Those four were college seniors. The Astros likely signed all four under-slot, freeing monies to sign the drafted HSers.
Bonuses in, from the Baseball America draft database: Bryan Carney - $47,500 Aaron Piasecki - $97,500 Ryan Pruitt - $2500 Taz Butler - $2500 Looks like they all had the $2500 contingency amount shaved off, otherwise it would be $50K for Carney, $100K for Piasecki, and $5000 apiece for Pruitt and Butler. OP updated.
First undrafted free agent is in... the 21st round has officially begun for the Astros. Carson Estridge mainly worked as a reliever in his four years at West Virginia. He was an Honorable Mention All-Big 12 selection this past season. Estridge was also pitching for the West Virginia Black Bears in the MLB Draft League, where he was teammates with Taz Butler. Estridge is listed at 6-7, 210, so that's another tall boi on the mound joining the organization. 22 appearances, 4-0, 2 saves, 3.09 ERA, 35 IP, 32 H (2 HR allowed), 15 R (12 ER), 13 BB, 34 K, 1.29 WHIP, .241 opponent average
I just noticed that the MLB Draft Tracker posts signing bonuses in "real time": https://www.mlb.com/draft/tracker/2026/all/team/astros
Adelphi is a Division II school on Long Island. John Carver, who signed yesterday, is actually the first player to sign as an undrafted free agent with the Astros this year. He redshirted his freshman year and finished his college career as the Northeast 10 Conference's Pitcher of the Year and a Division II All-American. Carver's 14.4 strikeouts per 9 led D2. With 254 batters faced, he put up a 36.2% strikeout rate. He's also been a bit wild throughout his career with a 17.6% walk rate (575 batters faced, 101 walks). Hopefully getting healthy will help him rediscover some command. 10 starts, 7-1, 2.67 ERA, 57.1 IP, 39 H (4 HR allowed), 20 R (17 ER), 33 BB, 92 K, 1.26 WHIP, .186 opponent average Story from Adelphi University's athletics page
How are we doing on that front? I checked the Astros signing tracker and it really hasn't been updated.
"Hmm - I wonder if Logan Hughes knows he is 90% bat?" - Me "My job is to get raking and keep raking." - Logan Hughes
So $1.45M savings from Hughes and $300k from Radel. I feel a lot better about the Hughes pick knowing they got him for #27 slot. Radel signed for #32 slot. Those are good values. With what we know I believe that leaves ~$3.2M so far for Houston to sign overslots. That should definitely be enough to sign Johnson, Peterson, and Beck, but it remains to be seen if they’ll have enough to sign Tronstein. Just depends if those HS kids are demanding 2nd rd money or 1st rd money.
