Houston Astros Have Six New Top 30 Prospects

Baseball America's re-rank of its Houston Astros Top 30 yielded a new crop of Top 30 prospects since the preseason.

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Six Houston Astros prospects are new to Baseball America’s Top 30 organizational prospects, released as a re-rank in early June.

The re-rank was based on a variety of criteria, as Astros prospects moved up and moved down the board.

Here are the Six Astros prospects who are new to the Top 30 and how they made the cut.

OF Luis Baez (No. 5)

Baez comes in like a rocket ship, going from unranked to No. 5. Just 19 years old and out of the Dominican Republic, he’s stateside for the first time at the Florida Complex League. In his first 10 games he slashed .351/.467/.865/1.332 with six home runs and 12 RBI. This after a 2022 in which he slashed .305/.351/.552/.903 with nine home runs and 53 RBI in 58 games.

3B Zach Dezenzo (No. 6)

Dezenzo’s ascent is similar, though he comes from the college ranks. Drafted out of Ohio State last year, Dezenzo has already cleared three rungs of the Astros’ system and is with Double-A Corpus Christi. After 46 minor-league games Dezenzo slashed .380/.459/.584/1.043 with five home runs and 23 RBI. Alex Bregman probably has nothing to worry about — yet.

SS Shay Whitcomb (No. 19)

The 2020 fifth-round pick is on the doorstep of a call-up, as he’s playing for Triple-A Sugar Land. Drafted out of UC San Diego, he started this season at Corpus Christi. In his first 56 games of 2023 he slashed .282/.349/.574/.923 with 17 home runs and 48 RBI. He’s growing into a power option at the position, though the Astros already have a good option at shortstop in Jeremy Peña.

RHP Rhett Kouba (No. 23)

A former 12th round pick who is in his second full season in the system, he’s pitching at Corpus Christi. He’s 4-2 with a 4.14 ERA in 12 games (10 starts). The ERA is a little high, but what hits you is the strikeout and walk totals. In those 12 games he had 69 strikeouts in 54.1 innings with just eight walks. He’s improved both his strikeout rate and walk rate from a season ago. One thing to work on? Batters are hitting .262 against him.

RHP Ronel Blanco (No. 27)

Blanco made his MLB debut last season with the Astros and is closing in on having the service time to graduate from prospect status. He’s been in the Astros’ system since 2016 and in his first 12 Astros appearances he’s 1-0 with a 4.66 ERA. He’s been pressed into service as a starter given the Astros’ injury issues in the rotation. He could graduate from the prospect rankings soon based on service time.

SS Grae Kessinger (No. 28)

The second-round pick in 2019 made his MLB debut on June 9 with the Astros. He spent most of his season at Sugar Land where he slashed .284/.400/.443/.843 with six home runs and 32 RBI. Right now he’s infield depth behind Jose Altuve, Peña and Mauricio Dubón.

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