The worst-kept secret in Houston sports was unveiled Wednesday morning at Minute Maid Park with the return of a former ace who hopes to show he has overcome the injury problems that plagued him in recent years.

"I didn't come here just as a final resting place," Hampton said. "I came here to help this team win and continue to pitch well and pitch as many years as my kids let me."

Hampton, who signed a one-year, $2 million deal that could include another $2 million in incentive bonuses, was 3-4 with a 4.85 ERA over 13 starts last season with Atlanta.

"I would hope he'd be a guy to take the ball on a regular basis," manager Cecil Cooper said. "As a manager, you'd hope he'd take the ball 30 times. But if it ends up being a little less than that, I think we'd be pretty happy. He's shown that the quality can be there. He's shown that in the past, and toward the end of the season, he got to that point. I'm pretty excited about the prospects of what he would bring to the table."

A 22-game winner in 1999 with the Astros, Hampton was traded to the New York Mets on Dec. 23 of that year. He led the Mets to the 2000 World Series as the NLCS MVP.

Props for Ausmus

After turning down an $84 million deal before the 2000 season, Hampton won 15 games that year and cashed in on a $121 million, eight-year deal with the Colorado Rockies. Almost half of his victories in the majors were collected for Houston, where he was 69-40. Not counting two seasons he missed, he averaged 9.3 victories a year while going 56-52 between the Rockies and Braves.

Injuries robbed Hampton of the 2006 season, when he rehabbed from Tommy John surgery, and the 2007 season as he recovered from elbow surgery.

He finished 2008 on a strong note with quality starts in all but one of his final nine outings. He pitched the season finale against the Astros, giving up a home run to Ausmus to cap his former batterymate's last game in a Houston uniform.

"I called Brad and said, ?What do you think?'?" Hampton said about wearing Ausmus' jersey. "He was like, ?Well, make sure you give me some props.' I wanted to take this number while it was hot. ... I just hope I can come back and feel half as good as he did. First and foremost, I'm just real excited."

Although Hampton has been among the best-hitting pitchers in the majors, his healthy arm is what brought him his fortune.

"A healthy Mike Hampton has always been a workhorse on the club," Astros general manager Ed Wade said. "Mike just finished the season with Atlanta having not missed a start down the stretch in the second half of the season. ... I don't think there's any reason based on the performance at the end of the season, based on the medical information we gathered, for us to feel that he's not going to be able to go out there every fifth day."

2009 rotation?

Wade vows to continue his search for pitching, although he concedes that economics have forced the Astros to stall negotiations with lefthander Randy Wolf. A week after the Astros pulled an offer from Wolf, their 2009 rotation remains a work in progress.

If the Astros were heading to spring training right now, Roy Oswalt, Wandy Rodriguez, Hampton and Brian Moehler would be the four pitchers assured of spots in the rotation.

"That looks like four that would be pretty solid," Cooper said.

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HAMPTON YEAR-BY-YEAR

Year .. Team .. G .. GS .. W .. L .. Sv. .. IP .. HR .. BB .. K .. ERA .. BAA

1993 .. Seattle .. 13 .. 3 .. 1 .. 3 .. 1 .. 17.0 .. 3 .. 17 .. 8 .. 9.53 .. .368

1994 .. Houston .. 44 .. 0 .. 2 .. 1 .. 0 .. 41.1 .. 4 .. 16 .. 24 .. 3.70 .. .282

1995 .. Houston .. 24 .. 24 .. 9 .. 8 .. 0 .. 150.2 .. 13 .. 49 .. 115 .. 3.35 .. .247

1996 .. Houston .. 27 .. 27 .. 10 .. 10 .. 0 .. 160.1 .. 12 .. 49 .. 101 .. 3.59 .. .280

1997 .. Houston .. 34 .. 34 .. 15 .. 10 .. 0 .. 223.0 .. 16 .. 77 .. 139 .. 3.83 .. .257

1998 .. Houston .. 32 .. 32 .. 11 .. 7 .. 0 .. 211.2 .. 18 .. 81 .. 137 .. 3.36 .. .278

1999 .. Houston .. 34 .. 34 .. 22 .. 4 .. 0 .. 239.0 .. 12 .. 101 .. 177 .. 2.90 .. .241

2000 .. N.Y. Mets .. 33 .. 33 .. 15 .. 10 .. 0 .. 217.2 .. 10 .. 99 .. 151 .. 3.14 .. .241

2001 .. Colorado .. 32 .. 32 .. 14 .. 13 .. 0 .. 203.0 .. 31 .. 85 .. 122 .. 5.41 .. .296

2002 .. Colorado .. 30 .. 30 .. 7 .. 15 .. 0 .. 178.2 .. 24 .. 91 .. 74 .. 6.15 .. .313

2003 .. Atlanta .. 31 .. 31 .. 14 .. 8 .. 0 .. 190.0 .. 14 .. 78 .. 110 .. 3.84 .. .255

2004 .. Atlanta .. 29 .. 29 .. 13 .. 9 .. 0 .. 172.1 .. 15 .. 65 .. 87 .. 4.28 .. .290

2005 .. Atlanta .. 12 .. 12 .. 5 .. 3 .. 0 .. 69.1 .. 5 .. 18 .. 27 .. 3.50 .. .281

2006 .. Injured/did not play

2007 .. Injured/did not play

2008 .. Atlanta .. 13 .. 13 .. 3 .. 4 .. 0 .. 78.0 .. 10 .. 28 .. 38 .. 4.85 .. .281

Career totals: .. 388 .. 334 .. 141 .. 105 .. 1 .. 2,152.0 .. 187 .. 854 .. 1,310 .. 4.01 .. .271