Tuesday, July 07

HOUSTON – As the Astros continue preparations for this weekend's MLB Draft, Sam Niedorf, the team’s first-year director of player development, provided a breakdown of how the team’s top five picks from the 2025 Draft have performed to date:

First round (21st overall)

Xavier Neyens, SS, Mount Vernon High School, Wash. (Astros’ No. 2 prospect)

Neyens, who will represent the Astros in Sunday's All-Star Futures Game, has put up a solid first half at Single-A Fayetteville, slashing .240/.452/.461 with 13 homers, 36 RBIs, 15 steals and 74 walks in his first 283 plate appearances. Neyens was drafted as a shortstop, but has played more third base so far this season.

“The power production, we're going to put that up against any player in the Minor Leagues,” Niedorf said. “We have huge confidence in this player's ability to continue the progress through the system and maintain the same level of output on the power production standpoint that we've seen all year. I think to say he's exceeded expectations might be light. He's done more than that.”

Third round (95th overall)

Ethan Frey, OF, LSU (Astros’ No. 3 prospect)

Frey began the season at High-A Asheville, but suffered a hamstring injury June 3 and has since been rehabbing at the team’s Spring Training facility in West Palm Beach, Fla. He was slashing .254/.353/.400 with five homers, 31 RBIs, 30 walks and 13 steals in 218 plate appearances with Asheville.

“We've been pretty aggressive in our position on playing [Frey] in center field and giving him every chance to play out there on a consistent basis, and he's done that,” Niedorf said. “The speed, the react, the arm strength have all been super impressive. At this point, excited to see him coming back in the next couple weeks as he rehabs from his hamstring, but all signs are pointed upwards with what we saw offensively prior to the injury.”

Fourth round (126th overall)

Nick Monistere, IF, Southern Mississippi (Astros’ No. 30 prospect)

An athletic player who was named Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year last year with 21 homers, Monistere is also rehabbing an injury (right oblique) in West Palm Beach. He was slashing .250/.392/.413 with 16 walks, 27 strikeouts and 15 stolen bases in his first 104 plate appearances at Asheville, but he hasn’t played in two months.

“Nick showed really strong strike-zone control, a really patient approach to the plate and draws his walks,” Niedorf said. “I think a plus from my end is he's a second baseman who can play some short, but just the impact that he had on the bases so far this year has been really, really impressive. … He wreaks havoc on the opponent, going first to third and second to home and doing the little things on the bases to help his team. He’s a really good athlete, and we look forward to getting him healthy and healed and back to an affiliate.”

Fifth round (156th overall)

Nick Potter, RHP, Wichita State (Astros’ No. 27 prospect)

A reliever in college with an upper-90s fastball, Potter has made the transition to starter. He’s made 13 starts for Fayetteville with a 2.22 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP, with 25 walks and 48 strikeouts in 44 2/3 innings. Because he didn’t have a big workload in college, the Astros have brought his innings along slowly.

“Ultimately the development of a third pitch [a curveball], which he's been working on all year, will be key,” Niedorf said. “We’ve seen some really good flashes of that in-game. The consistency part of that is not there yet, but he continues to work on that in the shadows. I think the calling card on Nick coming out of the Draft was the fastball, and that's lived up to every expectation we’ve had of him.”

Sixth round (186th overall)

Gabel Pentecost, RHP, Taylor (Indiana) University (Astros’ No. 28 prospect)

The Astros have been good at finding arms from smaller colleges (Hunter Brown from Wayne State and AJ Blubaugh from Wisconsin-Milwaukee, for example) and believe they have another one in Pentecost. A right forearm injury has limited him to 17 innings in four games (two starts) at Fayetteville, where he’s posted a 4.24 ERA and 1.12 WHIP with 19 strikeouts in 17 innings. He hasn’t pitched since picking up a win in 5 1/3 innings on April 24, and is rehabbing in West Palm Beach.

“We think he has pitches that can miss bats on both left-handed and right-handed hitters, which is what excites us,” Niedorf said. “He has the ability to throw strikes with multiple different offerings and keep hitters off balance with his approach. He’s super advanced for his age, obviously more of a mid-major [college] product from the amateur rank, but someone who's mature and wise beyond his years and someone who probably isn't a household name but will be soon when he gets healthy and progresses through the system.”

Right-hander Ethan Pecko, a sixth-round pick in the 2023 MLB Draft out of Towson and the Astros’ No. 6 prospect, was named the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Month for June. Pecko made five appearances (four starts) for Triple-A Sugar Land, going 3-1 with a 2.48 ERA, six walks and 20 strikeouts in 29 innings. He led PCL pitchers in ERA, WHIP (0.93) and opponents’ batting average (.206), while finishing tied for the league lead during the month in innings pitched.

Pecko, who had back-to-back outings of seven innings on June 11 and June 18, is 3-5 over 52 2/3 innings in 12 games (11 starts) with 46 strikeouts for Sugar Land this season.

The Astros’ player development department named Double-A Corpus Christi outfielder Drew Brutcher as the organization’s Player of the Month for June and Fayetteville right-hander Javier Perez as Pitcher of the Month for June. Both were signed as undrafted free agents by the Astros.

Brutcher, 24, batted .387 with 20 runs, nine doubles, a triple, four home runs, 28 RBIs and 22 walks with a 1.224 OPS in 22 games for the Hooks during the month. Perez, 22, went 2-0 in four June starts with a 3.54 ERA, posting a 0.84 WHIP and .213 opponents’ batting average for the Woodpeckers.

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