Of the 55 players to appear in a regular season game for Houston in 2024, Parker Mushinski ranks had the 40th most positive impact.
First, a word on methodology.
Two years ago, I did “Oops! All Astros!” That was a player-by-player recap of every player to appear in Houston’s system from the Dominican Summer League right up to the majors. That may have been a little much, and it didn’t get very much engagement.
One year ago, I counted down all 975 players to have appeared in a major league game for the Houston Astros (née Colt .45s) through their first 62 seasons of major league play. Sure, that had a lot of engagement, but I didn’t sleep until February.
This time, I’m sticking a little closer to home. Using one simple counting metric (plate appearances for hitters, batters faced for pitchers) and one advanced “quality” metric (OPS+ for hitters, ERA+ for pitchers), I’m able to order the 55 players to appear for Houston this season. I do this simply by multiplying one by the other (PA*OPS+ or BF*ERA+).
We’ll get to the main event with just a bit further adieu. For informational purposes only, here are the 15 Astros who’s impact ranged from slightly more than nothing to almost something.
55. Grae Kessinger
54. Cooper Hummel
53. Pedro Leon
52. Aledmys Diaz
51. Jacob Ayama
50. Wander Suero
49. Miguel Diaz
48. Dylan Coleman
47. Forrest Whitley
46. Blair Henley
45. Joel Kuhnel
44. Jose Abréu
43. Alex Speas
42. Luis Contreras
41. Nick Hernandez
Now, without further adieu, your number 40 most positively impactful Houston Astro of 2024, Parker Mushinski.
Parker Mushinski only faced 50 batters in 2024, and racked up an ERA+ of 50. Maybe that’s not much, but it’s better than the 15 players listed above. This was his third season to play just a little in Houston’s bullpen. To wit, in 31 career appearances, he’s piled up a 0-0 record and a 5.45 ERA in 33 innings.
Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images
This season, Parker walked five and struck out three. Coming into the season, his career K/BB was 3.29. Since it’s such a small sample size, I think we can do away with talk of “his best is behind him.”
In 10 games this year, Mushinski allowed eight earned runs (10 in total) on 11 hits for a 6.55 ERA. His 5.44 FIP and 1.455 WHIP were both improvements on his 2023 output — but that was also a small sample size.
Mushinski — a left-handed pitcher from Arlington — was Houston’s seventh round choice in the 2017 draft out of Texas Tech University. In 2018, he quickly made his impact known with a Midwest League 10th 114 strikeouts and a league-leading 11.53 K/9 while pitching with the Quad Cities River Bandits. He also led the league with 6.27 H/9 allowed, and ranked fourth with a 2.33 ERA.
WIth a five-pitch mix, Mushinski relied most heavily on his 88 MPH cut-fastball (41 percent usage) this year. This offering was seasoned with an 81 MPH curveball (22 percent), a 92 MPH four-seamer (19 percent), an 80 MPH sweeper (nine percent) and a 91 MPH sinker (nine percent).
Despite not missing very many bats in 2024, Mushinski induced an average exit velocity of 87.2 MPH, which would rank in the top 20 percent of baseball if he had pitched enough innings. Maybe more impressively, he was barreled up zero times out of 194 offerings in total.
Mushinski started the campaign on Houston’s major league roster, and appeared in two of Houston’s season-opening four-game series against the New York Yankees. In his best appearance of the season (0.064) WPA, Mushinski pitched a flawless sixth inning to successfully protect a 3-1 lead on May 30, striking out Anthony Rizzo then getting Alex Verdugo and Anthony Volpe to fly out. Unfortunately, the Yankees piled on the back-end of Houston’s bullpen, with three in the seventh off Bryan Abreu and one more in the eighth on a solo homer off Ryan Pressly. New York won, 5-3.
Of course, the greater balance of Mushinski’s season was played with the Triple-A Sugar Land Space Cowboys (née Skeeters). In 54 games he held opponents to a .257/.364/.372 slashline, with 30 walks and 58 strikeouts in 55 2⁄3 innings. He remains rostered with the Triple-A Champion Space Cowboys, and figures to be in the mix for a major league bullpen position in 2025.