Halligan Heads to Houston with a Splitter and a Shot in the Bullpen

In the Montero salary dump, the Astros land a 25 year old righty who’s found success tunneling a late diving splitter.

After shopping Rafael Montero for most of the offseason, Houston finally found a taker, offloading just under $3 million of the veteran reliever’s remaining salary to Atlanta. The return was never going to be significant. This was about clearing space and maybe pulling a usable arm from the margins. Enter Patrick Halligan.

Halligan, 25, was a 13th-round pick out of Pensacola State in 2021. After being released by the Royals, he landed with Atlanta and rebuilt his value. In Double-A last season, he posted a 3.02 ERA with a 31.6 percent strikeout rate across 50.2 innings, most of it driven by a fastball and splitter pairing that’s started to get good results.

The fastball sits in the low 90s with some angle from his 6’6’’, but the splitter is the standout. It’s firm and falls off the table late, getting chases and weak contact, especially against lefties. He mixes in a top down curveball and a usable changeup, but the two pitch tunnel keeps is the one that keeps hitters off balance.

Halligan isn’t overpowering, and he’s not a name you circle on a depth chart, but the pitch shapes are clean and the profile fits. In an Astros system known for getting value out of overlooked bullpen arms, this kind of return might not move the needle now, but could quietly matter later.

There is an overuse of the term upside, but Halligan has it.