THE PALLILOG
Looking ahead to what is next for the Astros from Charlie Pallilo
Nov 3, 2017, 8:58 am
The 2017 World Series Champion Houston Astros.
I imagine most inclined to be reading this won’t get tired of hearing that title for, oh, all eternity. Earn It was the Astros’ regular season motto. Earn History was their postseason motto. Check and check. Here’s a hodge-podge of thoughts and facts in the exhaustively gleeful aftermath of the Astros finally scaling Baseball Everest.
Anyone still upset about their forced move to the American League?
So so many things about this team go into defining it as Houston’s first baseball champion. When the Astros went from awful to pretty much deliberately fielding an atrocity of a squad in 2012 and 2013, the point was to pour a rock-solid organizational foundation and build a sustained winner on top of it. For as bad as it got however, and despite as tough and to some extent random running the postseason gauntlet can be, it really demanded ultimate victory to justify the grand tear down and build up process. Four years after 111 losses, General Manager Jeff Luhnow is cemented as architect of the best and most successful team in 56 years of Major League Baseball in Houston.
What odds would you have given on the Astros winning the World Series with Jose Altuve batting under .200? The likely AL Most Valuable Player finished six for 31, that’s .194.
The slack was more than taken up by World Series MVP George Springer. From an 0-4 four strikeout mess of a Game 1 that bottomed out a 3-30 stretch to a World Series record-tying five homers, Springer the first player ever to homer in four consecutive games within one World Series.
Three-plus years ago when Sports Illustrated went with the famous (and widely mocked) cover story declaring the Houston Astros 2017 World Series Champs, it was George Springer featured on the cover. Writer Ben Reiter authored the article. His glory pales in comparison to what the Astros secured Wednesday night, but it’s one of the better called shots you’ll see in a magazine. Or anywhere else.
Along the Astros’ postseason path to the title they took out arguably the three biggest brands in the sport in the Red Sox, Yankees, and Dodgers. They definitely defeated the three largest payrolls of 2017. Next year, the Astros roster will remain laughably (delightfully so for Jim Crane and his ownership partners) inexpensive relative to its quality. Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, and Lance McCullers each play another season making basically the MLB minimum salary. The Astros hold a mere six million dollar option on Altuve -- gee, think they’ll exercise it? -- for 2018 (and then just six-and-a-half mil for ’19). Justin Verlander signed at two years just $40 million of Astros’ money is a tremendous value.
The Astros will not lose a single key player to free agency. Barring contract extensions signed in the meantime, after next season the Astros face losing Dallas Keuchel, Marwin Gonzalez, and Evan Gattis. That is nothing to worry about now. They have big league and prospect depth for Luhnow to aggressively seek to upgrade a bullpen which decayed from average to OHMIGOD NO! lousy for much of the postseason. The best offense in baseball could get better with the addition of a designated hitter who isn’t the weakest hitter in the lineup.
Champions face many obstacles to title defenses. In baseball the structure of the postseason is as big as any. The Indians, Yankees, and Red Sox should all be strong again next season, with a worthy National League champ waiting after that. But man this Astros club is built to last, and certainly goes into 2018 as the overwhelming favorite to repeat as champ of the American League West. Get back to the tournament, and there’s the chance to go back-to-back. Only twice in the last quarter century has it been done: the Blue Jays in ‘92/’93, and the Yankees three-peat of ’98-‘00.
An altogether meaningless stat, that I nevertheless find cool: in only one other World Series did the win sequence of home and road teams play out as did Astros-Dodgers ’17. Home team won game one, road team took game two, home team game three, road team game four, home team game five, home team game six, road team game seven. In another of the great World Series the Reds outlasted the Red Sox that way in 1975. In World Series seventh games the road team is now 20-19.
BUZZER BEATERS: 1. The day after the Astros win the World Series the Texans lose DeShaun Watson for the rest of the season. Life can be simultaneously beautiful and cruel. 2. The centerfield speaker tower at Dodger Stadium is the best sound system I have ever heard. 3. Best parades: Bronze, Rio’s Carnival looks fairly entertaining Silver, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Gold, Astros today.
The Houston Astros entered the 2025 MLB Draft with limited capital but a clear objective: find talent that can help sustain their winning ways without needing a full organizational reboot. With just under $7.2 million in bonus pool money and two forfeited picks, lost when they signed slugger Christian Walker, the Astros needed to be smart, aggressive, and a little bold. They were all three.
A swing on star power
With the 21st overall pick, Houston selected Xavier Neyens, a powerful left-handed high school bat from Mt. Vernon, Washington. At 6-foot-4, Neyens is raw but loaded with tools, a slugger with plus power and the kind of bat speed that turns heads.
He’s the Astros’ first high school position player taken in the first round in a decade.
If Neyens develops as expected, he could be the next cornerstone in the post-Altuve/Bregman era. Via: MLB.com:
It’s possible we’ll look back at this first round and realize that the Astros got the best power hitter in the class. At times, Neyens has looked like an elite hitter who’d easily get to that pop, and at times the swing-and-miss tendencies concerned scouts, which is why he didn’t end up closer to the top of the first round. He was announced as a shortstop, but his size (6-foot-4) and his arm will profile best at third base.
Their next big swing came in the third round with Ethan Frey, an outfielder/DH from LSU who was one of the most imposing college hitters in the country.
He blasted 13 home runs in the SEC and helped lead the Tigers to a championship.
Filling the middle
In the fourth round, the Astros grabbed Nick Monistere, an infielder/outfielder out of Southern Miss who won Sun Belt Player of the Year honors.
If Kendall likes the pick, I like the pick. https://t.co/NQKqEHFxtV
— Jeremy Branham (@JeremyBranham) July 14, 2025
He doesn’t jump off the page with tools, but he rakes, hitting .323 with 21 home runs this past season, and plays with a chip on his shoulder.
They followed that up with Nick Potter, a right-handed reliever from Wichita State. He projects as a fast-moving bullpen piece, already showing a mature approach and a “fastball that was regularly clocked in the upper-90s and touched 100 miles per hour.”
From there, Houston doubled down on pitching depth and versatility. They took Gabel Pentecost, a Division II flamethrower, Jase Mitchell, a high school catcher with upside, and a host of college arms, all in hopes of finding the next Spencer Arrighetti or Hunter Brown.
Strategy in motion
Missing multiple picks, Houston leaned into two things: ceiling and speed to the majors. Neyens brings the first, Frey and Monistere the second. And as they’ve shown in recent years, the Astros can develop arms with late-round pedigree into major league contributors.
The Astros didn’t walk away with flashy headlines, they weren’t drafting in the top 10. But they leave the 2025 draft with a clear direction: keep the farm alive with bats that can produce and arms that can fill in the gaps, especially with the club managing injuries and an aging core.
If Neyens becomes the slugger they hope, and if Frey or Monistere climbs fast, this draft could be another example of Houston turning limited resources into lasting impact.
You can see the full draft tracker here.
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