Those who believed in Astros prospect AJ Blubaugh relish his big league debut

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HOUSTON — Belief brought AJ Blubaugh to the pinnacle of his profession, a place few presumed he’d ever reach. Those who did gathered on the backstop before the biggest day of Blubaugh’s life, swapping stories of how a “sidearm knuckleballer who played shortstop” found himself as a spot starter for the Houston Astros.

“We probably talk too much,” Drew Pearson said on Wednesday morning. “I probably bug him too much. We text all the time. Phone calls. We had that bond from the beginning, so I feel comfortable with it.”

Blubaugh phoned Pearson around 11:30 on Monday night to tell him of his promotion. Astros amateur scouting director Cam Pendino followed, congratulating Pearson on the first major leaguer of his scouting career.

Few members of a baseball organization relish a major-league debut more than the player’s signing scout. It is an affirmation of advocacy that sometimes spans years, proof that pounding the table in a draft room can pay dividends.

“I just knew deep down the kid was special,” Pearson said. “I don’t think I could stomach seeing him in a different uniform on a big league field, so I’m glad we got him.”

Pearson played baseball at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee before becoming the school’s volunteer assistant coach in 2018.

During Pearson’s first season, pitching coach Cory Bigler brought him and the coaching staff video of Blubaugh, a scrawny pitcher from a podunk town in Ohio. Watching the video left the coaching staff “scratching our heads,” Pearson said. Blubaugh weighed 90 pounds as a high school freshman and, at age 16, topped out at 60 mph.

“A drop-down knuckleball guy with no arm strength,” Pearson said.

“We just kind of took a flyer on him,” said Scott Doffek, Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s longtime head coach.

When they did, Pearson and Blubaugh’s careers became forever intertwined, even if their coach-player relationship spanned just one pandemic-shortened season. In March 2020, Pearson left the school to become a video coordinator in the Astros’ amateur scouting department.

Nine months later, Houston promoted Pearson to Midwest area scout, the position he still holds. His coverage zone includes Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, Nebraska and, to Blubaugh’s advantage, Wisconsin. Blubaugh blossomed into Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s closer during his sophomore season, striking out 37 batters across 27 1/3 innings.

“He had the pitch makeup where you could see the end result here was going to be a starting pitcher,” Doffek said.

Few in professional baseball knew this. Pearson did. He pushed the Astros to select Blubaugh in the 2021 draft — his draft as an area scout. Blubaugh’s birthday is on the Fourth of July, close enough to the cutoff date for college sophomores that Pearson still believes some teams weren’t even aware of Blubaugh’s draft eligibility.

The absence of a true breaking ball in Blubaugh’s arsenal worried some in Houston’s draft room. So did his lack of an agent, which prompted concerns Blubaugh might not sign if the Astros drafted him. Bear in mind, Houston did not have a first- or second-round pick as punishment for electronically stealing signs, heightening the scrutiny on each selection.

“It was just a riskier pick. We didn’t know how it would work out,” Pearson said. “I understood it. It’s part of it. I just knew deep down the kid was special.”

A subsequent, standout summer in the Cape Cod League paired with Pearson’s persistence and the Astros chose Blubaugh in the seventh round of the 2022 draft. He is the only pitcher from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee to ever make the major leagues. Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Daulton Varsho is the school’s only other big leaguer.

“There’s just really good baseball players that come from everywhere,” Doffek said. “You don’t have to be at a Power 5 on a huge NIL deal or anything like that. You can be a late bloomer, find the right person to help develop you, then it’s about that guy going to work and recognizing the opportunities in front of them on a day-to-day basis and that’s exactly what he does.”

Doffek joined Pearson, his former pupil, in Houston on Wednesday afternoon. Shaun Wegner, who succeeded Doffek following his retirement in 2023, flanked both men on the field where Blubaugh authored a bumpy debut.

Blubaugh struck out six and scattered five hits across four innings of seven-run ball. Detroit spoiled 20 of his pitches foul and averaged a 97.9 mph exit velocity on the 12 it put in play. Just two of the Tigers’ runs were earned, a consequence of Jeremy Peña botching a double play ball at the beginning of a five-run third inning.

Blubaugh generated a whiff with the first major-league pitch he threw: a 93.8 mph sinker that halved home plate. His four-seam fastball reached 97.1 mph and settled around 94. Four of his six strikeouts came against the sweeper that some in Houston’s draft room once worried would never develop.

It wasn’t the greatest debut for A.J. Blubaugh, but he did some good things.

16 whiffs on 48 swings, including this curveball that had 58 inches of drop. pic.twitter.com/pOXswYXEgN

— Astros Stats 📈 (@astro_numbers) April 30, 2025

“That was the biggest question mark and why he slipped in the draft,” Pearson said. “But he had a unique ability to manipulate the baseball — long fingers and wiry. We figured with our (player development) staff and how good those guys are, we could get him to a workable slider. He’s surpassed the workable phase of the slider.”

The 21 sweepers Blubaugh spun generated a 33 percent called strike/whiff rate — higher than any of the six pitches he threw. Javier Báez snuck one of the sweepers into the Crawford Boxes for a back-breaking grand slam in the third inning, staking Blubaugh and the Astros to a six-run deficit they couldn’t overcome.

“I learned I’m better than I think I am, but I definitely have more room to grow,” Blubaugh said.

“I’m proud of the way I handled myself. Proud of the team for picking me up when I was down. I’m just so happy. This is a day I’ve been dreaming of. It’s not the end goal, but it’s a good step in the right direction.”

Following the game, Houston optioned Blubaugh back to Triple-A Sugar Land, unsurprising given the looming return of Lance McCullers Jr. and Hayden Wesneski’s continued presence on the active roster. That Blubaugh is now on the 40-man roster puts him in a prime position for more major-league exposure this season.

“I really like the makeup of this kid,” manager Joe Espada said. “He shows the qualities that some of our young starters that have come up here in the past have shown. He’s got that temperament that we are looking for, the toughness.”

Something others have known from the start.

“After about a year of being with him, I told him that I believed he was going to be here,” Doffek said. “The kid is just different and it really smacks you in the face when you’re around him. His character is off the charts and I think the character really exudes when you watch him pitch.”

(Photo of Blubaugh: Tim Warner / Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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