The Astros haven’t exactly been living at the top of the draft board lately, and that matters when you’re trying to land the kind of player who changes a franchise. Houston’s last true premium first-round swing came back in 2015, when it held the No. 2 and No. 5 overall picks and turned them into Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker. The club doesn’t pick that high in 2026, but it does get a shot at No. 17, which gives this draft at least a little bite.
That backdrop makes Houston’s recent first-round history worth revisiting. The organization has been searching for another real impact bat or arm since the days when it was landing players like Bregman, Tucker and Carlos Correa, and the last five first-round selections tell a pretty mixed story.
At the top of the list sits Brice Matthews, and it’s not much of a debate. He’s the only one of the group to make it to the majors and actually matter for the big-league club.
His 2026 line is rough - .199/.253/.338 - but he’s still only 24 and has just 91 MLB games under his belt. There’s time for that to turn.
Xavier Neyens comes next, mostly because the ceiling is hard to ignore. He’s only 19 and hasn’t even reached 300 plate appearances since being drafted out of high school. That leaves a lot of development runway, and if he keeps moving the way Houston hopes, he could become an impact infielder before long.
Walker Janek has shown more than a little promise, but the bat hasn’t taken off yet. The Astros took him 28th overall in the 2024 MLB Draft, and through three seasons in pro ball he’s hit .241/.306/.399 with 16 home runs and 79 RBIs. He’s made it as far as Double-A, so the raw ingredients are there even if the production hasn’t fully caught up.
Drew Gilbert is a tougher one to sort out because he never actually played for Houston. He was dealt for Justin Verlander in 2023, so if the pick itself is the question, the Astros did well to draft a prospect valuable enough to headline that kind of trade.
Verlander came back and helped Houston make another October run, and Gilbert has since become a contributor for the San Francisco Giants. But inside the Astros organization, there just isn’t much to grade.
Korey Lee lands at the bottom. He did reach the majors and was part of Houston’s 2022 World Series championship season, but he never came close to matching expectations. In 12 games that year, he hit .160/.192/.240 before going back to the minors, and he was later traded to the Chicago White Sox in 2023.
Taken together, the list says plenty about where the Astros have been in the draft: some useful pieces, one major trade chip, and not much in the way of a clean home run since the top-end talent of the mid-2010s. With No. 17 coming up in 2026, Houston gets another chance to change that.
In Other News...
Astros May Have A Real Deadline Answer They Cant Miss
The Astros have spent much of the season looking for a left-handed hitting outfielder, and the trade market may have given them a clean fit if they decide to act. Toronto outfielder Daulton Varsho has emerged as a name to watch, with ESPNs Jeff Passan pointing to him as a possible deadline target for Houston, and the appeal is obvious: he brings defensive value in center field and enough offensive production to matter in a lineup that could use balance.
Torontos problem is that its deadline path is still unsettled, which is what makes this one tricky for Houston. The Blue Jays are hanging around the Wild Card race, close enough to keep thinking about a push, but also in a spot where a move could tilt them toward selling if the right offer lands, and Varshos free agent-to-be status only adds to the pressure. For the Astros, the question is whether this is the kind of opportunity they can afford to let pass if the price stays manageable. [Read more 🡒]
Astros Just Sent A Major Deadline Message About Yordan Alvarez
As the trade deadline approaches, Houstons attention is turning to the kind of move that would help lengthen the lineup around Yordan Alvarez rather than shake it up. The Astros have Alvarez under contract through 2028, and the current focus is on finding a left-handed hitting outfielder who can fit alongside one of the games most dangerous bats.
That approach says plenty about where the club sees itself right now. With the deadline pressure building, Houston is signaling that it wants to add around the edges and keep its core intact, a familiar posture for a team trying to stay in the thick of the race without sacrificing a centerpiece. The next question is whether the front office can find the right bat without overpaying for a market that tends to get expensive in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]