Joshua James is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball. He was born on March 8, 1993.
Before being picked by the Astros in the 34th round of the 2014 Major League Baseball draft, he played college baseball at Barry University and Western Oklahoma State College. He debuted in the major leagues in 2018 and is best known for his fastball, which has hit 102 mph.
With the 1,006th overall pick in the 2014 Major League Baseball draft, the Houston Astros picked James in the 34th round. James began his professional career with the Greeneville Astros in 2014, where he played the entire season, finishing 1–3 with a 2.72 ERA in 39.2 innings pitched.
He pitched in 2015 with the Quad Cities River Bandits where he was 7–4 with a 2.63 ERA in 24 games (18 starts), 2016 with the Lancaster JetHawks where he posted a 9–5 record and a 4.81 ERA in 23 games (19 starts), and 2017 with the Corpus Christi Hooks where he was 4–8 with a 4.38 ERA in 21 games, 11 which were starts.
On October 24, 2020, it was announced that James had undergone surgery to repair a labral tear in his left hip and would be out for 6–8 months. In a spring training broadcast in March 2022, it would be revealed that James had also received a PRP injection in his right elbow at this time. Originally set to return in late May to early June, he was retroactively placed on the 60-day injured list on May 26, 2021, as he continued to recover from the surgery
On March 30, 2022, James was optioned to Triple-A Sugar Land, now called the Space Cowboys, after two major league spring training appearances. On April 10, he closed out the team’s first win since rebranding, simultaneously picking up his first save of the year.