When the Houston Astros signed Japanese star Tatsuya Imai in January, it was a move that general manager Dana Brown was going to help ease the loss of left-hander Framber Valdez. Slotting him behind Hunter Brown at the top of the rotation made too much sense. However, as nobody can predict, injuries have played a huge part in the Astros ' struggles to begin the 2026 season. On their season-opening road trip, they lost three starters to injuries, Brown, Imai and Christian Javier. All of those injuries required injured-list stops for those starters. Imai began working his way back from his injury. His start against the Seattle Mariners was seen as a huge step toward the starting rotation improving and slowly returning to full strength. As it turns out, his start was not a good one, but manager Joe Espada's quote after the game shows just what a dire situation his rotation is in.…