Latest Astros injury update proves Dana Brown didn't do enough at deadline

The Houston Astros are no strangers to the injury bug this season. They have seen injuries take away some of their best players with Kyle Tucker being the most notable name that has missed a ton of time.

Besides Tucker, the Astros have suffered a significant number of injuries to their pitching, namely their starting pitching. They have seen multiple arms go down to elbow surgery this season with other arms still recovering from injuries last year.

Justin Verlander has missed some time as well. Their starting pitching was a key piece to the puzzle that they needed to upgrade at the trade deadline. They did so, adding Yusei Kikuchi in a trade with the Blue Jays, where many thought Houston overpaid. That's not the topic of discussion though.

Dana Brown didn't do enough at the deadline and it's becoming more obvious by the day.

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Astros take another hit to their starting pitching this season

One of the reasons that Dana Brown didn't hit the market harder was the fact that he was under the assumption that pitchers like Lance McCullers Jr. and Luis Garcia would be making their returns to the big league mound this season.

But Astros manager Joe Espada recently told reporters that McCullers likely wouldn't pitch this season.

Given the injured state of the Astros pitchers, this is a huge hit to the roster. McCullers has always been a very reliable arm and to lose him for the entire year hurts this roster quite a bit.

Luckily for Houston, they were able to acquire a very consistent arm in Kikuchi, who has already made a superb start for the Astros. But he won't be enough to lead their team all the way into the postseason. This rotation is a disaster waiting to collapse.

Verlander is on the older side of his big league career and he's struggled with injuries. He's an ace when healthy, but he's struggling with the latter right now. Ronel Blanco has been good this year, but his career FIP is near a 5.00 which indicates he could struggle soon, regressing to the mean. Kikuchi is a solid pitcher, but he's not the arm you can trot out against an ace in the playoffs.

The Astros had a chance to add a ton of pitching at the deadline and they opted to just add one starter. They could have been more aggressive in the market for Jack Flaherty or Cal Quantrill, but Dana Brown tucked his tail and now it could come back to hurt them.