuries have played a huge part in the Astros ' struggles to begin the 2026 season. On their season-opening road trip, they lost three starters to injuries, Brown, Imai and Christian Javier. All of those injuries required injured-list stops for those starters.

Imai began working his way back from his injury.…