Less than a week after the Rangers brought up their top prospect, Joey Gallo, their cross state rivals have taken a similar turn by promoting 2012 first overall pick Carlos Correa. Ranked third best prospect in all of baseball by Baseball Prospectus coming into the season (also third by MLB.com and fourth by Baseball America), Correa joins not only Gallo (#15 on Prospectus’ list), but Addison Russell (#2) and Kris Bryant (#5) of the Cubs and Noah Syndergaard (#9) of the Mets from the top ten and Archie Bradley, Blake Swihart, Joc Pederson and Jorge Soler of the top twenty in making their 2015 debuts.
And to follow up that promotion, news broke on Monday morning that Houston would also be calling up their #4 prospect, starter Vincent Velasquez, to start on Wednesday and replace veteran Roberto Hernandez in the rotation.
Correa is just 20 years old, but should fit in nicely on the AL West leading Astros as five others were born after 1990 and just seven players are over 30. This is just Correa’s third full professional season and before this year, he had never played above the Advanced A level in Lancaster, but after scorching the AA Texas League to the tune of .385/.459/.726 this year in 29 games, he was promoted to AAA.
Once there, he appeared over his head as his numbers dropped off to a .276/.345/.449 line with the Fresno Grizzlies in 23 games. He still had a good eye, walking 11 times to just 15 strike outs, but the hits weren’t falling as they had been throughout the rest of his minor league career. Of course, much of this has to do with the small sample size as Correa went through a 4/33 streak from May 22nd through May 30th that lowered his AAA average from .326 to .237. After that, he went on a six game hitting streak including three multi-hit games to raise his average back to .276.
Irrelevant of what the stats say, Astros manager A.J. Hinch believes that Correa is physically and mentally ready to help out Houston. Of course, it seems like the timing of this promotion had more to do with the Astros’ current needs than Correa’s readiness. With Jed Lowrie on the DL beyond the All-Star break and Marwin Gonzalez (.227 AVG, 1 BB, 26 K’s) and Jonathan Villar (.264 AVG, 8 BB, 24 K’s) struggling at the plate, they could use some help up the middle.
Correa is also considered to be an above average short stop defensively and his .968 career minor league fielding percent fits right between those of Gonzalez and Villar. In AA this year he was particularly proficient with a .992 fielding percent, committing just one error in 131 chances. While this is not the most accurate way to judge a fielder, we will have to wait until he plays some at the Major League level to see where he truly lies. Until then, we’ll have to take the scouts word that he has an impressive arm and glove.
Velasquez just turned 23 on Sunday, and while his overall value pales in comparison to Correa’s, he should still be a solid member of their rotation. In five starts with AA Corpus Christi this season, Velasquez struck out 37 and walked nine over 26 1/3 innings, pitching to a 1.37 ERA in the process. He missed the first month of the season with a strained lat, but doesn’t appear to have missed a beat since coming off of the DL. Velasquez will join an Astros rotation featuring ground ball machine Dallas Keuchel, fellow rookie Lance McCullers, and 2014 breakout star Collin McHugh.
The Astros are in a unique position of being good now, largely thanks to years of poor finishes garnering them high draft picks, while also being set for the future. In addition to Correa, the Astros also have the first overall pick from the 2013 draft, Mark Appel fast approaching the Majors and will get to choose twice in the first five picks in Monday’s draft after missing out on signing Brady Aiken first overall in 2014.
The Astros are young, they are ten games over .500 and 3.5 games ahead of the AL West and they are only getting better. Despite their jokes last season about winning the World Series in 2017, they appear poised to compete right now. A 20 year old rookie couldn’t ask for much more than a solid supporting cast around him on a winning team.
As for the rest, there are only two prospects left from the Baseball Prospectus top five and six of the top 11. Of those, number one prospect, the Twins Byron Buxton, is mired with a .267/.327/.475 line in his first full season in AA Chattanooga and is unlikely to play anytime soon for the Twins, who like the Astros, are in first place, but unlike the Astros, likely do not have the staying power to remain there. Ranked fourth overall, the Cleveland Indians Francisco Lindor is a more likely contender for the next promotion. The Indians are struggling offensively, particularly considering production from the left side of the infield (just like Houston) and they have just announced the demotion of the current starting short stop Jose Ramirez. While they haven’t officially named a replacement, it is expected to be Zach Walters this time, but it shouldn’t be too long until Lindor joins Correa and Gallo in the 2015 American League rookie class.
