Last season, Josh James was one of the prospects the Astros had on their radar, literally and figuratively, as one of the pitchers to round out the starting rotation. Unfortunately for James, he suffered a strained quadricep early in spring training and was shut down for a period of time. As a result, he was taken out of the competition for a starting spot and was relegated to the bullpen for the 2019 season.
James is once again in the running to make the starting rotation and is ironically competing with the same pitchers, Brad Peacock and Framber Valdez.