Brent Strom comes back to the Astros, returning to a familiar pitching routine

Brent Strom’s offseason retirement lasted long enough to confirm what he believes now, the kind of work he does in baseball is hard to replace. Moments after meeting Astros pitcher Tatsuya Imai on the outfield grass at Citi Field on a sunny Saturday afternoon, Strom walked with the right-hander to the visiting bullpen and fell into the rhythm that made him a fixture around pitching staffs. It was the same hands-on posture, the same attention to how individual pitches play together, and the same willingness to stay after the surface is set and the work is still unfinished.

Strom’s return, according to MLB, is framed as a move back into his element after retirement. The storyline begins with a blunt assessment from Strom himself about why he came back. In the Astros’ facilities and on major league mounds, Strom has long been known as a pitching coach and teacher, and he described retirement as “the worst job I ever had,” a remark included in the club’s report of the return. In other words, he did not treat his time away as a clean separation from the day-to-day mechanics of pitching.

At Citi Field, the setting mattered because the bullpen is where information becomes actionable. Strom did not simply observe. He met with Imai and went to work with him as part of the Astros’ live-day routine, bringing the kind of coaching focus Houston’s staff has depended on in various iterations throughout recent seasons. The goal, as characterized in the report, was to help pitchers in the final phase of the schedule by sharpening details while game situations still demand fast, repeatable execution.

Manager Joe Espada’s involvement provides the organizational context for Strom’s presence. MLB’s account links Strom’s return directly to Espada’s intent, saying the Astros’ manager hopes the knowledge and coaching Strom is known for can benefit the pitching staff as Houston moves through the last stretch of the regular season. For an MLB team, that is a practical timeline, the weeks where small mechanical or decision-making improvements can show up in live results, and where bullpen usage and matchups demand pitchers who can execute multiple looks with confidence.

For Houston, this is also a reminder of how much the Astros’ coaching infrastructure values specialized pitching instruction. Strom’s reputation has typically been less about a single “secret” and more about organized teaching, building patterns, and translating training into the pace of a game. In bullpen sessions, where pitchers can isolate grips, deliveries, and sequences without the same time constraints of batting practice, a coach’s influence is often most visible.

There is, naturally, a caveat to any midseason coaching narrative: the return itself does not automatically translate to measurable change in the standings. The bullpen is only one piece of the pitching picture, and performance is influenced by health, fatigue, and the opposition’s adjustments. Still, Strom’s presence at a major league ballpark, working directly with Imai in the visiting bullpen, suggests Houston is treating pitching development as an ongoing process rather than a finished product.

What to watch next is how the Astros apply this coaching attention in the games that follow. Strom’s return is likely to show up not only in day-to-day bullpen work, but in how pitchers approach sequences and how Houston’s staff handles late-inning pressure as the season tightens. If his coaching emphasis resonates with the group, the payoff for Espada’s staff will be a bullpen that can repeat its best decisions under the sport’s most exacting conditions.