Houston Astros sign former Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher

Houston has inked right-hander Nate Pearson to a one-year, $1.35MM deal, reported Chandler Rome of The Athletic. Pearson is expected to work as a starter for the Astros.

The hard-throwing righty made four starts as a rookie with the Blue Jays.

Houston is likely betting on pedigree here. Pearson was a first-round selection for Toronto back in 2017.

His development was delayed by a broken arm and an oblique injury in 2018, but he broke through with a tremendous 2019 season in the minors.

Pearson tossed 101 2/3 innings across three levels, notching a 2.30 ERA with a 30.7% strikeout rate over 25 starts.

He's made 118 appearances over the past five seasons, and all but two have been out of the bullpen.

Pearson spent the last season and a half with the Cubs. He came to Chicago in 2024 via a midseason trade from Toronto.

Pearson made 11 appearances with the Cubs this past season. He broke camp with the team, but gave up 10 earned runs over his first 8 2/3 innings and soon found himself back at Triple-A.

Pearson made it back up for a weekend in June, only to be hammered for five earned runs in his lone appearance.

His final stint with the big-league club would be two solid outings in August, when he tossed four scoreless innings.

In total, Pearson posted a 9.20 ERA across 14 2/3 MLB innings, including an untenable 7:10 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Chicago released Pearson during the final week of the regular season.

A major-league agreement for Pearson might seem surprising given his recent output at the highest level, but his results were much better at Triple-A Iowa.

Pearson recorded a 2.22 ERA with a stellar 30.6% K% across 38 minor-league outings.

Free passes remained a problem (12.9% walk rate), but Triple-A batters hit just .170 against Pearson.