Inside the Astros

Son of Houston Astros Legend Dominates His MLB Debut

The son of a Houston Astros legend just made his MLB debut after being traded away at the deadline.

Dylan Sanders

Hooks' Will Wagner confirms an out at third base on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Hooks' Will Wagner confirms an out at third base on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi, Texas. / Angela Piazza/Caller-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK
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The Houston Astros traded away the son of a franchise legend at the MLB deadline and now he's set to make his big league debut with his new team.

After a short stint in the Toronto Blue Jays farm system, Will Wagner was recently called up to the big leagues for his debut.

Wagner is the son of Astros legend Billy Wagner, who was the best closer in the team's history. The father played for Houston from 1995 to 2003 and leads the team in career saves and K/9.

The now-Blue Jays infielder was with Houston just a few weeks ago. He, along with Joey Loperfido and and Jake Bloss, were traded away to Toronto in exchange for the rental of Yusei Kikuchi.

When prospects are involved, it always takes a while to decide whether the trade has worked out. It looks like it could be a win for both teams so far, though.

Kikuchi has pitched twice for the Astros and has a 3.27 ERA over those games. Batters have just a .180/.289/.359 slashing line against him as well. He's done well at striking batters out.

Even if there is a bit of regression, it seems like it was a good pickup in the efforts of winning this year.

Loperfido hasn't been off to a great start with the Blue Jays. Over his first eight games there, he has a .125/.152/.188.

He got off to a hot start in his career, which made him a intriguing trade piece in the first place, but has been struggling mightily over the past month. Houston clearly felt something was wrong, making him expendable, but it was still shocking to see him included.

Bloss has only appeared once in the minors for Toronto, so he's fully up in the air.

As for Wagner, though, he's has a nice couple of seasons in the minors but didn't have much of a path forward in with the Astros.

The 25-year-old had a .400/.516/.600 slashing line over his first seven games in Triple-A with the Blue Jays. Calling him up while his bat was hot was not an accident.

While it was higher than most of the season, it wasn't much of an outlier. He had a .307/.424/.429 line over 70 games in Sugar Land.

He projects best as a second baseman at the big league level, but wasn't going to be taking Jose Altuve's job any time soon.

The Houston native hit a double in his first major league at-bat and followed that up with an RBI single in his second and another single in his third.

Though some fans would rather him doing it in an Astros uniform, it can still be viewed as a nice moment for a franchise legend's family.

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Dylan Sanders
DYLAN SANDERS

Dylan Sanders graduated from Louisiana State University with a degree from the Manship School of Mass Communication in 2023. He was born in raised in Baton Rouge, LA but has also lived in Buffalo, NY. Though he is a recent graduate, he has been writing about sports since he was in high school, covering different sports from baseball to football. While in college, he wrote for the school paper The Reveille and for 247Sports. He was able cover championships in football, baseball and women's basketball during his time at LSU. He has also spent a few years covering the NFL draft and every day activities of the New Orleans Saints. He is a Senior Writer at Inside the Marlins and will also be found across Sports Illustrated's baseball sites as a contributing writer. You can follow him on Twitter or Instagram @dillysanders

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