A bunch of guys reached minor league free agency this week: OF Colin Barber (former top prospect) C Miguel Palma (has been on the org top 30) 1B Jon Singleton P Matt Bowman P Tyler Ivey (former 3rd rd pick) P Luis Contreras OF Orlando Martinez P John Rooney OF Chas McCormick C Joe Hudson OF Kenedy Corona IF Greg Jones P Patrick Halligan (part of the Montero trade) P Jean Pinto (minor league rule 5 pick) P Anderson Bido (minor league rule 5 pick) Barber is probably the biggest miss I’ve had evaluating Astros prospects. A couple of years ago I rated him #1 in the system and was very confident he’d end up being at least a fringe regular OF. There are a handful of players in the upper minors still on rosters who have 7+ years of service time so I am not sure why they didn’t also elect free agency. Glenn Otto, Edwin Diaz, etc.
Houston is going to have to bring in some players to fill out the AAA position player roster. They just saw 4 OF who would’ve projected to AAA leave the organization in Pedro Leon, Kenedy Corona, Colin Barber, and Orlando Martinez, and they will very likely have to use at least one of their remaining young optionable OF (Melton, Dezenzo, Cole) to trade for a SP. Trades of guys like Urias or Sanchez may address that.
Anderson Brito, RHP, Astros (No. 7) Brito features some of the best stuff in the Fall League and showcased it during a scoreless third inning. He matched Karson Milbrandt (MIA No. 18) for the hardest fastball of the day at 99.0 mph, delivered another at 98.9 mph and averaged 98.1 mph with his heater. He also produced three of the five best spin rates on curveballs, ranging from 2,646 to 2,686 rpm. Won’t surprise me if Brito shows up on the back end of some top 100 lists next spring.
Going through my top prospect list and re-assessing some players. My current assessment of him is that his floor is that of a 7th inning set up man. Do you believe that he will remain in the rotation all the way to MLB?
Yes I think he will be developed as a SP until he proves he can’t succeed there. His ceiling is too high for them to prematurely relegate him to the bullpen.
James Hicks went 2-0 and allowed six hits, walked two, and struck out 19 in his 14 scoreless innings in Arizona.
Astros signed former marlins RP Anthony Maldonado. 27 year old who has posted elite k rates but bad walk rates. Killer slider with mediocre FB and poor ability to stay in the zone.
https://www.mlb.com/amp/news/top-30-arizona-fall-league-prospects-2025.html Anderson Brito and Walker Janek were rated #11 and #13 prospects in the fall league. Brito raised his stock tremendously and he will likely slot into the 80-120 range in most offseason prospect lists. Both guys would slot pretty firmly in most org’s top 10 prospects and along with X Neyens and Kevin Alvarez give Houston 4 really really high upside prospects who probably won’t graduate next season, really giving the farm a pretty positive medium term outlook.
