19. Joe Niekro

Joe Niekro arrived in Houston as a veteran seeking a second act, a pitcher who had spent nearly a decade wandering through the league before finding the perfect environment for his specialized knuckleball. While he began his journey in the shadow of his Hall of Fame brother, Phil, it was in the climate-controlled air of the Astrodome where Joe truly mastered the butterfly-like motion of his signature pitch. For eleven seasons, he served as the durable anchor of the Houston rotation, proving that a player could reach a career-defining breakout well into his thirties.

Niekro’s rise in Houston began as a low-risk acquisition in 1975, but he reached a new gear of consistency once he fully committed to the knuckleball as his primary weapon. He moved from a swing-man role into a front-line starter, signaling a transition from a journeyman to a premier National League outlier. He possessed a focused intensity that allowed him to thrive in the pitcher-friendly confines of the Dome, where the lack of wind gave his specialized pitch an even more unpredictable break. By the late seventies, he had established himself as a high-frequency winner, a style that culminated in a historic two-year run of dominance.

The heart of his time in Houston came during the 1979 and 1980 campaigns. In 1979, Niekro authored a career year, winning 21 games and earning his first All-Star selection while finishing second in the Cy Young voting. He followed that performance with another 20-win season in 1980, finishing fourth in the Cy Young race and providing the veteran-like poise that helped guide the Astros to their first-ever division title. He showed the organization that a pitcher could lead a staff through guile and movement rather than raw velocity, eventually recording 144 wins in a Houston uniform.

Everything culminated in a decade-long run of reliability that saw him surpass 1,100 strikeouts and become the franchise's all-time leader in wins before his departure. However, the natural evolution of the roster led to a change in direction during the 1985 season, when he was traded to the New York Yankees to join his brother.

In 2019, the Astros inducted him into their inaugural Hall of Fame class.