Houston Astros Draw World Series Rematch in Spring Breakout Game

The Houston Astros learned which organization they will be facing when they play their Spring Breakout game next March.

May 26, 2023; Mesa, AZ, USA; Sam Houston Bearkats' Walker Janek (3) celebrates his 3-run home run against the GCU Lobos during their WAC Tournament game at Hohokam Stadium. / Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

Major League Baseball released all of its spring training schedules for 2025 and the Houston Astros learned which franchise they will face in the annual Spring Breakout game.

The Astros will host the game at their spring training complex in West Palm Beach, Fla., and it will be a rematch with their 2019 World Series opponent, the Washington Nationals.

The game will be played on March 14 with the time to be determined.

The Astros and the Nationals played a classic seven-game series in 2019, with Washington claiming the franchise’s first World Series title. It snuffed out a bit of a redemption story after Houston’s 2017 World Series title defense ended with a loss in the American League Championship Series to the Boston Red Sox in 2018.

While Houston has been back to the World Series twice since their meeting — losing to Atlanta in 2021 and beating Philadelphia in 2022 — the Nationals have not had a winning season since claiming their championship.

The game will pit some of the best prospects from both organizations against each other. Those prospect rosters will be named at a later date.

But both organizations should expect to have some of their highest-ranked prospects playing in the game.

Since the first Spring Breakout games in March, 95 participating players have made it to the Majors, and 35 of them have been MLB Pipeline Top 100 prospects. When the MLB Futures Game was held last month during All-Star Game weekend, 48 of the 54 players in the game participated in Spring Breakout.

For the Astros, pitcher A.J. Blubaugh participated in the MLB Futures Game. He is at Triple-A Sugar Land. The Arizona Fall League, which is in October, is another signal of who could play in next year’s game.

Houston just had its system re-ranked by MLB Pipeline this week and outfielder Jacob Melton remained the organization’s No. 1 prospect. He is now at Sugar Land. He’s likely to earn an invite to Major League camp, but his status as the top prospect will likely land him in the game unless he’s competing for an MLB job.

Of the Houston prospects in the Top 10, the only one in the Majors right now is infielder Zack Dezenzo, who has quickly transitioned into an everyday player. If he finished out the season in the Majors he will probably graduate him from the prospect rankings and take him out of the game.

The contest could serve as a showcase for first-round pick Walker Janek, the Sam Houston catcher who was selected last month.