Welcome to the Houston Astros Draft Class of 2024! All news pertaining to the 2024 draftees will go here. This year, the signing deadline is 4 PM Central on August 1. College seniors are exempt from this deadline. Players drafted in rounds 11-20 can sign for up to $150,000 without having the bonus count against the bonus pool; for over-slot bonuses, only the amount over $150,000 will count. Bold - player has signed or intends to sign Name stricken through - player intends to return to school/attend college Last update: 3 PM, 7/27/24 Round 1, Pick 28: Walker Janek, C, Sam Houston State; signed for $3,130,000 (full slot value, $2500 contingency bonus does not count towards pool) Round 3, Pick 101: Ryan Forcucci, RHP, UC San Diego; $724,800; signed for $997,500 ($272,700 above slot) Round 4, Pick 131: Parker Smith, RHP, Rice; $541,100 - signed for $447,500 ($93,600 below slot; $2500 contingency bonus does not count towards pool) Round 5, Pick 163: Cole Hertzler, RHP, Liberty; $396,200 - signed for $393,700 (full slot value, but $2500 contingency bonus does not count against pool) Round 6, Pick 193: Caden Powell, SS, Seminole State College; $307,600; signed for $402,500 ($94,900 above slot) Round 7, Pick 223: Joseph Sullivan, OF, South Alabama; $242,400 - signed for $239,900 ($2500 contingency bonus does not count towards pool) Round 8, Pick 253: Dylan Howard, RHP, Radford; $203,500 - signed for $201,000 ($2500 contingency bonus does not count towards pool) Round 9, Pick 283: Ryan Smith, RHP, Illinois-Chicago; $187,800 - signed for $177,500 ($10,300 below slot) Round 10, Pick 313: Ramsey David, RHP, Southeastern; $178,800 - signed for $105,000 ($73,800 below slot; $2500 contingency bonus does not count against pool) Round 11, Pick 343: Jason Schiavone, C, James Madison; signed for $150,000 Round 12, Pick 373: Ryan Verdugo, RHP, Cal State Bakersfield; signed for $172,500 ($22,500 counts against pool) Round 13, Pick 403: Bryce Boettcher, OF, Oregon - signed for $150,000; returning to Oregon for football season first Round 14, Pick 433: Ryan Mathiesen, RHP, The Master's University; signed for $150,000 Round 15, Pick 463: Drew Vogel, SS, Murray State; signed for $130,000 Round 16, Pick 493: Bryce Mayer, RHP, Missouri Round 17, Pick 523: Ethan Wagner, OF, P27 Academy (Lexington, South Carolina); committed to Tennessee; signed for $150,000 Round 18, Pick 553: Grant Burleson, RHP, Western Kentucky; signed for $125,000 Round 19, Pick 583: Twine Palmer, RHP, Connors State College; signed for $197,500 ($47,500 counts against pool) Round 20, Pick 613: Ky McGary, OF, Sandra Day O'Connor High School (Phoenix); committed to Arizona State Bonus pool: $5,914,700 Pool money used: $6,164,600 Over pool by $249,900 Undrafted free agents In the past, some players apparently signed as undrafted free agents with the Astros but never appeared on a roster of a minor league affiliate. The bonus limit is also $150,000 for undrafted free agents. Here are the undrafted players who have reportedly/apparently agreed to terms with the Astros. Danny Trehey, RHP, Florida Atlantic Max Holy, IF, Central Missouri Justin Trimble, 3B, UC Santa Barbara Lucas Spence, OF, SIU Edwardsville Trevor Austin, 2B/OF, Missouri Jagger Beck, RHP, Sutter Union High School, Sutter, California Korey Morton, OF, Connecticut Some (half-assed) thoughts With the smallest pool in the draft because they didn't have a second-round pick, the Astros don't have much money to be creative with. Whatever savings they can scrounge up will likely go to Powell and Wagner. It also looks like they didn't like any of the leftover prep players enough to take a flyer in the 11th or the 12th. McGary would be a huge steal, but I don't anticipate that he'll sign. With NIL blowing up, I feel like any top high school kid who didn't get picked in the top 5 rounds is heading to college. This is still a thin system so I can see the strategy a bit... hope some of these guys bloom, or at least provide some depth. Janek would be a top-5 prospect in the system right now. If he was healthy, Forcucci would probably slot somewhere between 13 and 20 for me. Let's see what the player development team has cooking. Gotta have the obligatory Jim Stevenson picks from the Oklahoma JUCO ranks, so enter Powell and Palmer. Well, Abraham Toro has scrounged up enough games to have an MLB career, so that's Powell's ceiling at this point for me.
Max Holy is a solid name. Lots of small college players. Lots of pitchers. Everyone is tall. Everyone hits HRs. They're leaning on the scouting/player development group that's been pretty good in the past. Seems like a decent draft, given the constraints.
Yeah I know zero about pitching so it’s just trust the front office on those, they’ve earned it. Janek was a solid value pick with a very good floor/ceiling combo. I like the athleticism of Boettger and Sullivan and the stat background of Powell, Schiavone, and Vogel. Wagner is a wild card but his brother is kicking ass in a ball for the Dodgers.
As always, Eephus Tosser, aka Anthony Boyer (ex-Crawfish Boxes prospect writer), has some nuggets about the draftees.
2024 G, HR, SB for college position player draftees: Janek: 58, 17, 13 Powell: 55, 32, 16 Sullivan: 38, 9, 14 Schiavone: 61, 18, 9 Boettcher: 56, 12, 15 Vogel: 57, 20, 16
Trimble was fairly highly rated out of HS, #15 1B prospect in the country and a top 50 prospect in California. He didn’t seem to show much power in college and speed was not a part of his game. But he’s a big kid with an athletic body type so maybe Houston thinks they can help him unlock some power.
With 12 homers this season, it seems like he started to get to it a litte. Should be interesting to see if he can get to his power more often as a pro.
Janek is one of Houston’s 6 best prospects, but otherwise I can’t say for certain that any of the other draftees are in the top 30. Forcucci is probably in the 20-30 range even though he’s hurt. Powell and Wagner probably have a good chance to be in the 20-30 range as well. But the others will have to work their way onto the radar, which can happen quickly as Bloss went from in the 20-30 range when he was drafted to in the top 3 exactly one year later.
How did the Astros lose their 2nd round pick? Whom did they sign that cost them that pick? Was it the Jose Abreu signing?
Hader is the 2nd rd pick A small bonus pool can be worked around as we've seen over the years. You just have to be good at evaluating prospects and allotting money. It's really not that big of a constraint. Click and Dana have done a really good job of this the last couple of years. Let's hope this trend continues.
It’s a pretty big constraint. Luckily the Astros have had excellent talent evaluation and development but losing 20%+ of your available capital to acquire heavily discounted young talent is a huge disadvantage.
