prospect Cam Smith According to Chandler Rome of The Movement, it will be the opening day lineup for Astros. The young man is not in the 40-man lineup and they will need a seat Rafael Montero and Steven Okert. They already have two vacancies and several candidates for 60-day injury lists, meaning they shouldn’t find space for all of them.
It was an incredible whirlwind for Smith, a student at Florida State University a year ago. In July, the Cubs selected him with the 14th overall pick in the draft and signed a $5,070,700 prize. The Cubs put the young third baseman in an instant, leaving him in 15 single games, 12 games in High-A and 5 games in Double-A. He walked onto 11.2% of the plates and was hit with only 17.9% of the clips. He launched seven home runs in 134 sets and combined the .313/.396/.609 hit line.
This makes him one of the highest prospects for baseball in 2025. The Cubs entered a full farm system, but the Major League roster struggled to get beyond the mushy middle, ending 83-79 per game over the past two years. They are looking for a big splash, and astronauts are reportedly willing to move Kyle Tucker. He is a great player but has been scheduled for free after 2025, and Houston doesn’t seem to have hoped to complete the extension. Astronauts also prefer to avoid this year’s competitive balance tax.
As mentioned earlier, the bear’s farm system is very powerful. These include a few infield guys who are considered Smith before. Matt Shaw and Owen Caissie Both are on the many top 100 prospect lists and each is reaching a triple A-level in 2024.
All of these stars are consistent to make trade happen. The Astronaut sent Tucker to Wrigley in exchange for the Third Baseman Isaac Paredes,pitcher Haydn Wesniski and Smith. From the bear’s point of view, they have given up a lot for a long time to make a lot of upgrades in 2025. As a prospect, Smith was obviously a long game. Paredes still has three years of club control, which will be an affordable replacement for Bregman at third base. Vesniski has five years of club control, giving the club some affordable rotation depth.
Arguably, astronauts make themselves worse in the short term to save some money and in the long term. Bregman and Tucker are two big losses. The parade could make up for some of Bregman’s production, but probably not all. The outfield looks significantly worse on paper than last year Yordan Alvarez Plan to spend more time as a designated hitter. But outside of 2025, they still won’t have Tucker. Now, they will have contributions from Pared, Vesniski and Smith.
Since the opening of the self-operated site, the situation has changed a lot in the short term. Smith proposed .342/.419/.711 in the action of the Grapefruit Alliance. When he started building these impressive numbers, the club wanted him to work in the right field, and Paredes blocked Smith’s natural third base. It seems that he impressed the decision makers, and although he had very limited professional records for only 32 professional games, he did not have them in the third-level competition.
Outfield pictures also change in another way. Jose AltuveHe has been Houston’s second baseman for more than a decade and will now be a left fielder. His gloves at Keystone have never been great, but as he entered his 30s he has dropped drastically.
Overall, this is a fascinating game for Astronauts. Given all the health fears he has suffered over the years, it makes sense to move Alvarez out of the left field. Tucker’s deals are also risking their own way. Now they seem likely to be showing up regularly Jack Meyers In the center, the sides are Altuve and Smith. Meyers didn’t hit much in his career, but a strong defender. The glove’s number is important because he will be next to two transformed infielders, without real experience in the grass.
Altuve/Smith combination seems to have a great chance to mix corners together Ben Gail and Chas McCormickThis seems to be the most recent possible open day alignment a few weeks ago. Again, even the best prospects are often promoted to professionals, so there is no guarantee that Smith will thrive immediately. Still, it’s understandable on the higher ceiling.
If Smith does flourish, it will obviously help the club in 2025, but it can also benefit the Astronauts in another way. The current collective bargaining agreement has added measures to prevent service time manipulation. One of these prospects promote incentives is that under certain conditions, clubs can get additional draft picks after the first round. If a player is in two of the three top 100 lists in Baseball, ESPN or MLB.com, then if their club worked early enough this season to win a full service year, they would be eligible for PPI. If such a player wins Rookie of the Year or top three in the MVP or Cy Young vote, the club will get an additional draft pick. Smith ranks 55th in the BA, 73rd in ESPN and 59th in MLB.com, so it qualifies.
Turning to some other lineup decisions for the Astronauts, Zach Dezenzo There will be a bench seat Cooper Hummel According to KPRC 2’s Ari Alexander, Hummel will not have no choice, so he should be assigned as a task or traded in the next few days.
Hummel has a terrible .159/.255/.275 slam line in the professional slam line, but it’s much better with minors and has fun defensive versatility. He has a 0.285/.419/.480 line in the past four minor league seasons, and this year’s camp reached .316/.435/.447. Defensively, he is the choice of all four corners. He hasn’t played behind the plate in 2024, but has performed well in the past seasons. This may make him attractive to other clubs, but he cleared the waiver when there are still options left in April 2024.
The last step will be lowered Brendan Rodgers or Zack Shortmanager Joe Espada told Rome. Both players signed a minor league deal, so this will be another 40 that the team needs to open up. But as mentioned before, they have a lot of 60-day IL candidates and should be nice there.
Image courtesy of Reinhold Matay, Imagn Image
