Bryan Abreu is broken. Can the Astros put him back together?

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Seventh-inning relievers aren’t entitled to such special treatment, so there stood Abreu on Friday night. An apathetic crowd didn’t acknowledge his arrival or reach for their cellphones. The lights didn’t change. Music played as mere background noise while a broken pitcher bounded toward the mound. In their attempt to put him back together, the Houston Astros are searching for ideal spots to deploy Abreu. None exist, but if Abreu is on the 26-man roster, he must pitch in some capacity. On Friday, the team chose the seventh inning of a game it trailed by one run. Within seven minutes, Abreu grew the deficit to four. “The mental game is kind of tougher than it looks like,” Abreu said afterward. “It’s a lot of overthinking, a lot of questioning of myself. It’s been tough.” Doubt has crept into every crevice of Abreu’s mind. His delivery and mechanics are so inconsistent that his velocity is suffering. Trying to correct those mechanics mid-outing has led to horrific command. Of the 183 pitches Abreu has thrown this season, 91 have been strikes — a 49.7 percent clip that is difficult to comprehend. The seven four-seam fastballs Abreu threw on Friday averaged 95.4 mph, down 1.9 mph from last season. Earlier this year, team officials attributed the drop in velocity to mechanical issues. “I would just rather be as natural as I can and try to get the velo out there because sometimes I can hit 98. But the very next day I can be 95,” Abreu said. “That’s something I can work on, trying to keep my delivery and mechanics as clean as I can so the velo can come back.” In his attempts to fix it, Abreu said he is wary of “forcing my arm when I’m in the wrong delivery because that could cause me an injury.” Bear in mind, Abreu is set to enter free agency after this season. That itself must create another avalanche of doubt. Each dreadful outing is destroying what should’ve been a delightful free-agent market for a soon-to-turn 29-year-old reliever at the peak of his prowess. From 2022 to 2025, only four relievers were worth more wins above replacement than Abreu, according to FanGraphs: Emmanuel Clase, Griffin Jax, Edwin Diaz and Devin Williams. Beginning this season as Houston’s closer in Josh Hader’s stead seemed like an audition for Abreu to be paid like either Diaz or Williams. “It’s been a tough beginning of the season for me and for the team as well,” Abreu said. Abreu is a convenient scapegoat, but not the sole cause of this calamitous start. Injuries to Hader, Hunter Brown and Cristian Javier have crippled the club. Tatsuya Imai’s “arm fatigue” hasn’t helped. Abreu is just a piece of what remains — baseball’s worst pitching staff, one that surrendered nine more runs on Friday night and inflated its ERA to an MLB-worst 6.15. Abreu’s ERA is 14.73, a number skewed by small sample size yet still indicative of how awful his first nine appearances have been. A baserunner has reached in every one of them. All but one appearance has featured a walk, including the four-pitch free pass to Jordan Walker on Friday. Nolan Gorman followed it with a three-run home run. Abreu has now allowed four home runs in his first 7 1/3 innings. He allowed four home runs across 71 frames last season. Abreu plays one of the sport’s most volatile positions, but has still authored a decline that is difficult to fathom. He began the season as one of the sport’s 10 best relievers by almost every available metric. Now, it may be malpractice to continue pitching him. “We have to continue to give him opportunities and prepare him to pitch,” said manager Joe Espada. “He’s one of the best relievers in the game. The only way we can tap into that again is (to) continue to give him opportunities — prep him, get him ready, show him some video, mechanical changes if he needs it.” Asked on Friday whether he is healthy, Abreu replied: “Yes, sir.” Espada reiterated it. Even if that is correct, this is the same team housing an $18 million starting pitcher on the injured list due to “right arm fatigue,” and, according to imaging, there is nothing wrong with his arm. Abreu reached five years of major-league service time last season, affording him the right to refuse an option to the minor leagues. Barring Abreu accepting one — which is difficult to imagine during his platform year — Houston has no choice but to allow him to work through his struggles while on the 26-man roster. How to do it is a mystery. Houston has the sport’s fifth-highest scoring offense. The team ERA sits over six. Few lopsided games get played with that combination, forcing Espada and pitching coach Josh Miller to find lower leverage spots for Abreu that, in reality, don’t exist. One-run games in the seventh inning qualify as high-leverage. Abreu entered it anyway on Friday, but what choice did Houston have? Leverage reliever Kai-Wei Teng pitched two innings during Thursday’s 3-2 loss. So did AJ Blubaugh. It stood to reason Espada was saving Bryan King and Enyel De Los Santos, the two closest things Houston has to a setup man and closer, for if Houston took the lead. Abreu ensured that would not happen. “We have to continue to help him and guide him through this,” Espada said. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Chandler Rome is a Staff Writer for The Athletic covering the Houston Astros. Before joining The Athletic, he covered the Astros for five years at the Houston Chronicle. He is a graduate of Louisiana State University. Follow Chandler on Twitter @Chandler_Rome