Under is an evaluation of the prospects within the farm system of the Houston Astros. Scouting reviews have been compiled with data offered by trade sources in addition to my very own observations. That is the sixth 12 months we’re delineating between two anticipated reduction roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see within the “place” column beneath: MIRP for multi-inning reduction pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning reduction pitchers. The ETAs listed typically correspond to the 12 months a participant must be added to the 40-man roster to keep away from being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Guide changes are made the place they appear applicable, however we use that as a rule of thumb.
A fast overview of what FV (Future Worth) means could be discovered right here. A a lot deeper overview could be discovered right here.
All the ranked prospects beneath additionally seem on The Board, a useful resource the positioning gives that includes sortable scouting data for each group. It has extra particulars (and up to date TrackMan information from numerous sources) than this text and integrates each crew’s record so readers can examine prospects throughout farm methods. It may be discovered right here.
Different Prospects of Notice
Grouped by sort and listed so as of desire inside every class.
May Make a Main League Begin
Jose Fleury, RHP
Juan Bello, RHP
Trey Dombroski, LHP
Parker Smith, RHP
Fleury normally has starter-level command and a plus changeup, however his heater sits 88-92 mph with susceptible form. The righty was hit exhausting at Triple-A final 12 months and left unprotected within the Rule 5 Draft. Bello is a loose-moving Colombian righty with an uptempo drop-and-drive supply and a promising slider; he came to visit from the Cubs for Ryan Pressly. He’s not fairly 22 but, however he’ll spend his 40-man platform 12 months rehabbing from TJ. One letter away from the title you’re in all probability pondering of, Dombroski stuffed up the zone with sufficient completely different shapes to log 120.2 innings throughout Corpus Christi and Sugar Land final 12 months, however with out sufficient precision to carry a vanilla arsenal previous depth starter standing. Smith was a low-slot, low-90s sinker-slider workhorse at Rice who had his professional debut delayed by a herniated disk. He acquired in a groove for a bit within the second half, however he lacks a bat-misser outdoors of a changeup with takeoff operating motion that doesn’t but have constant location.
Relievers With Intriguing Stuff and Chaotic Vitality
Alex Santos II, RHP
Wilmy Sanchez, RHP
Leomar Rosario, RHP
Colby Langford, LHP
Raimy Rodriguez, RHP
Santos acquired seven figures within the 2020 draft. He’s nonetheless simply 24 and owns a plus slider, however he’s thrown 52.1 Double-A innings over the previous two years and so they didn’t include many strikes. An elbow sprain ended his 40-man platform 12 months, and he was left unprotected within the Rule 5. Sanchez is a compactly constructed righty with a hoppy mid-90s four-seamer that misses bats, however he didn’t carry out fairly as effectively at Double-A final 12 months, and after strolling 51 in 61 innings, it is perhaps 30-grade command. Rosario is six and a half toes of stable granite. He touched 101 mph final 12 months, and his high-80s slider piled up whiffs at Low-A, the place he struck out 56 in 42 innings. But it surely’s a messy supply at current, producing each bottom-of-the-scale command and ranging velocity. Langford’s extension and launch angle are each freaky, permitting his hoppy, left-handed fastball to play like a weapon at 91 mph. However he might need essentially the most violent supply within the minors and has walked 118 in 123.2 professional innings. Rodriguez continues to be solely 20, he has touched 97 mph, he gives promising spin expertise, and he has depraved arm velocity from a cool, near-sidearm slot. That’s why he’s on this record. He has additionally walked 149 in 175.1 innings at Low-A, which is why he’s on this portion of the record.
Extra Typical Relievers
Ramsey David, RHP
Andrew Taylor, RHP
Rafael Gonzalez, RHP
Kellan Oakes, RHP
Francisco Frias, RHP
Dylan Howard, RHP
Nolan DeVos, RHP
Lengthy and lithe with terrific arm velocity, David touched 100 mph out of the bullpen final season whereas logging 85.2 innings and reaching Double-A by the tip of the 12 months. His heater has common journey from a high-three-quarters launch, and his uptempo supply can sap the command of his secondaries, giving him an up/down single-inning reduction look. Taylor is 6-foot-5. His low-90s heater generates 20 inches of induced vertical break from a excessive, vertical slot, which have been the sorts of components that led the Astros to drop just a little greater than $800,000 on him again in 2022. However he’s not throwing a lot more durable than he was in his CMU days and has but to discover a standout secondary. Gonzalez has touched 98 mph, his low angle launch makes his slider fairly powerful on righties, and the bodily developed 21-year-old wasn’t half unhealthy beginning down the stretch in Low-A final 12 months. His lack of a viable arm-side secondary and his management outages recommend a brighter future in reduction.
Oakes is a low-slot righty with a very good sweeper who had a robust junior season at Oregon State final spring. His low-90s fastball has principally carried out poorly, however he’s flashed 98 mph at factors. Frias is a stocky, low-slot righty reliever who has a pleasant, brief slider, however he sits 92-95 with below-average current management. Howard is a compactly constructed righty from Radford who kilos the zone with a hoppy 90-93 mph heater from a vertical slot. Regardless of the strike charges, his supply has loads of violence to it and he doesn’t have a standout secondary at current, each of which recommend a reduction future. DeVos lastly made it again into motion on the finish of 2025 after lacking many of the 2024 and 2025 seasons because of TJ. His fastball is 90-93 mph, however it nonetheless has the components to play above its velo and maintain him on the radar.
Bats With Some Pop
Lucas Spence, OF
Nehomar Ochoa Jr., RF
Garret Guillemette, C/1B
Luis Rives, LF
Cesar Hernandez, LF
Juan Sierra, OF
A former SIU Saluki who went undrafted in 2024 however earned himself a camp invite by slashing .244/.368/.403 throughout three ranges and taking part in loads of heart final 12 months, Spence has stable common uncooked pop and reserve outfielder potential, however he struggles with spin. Ochoa is fortunate to be alive after a freak automobile accident final March throughout which a metallic hook turned lodged in his head. It restricted the tremendous bodily 20-year-old nook outfielder to 29 video games final 12 months, taking away among the reps wanted to handle his contact points. Guillemette was a Fifteenth-round decide in 2023 after an enormous junior 12 months at Texas. He’s sturdily constructed and has the brute energy to have popped 13 homers in 81 video games final 12 months between Asheville and Corpus Christi, however he has below-average blocking and pop instances.
Rives’ contact points towards velocity nonetheless make him an extended shot for a nook outfield match, however he pulled off an fascinating strategy flip whereas slashing .207/.393/.402 in his second 12 months within the FCL, going from too aggressive to a sub-20% chase fee. Hernandez’s palms load late in his swing and he nonetheless whiffs on a troubling variety of center-cut heaters, with a left discipline match that places loads of strain on his bat. However the former seven-figure Cuban signee improved a bit whereas repeating Low-A, slashing .233/.347/.392 earlier than lacking many of the second half of the season with an harm. Sierra is an enormous, bodily nook bat who signed for lower than $70,000 out of the D.R. three years in the past, however he has bashed his manner stateside. He was already on the 70% contact fee line within the FCL and is perhaps a primary baseman, however his current juice is close to the large league common already, with a really feel for what to attempt to pull and methods to do it.
Spunky Center Infielders
Yamal Encarnacion, UTIL
Landon Arroyos, SS
Alejandro Nunez, UTIL
Alberto Hernandez, UTIL
Sami Manzueta, 2B/3B
Encarnacion is a twitchy little athlete who tasks to have 2B/CF utility, however the 22-year-old is a bit uncooked within the outfield at current. He’s a switch-hitter with stable bat velocity and he’s nonetheless making a mean quantity of contact, however he has struggled to supply massive outcomes and keep wholesome. Arroyos is a twitchy, speedy Georgia highschool shortstop. On the smaller facet, he makes loads of contact and acquired the seventh-largest bonus the Astros handed out final July within the 18th spherical. Nunez, a flexible 21-year-old Cuban, retains chugging alongside, offering league common offense and manning each spot on the infield diamond, however he has lately taken to swinging at completely the whole lot. Hernandez is a 22-year-old Cuban center infielder who’s firmly on the glove-first utilityman observe. He’s a clean defender at brief who makes an above-average quantity of contact. Manzueta is a brief and stout infielder who’s already hitting the ball fairly exhausting (102.7 mph Ninetieth-percentile EV) for a 17-year-old with an OK contact fee. He doesn’t have very a lot projection and is just about off shortstop.
Low-Degree Arms Who Are Type of Neat
Juan Fraide, RHP
Adrian Ardines, RHP
Jesus Carrera, RHP
One in all a slew of undersized Mexican righties on the complicated, the 19-year-old Fraide didn’t miss a ton of bats (30 innings, 25 strikeouts) whereas incomes a bump to the FCL halfway via his professional debut 12 months, and his fastball was fairly hittable. However he’s touched 97 mph together with his heater, and a few of his breaking balls clip 3,000 rpm. Ardines nonetheless sits round 91 mph, however he completely carved in his second 12 months within the DSL (34.4% Okay%, 4.3% BB% in 42.1 innings) due to how his downer breaking balls performed out of a excessive slot. Carrera has 70-grade command of 30-grade stuff. The undersized Mexican righty sits 88 mph. He lastly acquired an opportunity at Low-A in his third 12 months of professional ball, placing out 29 and strolling simply eight in 22 innings.
System Overview
This is among the worst farm methods in baseball, missing in depth and devoid of any 50-FV prospects. The one Astros we actually thought of for the High 100 are each youngsters who’ve but to play at a full-season affiliate, and the opposite prospects within the 45-FV tier are potential back-end starters or glove-first gentle regulars who lack affect upside. However to a level that maybe surpasses different groups with playoff aspirations, the Astros have seen their farm system straight withered by their very honest efforts to contend on the main league degree.
They haven’t picked within the prime 10 of the draft since actually Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker in 2015, and have made 9 postseasons and reached the ALCS seven instances within the intervening years. Even the first- and second-round picks they didn’t make in 2020 and 2021 have been inarguably misplaced within the pursuit of a World Sequence. Jacob Melton might need been the no. 1 prospect on this record and Anderson Brito would have been a candidate for the perfect stuff in Houston’s system had they not each been dealt to Tampa Bay this winter in an effort to patch up the rotation of a crew that goals to return to the postseason after an eight-year streak was damaged in 2025. Farm system attrition is to be anticipated in such an atmosphere, and if the present state of affairs within the minors certainly augurs a multi-year down interval on the horizon, it’s nonetheless been a hell of a run.
Like an ‘06 Honda Civic that has over 200,000 miles however nonetheless begins each time, the group that gave the world Gerrit Cole’s leveling up and Cristian Javier’s invisiball has the highest of its prospect pitching depth outlined by righties whose four-seamers play on the prime of the zone due to components that stretch past velocity. The best way the drop-and-drive stylings of Ethan Pecko and Bryce Mayer produce flat strategy angles, the attractive backspin angle of AJ Blubaugh’s wrist upon launch, and the disappearing nature of Ryan Forcucci’s heater all recommend that the Astros’ pitching procurement and growth nonetheless retains a good bit of its sauce, at the same time as their system has turn out to be suffering from below-average velocity. It has helped present a commendable quantity of pitching depth from the three drafts underneath GM Dana Brown, with veteran scouting director Deric Ladnier helming the final two. However in step with Astros prospects of late, you may argue that essentially the most spectacular four-seamer they’ve chosen and developed within the final three years belonged to Jake Bloss, who was flipped to the Blue Jays to bolster the 2024 rotation on the deadline.
The Astros stay simply as dedicated to giant people – or impressively bodily athletes – outlined by their energy potential as ever. Within the context of their present efforts, draft investments within the likes of Brice Matthews and Caden Powell, and now Xavier Neyens and Ethan Frey, might be considered as a method of looking for hitters with the premium bodily capability to assist a contender, whereas accepting the hit software dangers that include selecting in the back of the pack. But when something, these kinds of tasks take extra time to develop quite than much less. Kevin Alvarez, the lately signed Albert Fermín, and even the circuitous development of Luis Baez level to equally formed long-term efforts on the worldwide facet, and the group that pried Yordan Alvarez away from the Dodgers and spent excessive picks on AJ Reed and Seth Beer has been chasing dingers for longer than could be tied to a current technique. All through this run, the foremost league membership has recurrently churned out among the highest contact lineups within the sport, suggesting an easier marriage between developmental energy and accessible ability.
In prospect circles, the actual romance of their dominant run was how a global division underneath Oz Ocampo produced so many rotation mainstays from unheralded Latin American signings like Javier, Framber Valdez, Luis Garcia and José Urquidy. With Miguel Ullola and Alimber Santa seeing their inventory dip of late, the dearth of internationally-fueled depth is a serious a part of why this method has swooned. On the similar time, Alvarez and Fermín have been the highest signees the final two years underneath present worldwide scouting director Brian Rodgers, and so they have already turn out to be among the greatest sources of offensive upside within the system. Each challenge as bodily imposing energy bats, displaying that even when they’re removed from full energy, the Astros stay who they’re.