Peacock plans to pitch exclusively out of the stretch during the 2018 season, Jake Kaplan of The Athletic Houston reports.
Peacock had pitched both out of the stretch and from the windup at the start of last season, but scrapped the windup position early on and yielded impressive results, finishing the campaign with a 3.00 ERA and 161 strikeouts in 132 innings. It's thus no surprise that Peacock will stick with a formula that worked so well for him, both as a starter and out of the bullpen. Houston's offseason acquisition of Gerrit Cole from the Pirates will result in Peacock opening the 2018 campaign in the bullpen if all members of the team's projected rotation are healthy, but he should be one of the top candidates to pick up spot starts for the Astros when injuries to the pitching staff inevitably crop up.