“But will he continue to perform in HEB commercials?” - Astros fans lash out as Lance McCullers Jr. goes down with another injury

Fans reacted as the Houston Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. has been told to stop pitching temporarily because his arm didn't respond well between practice sessions. The team has slowed down his recovery to give him more time to heal.

Astros manager Joe Espada told Chandler Rome of the Athletic that McCullers won't be throwing for a few days while the team figures out what they should do to help him get better.

Fans took to X/Twitter to react to the news, with many criticizing Lance McCullers:

“But will he continue to perform in HEB commercials?!?” a fan said.

“This dude just needs to retire and focus on whatever business he is going to run after baseball,” another fan said.

“Is this organization ever gonna do anything about this? This should be the perfect moment to package him up in a trade and ship him off,” another fan wrote.

Other fan reactions continued, with some supporting McCullers, while others suggested trading him.

“Cue the all the loser’s bashing him for no reason who have probably never faced a third of the adversity of the he’s had to face,” a comment reads.

“Love Mccullers but team needs to seriously evaluate moving on,” another comment reads.

“This guy just needs to hang it up. Unfortunate, but hey save the arm for making coffee!” someone wrote.

The Houston Astros have been looking to improve their starting pitching, and the McCullers situation has made it clear that they urgently need to strengthen their rotation before the trade deadline on July 30.

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Astros manager Joe Espada opens up on Lance McCullers Jr.'s injury

Lance McCullers Jr. has been recovering from surgery to repair the flexor tendon in his pitching arm, which ended his 2023 season in June.

When asked whether his issues are with his elbow, Astros manager Joe Espada said (via Houston Chronicle):

“Just soreness in his arm ... We want to make sure we check him out and why he’s not able to bounce back and recover after his bullpens. So we’ll get some specifics here in the next day or two.”

McCullers last pitched for the Astros during the 2022 season, where he made eight starts with a very good 2.27 ERA and also pitched in three postseason games.