Astros Star Lance McCullers Jr. Says He Received Death Threats After His Outing

There was a feel-good story for the Houston Astros and Lance McCullers Jr. at the beginning of May.

For the first time since the 2022 World Series, the former star pitcher and ace of this franchise pitched on a Major League mound.

Considering how long he was on the shelf after recovering from surgery on his flexor tendon, the scoreless 3 2/3 innings of work where he struck out four batters and gave up three hits and three walks was about as good as anyone could have imagined.

Unfortunately, the other shoe dropped on Friday.

McCullers was shelled in his second outing of the year, allowing five earned runs before he was pulled after getting just one out in the first inning.

His final stat line was seven earned runs allowed on three hits, three walks, a hit by pitch and zero strikeouts, a nightmare start for the right-hander after he worked so hard to make his way back.

While McCullers had a tough day on the mound, things turned scary for the 31-year-old after he left the game, sharing that he and his family received death threats.

Lance McCullers Jr. received threats over social media against his family and himself after his outing tonight, he and Astros manager Joe Espada said. The Astros have notified HPD and MLB security, per a team spokesperson.
— Matt Kawahara (@matthewkawahara) May 11, 2025

McCullers didn't hold back on the details.

Per Chandler Rome of The Athletic (subscription required), the pitcher said, "It's been a tough evening. I understand people are very passionate and people love the Astros and love sports, but threatening to find my kids and murder them is a little bit tough to deal with."

McCullers confirmed that the threats were on social media and gave even more detail about the threats he and his family received.

"I think bringing kids into the equation, threatening to find them or next time they see us in public, they're going to stab my kids to death, it's tough to hear as a dad," he added.

Understandably, Joe Espada was extremely upset.

"I just left my office, and it's very unfortunate that there are people who are threatening his life and the life of his kids because of his performance," he stated, reportedly slamming a platform at one point during his comments. "It's very unfortunate that we have to deal with this. After all he's done for this city, this team, the fact that we have to talk about that in my office, I got kids, too. It really drives me nuts. It's very sad. Very, very sad."

It goes without saying that this is beyond inappropriate behavior by those who made the threats.

The Houston Police Department and MLB security were notified, so hopefully something can be done.

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