Cristian Javier’s return from Tommy John surgery has been a study in reinvention, but Thursday in the Bronx he flashed something wonderfully familiar: pure, unfiltered gas. Working a 1-2 count to Aaron Judge, Javier reached back for 95.5 mph — his hardest pitch since returning — and dotted the top of the zone.
For a pitcher whose mystique was built on a riding four-seamer that played above bats, that single heater felt like a checkpoint moment as much as a strike attempt. It said the ceiling is still there. Before the injury, Javier was baseball’s poster child for the modern high fastball: average velocity, obscene carry, and a tunnel with a sweeper that made barrels disappear. Lineups eventually adjusted, and even Javier began pivoting before his elbow gave out, sprinkling in more changeups.
Post-surgery, the shift has become intentional. Over his first four starts back, he’s mixed five pitches, pairing the classic four-seamer/sweeper to righties with more changeups and curves to lefties, and even folding in a sinker to create vertical and horizontal separation. It’s a more conventional shape for a starter, and it’s working in flashes.
Christian Javier looks to continue to get back to his former self for Astros
He’s kept the ball in the yard, even as the walk rate has been choppy, and he’s shown enough pitchability to navigate without living exclusively at the letters. That’s why the 95.5 to Judge matters. Velocity in a post-TJ ramp can lag or yo-yo start to start; teams watch not only the peak but when it shows up. Javier hitting that number late in a pressure sequence against the game’s most dangerous power bat hints at confidence in his arm and his delivery.
It also re-energizes the four-seamer’s entire ecosystem. The harder he can throw the four-seam when he wants it, the more the sinker/changup blend plays arm-side, and the more the sweeper looks like it’s falling off a table glove-side. The chessboard opens up.
All of this is happening as the Astros, four games clear in the AL West with three weeks left, tries to lock down October while smoothing real cracks on the staff. They’ve welcomed back Luis Garcia and are managing Lance McCullers Jr.’s fits and starts; Framber Valdez remains a hammer, even if headlines chased him for the wrong reason. Javier is the swing piece because his best version is a playoff trump card — the same guy who smothered the Yankees in the 2022 ALCS and fronted a World Series no-hitter with two pitches.
Now, with five, and with the radar gun ticking up, the Astros can plausibly dream on a hybrid: the old rising fastball menace backed by a sturdier plan B. It will still come down to strike-throwing and stamina. But against Judge, in that count, Javier let it rip — and for the Astros, the sight and sound of 95.5 felt like the most important out he didn’t even need to record.
