Houston's Justin Verlander is scheduled to come off the injured list and start the finale of a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday.

“It's big getting JV on the mound. It's getting one of the best back in there,” manager Joe Espada said. “We know what he means. We know he’s part of this winning culture and getting him back is a big boost for our team, especially down the stretch.”

The 41-year-old ace hasn't pitched since June 9 because of stiffness in his neck. He made two minor league rehabilitation starts, last throwing four innings for Double-A Corpus Christi on Thursday.

Espada was asked if the three-time Cy Young Award winner would be on a pitch count since he threw just 57 pitches in his last rehabilitation assignment.

“We’ll see how the outing goes and how efficient he is,” Espada said. “I don’t want to put a number because he can surprise us. But we’re going to keep a close eye on his workload for sure.”

Verlander is 3-2 with a 3.95 ERA in 10 starts this season. His current stint on the injured list is his second this season after he opened the season on the shelf because of inflammation in his right shoulder.

The Astros just started a stretch of 18 games without an off day and Espada said they will use a six-man rotation at least until they get through that.

Houston has shaken off its early season woes and entered Tuesday's games a season-best 12 games over .500. The Astros lead AL West by five games over the second-place Mariners.

Do we have an update on Luis Garcia?

When Espada met with the media on Monday, he also said Garcia will not pitch for Houston this season.

The club's focus is to get him healthy for 2025. The team hoped both Lance McCullers Jr. and Garcia would be able to contribute in 2024, but both players dealt with setbacks.

Based on these results, it's hard to imagine Cristian Javier and Jose Urquidy will pitch in 2025 as they both recover from Tommy John surgery. Verlander also missed the following season (2021) after having Tommy John surgery in 2020.

As we look ahead to the 2025 rotation, Verlander's contract is unlikely to vest (140 innings) making him a free agent along with Yusei Kikuchi. The rotation could look something like this:

Framber Valdez

Hunter Brown

Ronel Blanco

Spencer Arrighetti

Garcia, McCullers, Javier, and Urquidy will be working back from injury. Clearly, Garcia has the best chance to crack the rotation in 2025. We haven't seen McCullers pitch in a game since 2022.

With Urquidy set to be a free agent in 2026 and likely unavailable in 2025, we don't expect the Astros to offer him a contract in arbitration for the 2025 season. His days as an Astro seem to be finished.

In theory, the Astros could try to re-sign Verlander. We'll have to see how he finishes the season and if Jim Crane wants to roll the dice again on the future Hall of Famer.