NEW YORK - Bringing Brent Strom back into a baseball role did not require a hard sell.
"I know one thing," a smiling Strom said at Citi Field on Saturday. "This retirement job is the worst job I've ever had."
About 48 hours earlier, Strom said, his phone had rung. It was Jeff Bagwell, the Houston Astros' senior advisor and one of several executives handling baseball operations after the team parted with general manager Dana Brown this week. Bagwell asked if Strom, the 77-year-old longtime pitching coach, would be interested in rejoining the Astros as a pitching consultant for the rest of this season.
"I looked at my wife, she said, ‘Do it,' and that was the answer right there," Strom said.
So after joining the Astros in New York on Friday, watching their series opener on TV in the clubhouse at Citi Field, Strom was on the field Saturday afternoon in Houston gear again, observing pitchers he will work with for the next month-plus. Manager Joe Espada described Strom as a "fresh set of eyes," who will complement pitching coach Josh Miller and assistant Ethan Katz down the stretch.
"We're just picking his brain," Espada said. "He's already working. He's already got some things that we can all discuss. And again I'm just excited to have him around and his experience and I think the players will really benefit."
The Astros entered Saturday with a two-game lead in the American League West despite a 4.64 ERA, which ranked sixth-highest in the majors. Their starters had the majors' third-highest ERA (5.11) and eighth-fewest innings pitched. They began play Saturday with 27 games left in their regular season.
"I just want people to realize this is not a nostalgia tour for me at all," Strom said. "I'm here to help Josh and Ethan as much as I can, just a different set of eyes and ears, and if I can help in a little bit of a way to help this team get in the playoffs."
The window for that is short. Strom said upon accepting his role, he went online and did "a deep dive as quickly as I could" on some of the Astros' pitching metrics.
First-pitch strike percentage stood out as "a concern," Strom said. The Astros entered Saturday with the majors' seventh-lowest first-pitch strike rate. They were also tied with the Angels for the sport's highest walk rate. Strom added that "possibly there's some things on pitch sequencing" that could be altered to "just kind of change the look that we're giving opposing teams."
"I think we've been so successful as a pitching staff in the past doing certain things, perhaps the league may have caught up with what our (trends) are," Strom said. "And maybe if we can alter that a little bit, we'll have a little more success."
Strom served as the Astros' pitching coach from 2014-21, a stretch in which the team reached three World Series and produced two Cy Young winners. Their staff ranked second in baseball in ERA from 2015-21. Strom's departure after the 2021 season left Miller and Bill Murphy, now the head pitching coach in Pittsburgh, leading the staff in Houston.
Miller is in his eighth season on the Astros' major-league coaching staff and sixth as pitching coach. Houston hired Katz last offseason, after five seasons as pitching coach of the White Sox, to replace Murphy's role. Strom emphasized that he is "here to complement" the two pitching coaches. Espada offered Miller and Katz a vote of confidence before Saturday's game.
"They have done an incredible job," Espada said. "Injuries, there's been some underperforming, some new faces, young guys, and we find ourselves in September in first place, because they have helped us turn things around.
"For me it's more a fresh set of eyes, how we move forward in our future (with) our program, adapting, adjusting to what the hitters are doing differently. Those are the things that … I want to hear from Strommy (about). It has nothing to do with the job that Josh and Ethan are doing because they've done an incredible job."
Strom has previous familiarity with some pitchers on Houston's staff. Reliever Bryan Abreu and starter Cristian Javier both debuted during his tenure as pitching coach. Strom was an assistant pitching coach last season in Pittsburgh, where he worked with starter Mike Burrows. Hunter Brown said he talked to Strom during spring trainings but had not worked closely with him.
"I'm looking forward to seeing what he brings to the table, right?" Brown said. "He's got a heck of a résumé and a ton of knowledge. … Excited to get under the hood and see what he has for me."
After his time as Houston's pitching coach, Strom served as the Diamondbacks' pitching coach for three seasons from 2022-24, then as an assistant with the Pirates for one season. Espada characterized his addition as for the rest of this season. Strom said if he were to stay involved with Houston beyond that, it would be "consulting or something like that" and he harbors no desire to be a head pitching coach again.
"I don't need the stress at this time in my life," Strom said. "I take things personally. So I don't know, whatever the future brings."
Strom roamed the outfield grass as pitchers played catch Saturday afternoon and walked to the bullpen while Peter Lambert and Tatsuya Imai threw there. He said he had met all of the pitchers by that point. Espada plans to have Strom in the dugout during games down the stretch and stressed that "there is no such thing as a small window to make an impact."
"All I know is if we can get in the playoffs, anything can happen," Strom said. "I learned that with the Diamondbacks (in 2023) when we got in and we made some noise. So that's the key is just to get in."
SubscribeThere’s more to Houston with the Chronicle. Subscribe today for just 25¢.This article originally published at Brent Strom was bad at retirement. Now he's trying to help right Astros' pitching in a playoff race.
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