PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- After being relegated to throwing in relief twice for the Astros in the postseason last year -- a fitting end to a disappointing first season in Houston -- veteran right-hander Jake Odorizzi suddenly finds himself as one of the club’s most important pitchers.

The flexor tendon injury that will put Lance McCullers Jr. on the injured list to start the season leaves the Astros without one of their top pitchers. The club re-signed Justin Verlander, who missed all last year following Tommy John surgery, and it has promising young arms in José Urquidy, Framber Valdez, Luis Garcia and Cristian Javier, but a healthy and effective Odorizzi would be a key development for the Astros.

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“We have a bunch of guys in place,” Odorizzi said. “It’s just health. J.V. coming back is a big boost, especially with Lance being out. Lance is a leaned-on, heavy guy in the rotation, especially last year in the games he was there, he stepped up. It just means we have to stay healthy and make our starts.”

In his first start of the spring Tuesday night against the Mets at Clover Park, Odorizzi threw 27 pitches (17 strikes) in two scoreless innings, striking out one batter and walking one. His fastball averaged 92.9 mph, which he said is about as hard as he has thrown in the spring. He averaged 92.2 mph on his fastball in each of the past two seasons.

“It was up,” Odorizzi said of the velocity. “It’s nice to get adrenaline going in a game. I was happy with my fastball command for the most part… It was higher than it’s ever been in Spring Training. I can be really happy with that, especially for the first time out. It’s something nice to take away from today.”

Odorizzi’s first season in Houston was as disjointed as it could be. He signed late in the spring and wound up on the injured list after only three starts -- he posted a 10.13 ERA in those starts -- with a strained right pronator muscle. He also landed on the injured list in September with right foot soreness.

Odorizzi went 6-7 with a 4.21 ERA in 24 games (23 starts) while pitching only 104 2/3 innings – his fewest in any of his full MLB seasons. The Astros, backed by statistics, were hesitant to allow him to pitch deep into games, which became a point of contention when he was pulled after throwing 66 pitches in five innings on Sept. 7. Odorizzi expressed his frustrations to the media, which led to a meeting with general manager James Click, manager Dusty Baker and pitching coach Brent Strom to clear the air.

In the playoffs, Odorizzi wasn’t on the team’s roster for the American League Division Series against the White Sox. He threw four innings in relief in Game 4 of the AL Championship Series against the Red Sox and 2 1/3 scoreless innings in Game 1 of the World Series against Atlanta. Despite that solid outing, he didn’t pitch again in the Fall Classic.

“We all know the story,” he said. “I think we’ve been through it plenty of times. My big thing was to take a couple of days after the season and flush it and move on from it, really recap in my head what things I wanted to focus on and take away the others and move forward. That’s the biggest thing in the game -- good year, bad year --you learn from it and move forward. This year is a new year, and I feel like I’m in a good spot mentally, physically, everything.”

Odorizzi changed his offseason throwing program this winter. He began throwing long toss only five days after the end of the World Series in November. The goal was to use the month of January to ramp up to be at a higher velocity with his fastball so he could work on his offspeed pitches, especially his slider.

“It was already November by the time we got home,” he said. “You can’t really take a normal offseason of taking two weeks off or three weeks off. That’s valuable time, especially for me wanting to be in a better spot coming into spring and being able to work on the things I wanted to correct during the offseason.”

The goal now is to keep the momentum building.

“It’s nice to see the move pay off and really notice the difference from Day 1 this year as compared to Day 1 last year,” Odorizzi said.