All eyes will be on how general manager Dana Brown handles his first offseason since taking over the role in January 2023.

He’ll have to navigate his first search for a manager and figure out what areas of the roster can be reasonably upgraded to get the Houston Astros back into the World Series.

The Astros expected to get two of their starting pitchers back into the 2024 rotation after Lance McCullers Jr. missed all of 2023 and Luis Garcia was done for the year after six starts.

But unfortunately for Houston, they were dealt some bad news about the return of their star.

“Scott Boras said today that Lance McCullers Jr. is ‘certainly going to be pitching next year, no doubt’ but did not provide a specific timeline for when he could be back. Dana Brown said yesterday that it could be early July,” Chandler Rome of The Athletic reported.

That is a major blow to the Astros, but not something completely unexpected.

Now, they will have to once again rely on the young starters J.P. France and Hunter Brown to begin next season.

Or, this could be the push that the front office needs to aggressively pursue a free agent starter or make a trade to get another into the mix.

It could be argued that either of those approaches should be what Brown does this offseason anyway. There’s no assurance that McCullers Jr. returns to being the solid starter that he was before the injury.

So, as Houston formulates their plan of attack in free agency, they seemingly having a pressing need that can be addressed.