The Houston Astros have one of the worst farm systems in Major League Baseball, a factor that the front office must consider as the MLB draft approaches.
If the Astros want to be the team they’re looking to be in the next decade, it’ll likely come down to how they do in the draft.
Unfortunately, the Astros haven’t proven that they’re willing to spend money on free agents and have allowed many to walk in recent years.
While that’s concerning and something Houston has to fix, Baseball America recently predicted that the Astros would make a splash during the MLB draft by selecting Gage Wood, a right-handed starter out of the University of Arkansas.
Wood was decent during his career at Arkansas, showing off a mid-90s fastball.
“Wood has been on a rocket ship in recent weeks. He has first-round stuff between his swing-and-miss, mid-90s fastball and a hard biting power curve. There are some Cade Horton/Ty Floyd vibes to Wood’s 2025 season and postseason up-arrow surge. Dana Brown has prioritized riding fastballs like Wood’s in the past. Some in the industry think this is too high, but we’re reaching a bit of a vacuum in the college starter demographic at this point in the draft,” they wrote.
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Wood has the stuff to be above average, but he’s only six-foot, and it’s tough to tell how much velocity he might gain.
He’s coming off a year where he posted a 5.02 ERA in 28.2 innings, but struck out 50 hitters. The strikeout stuff is there, and that’s promising, but the ERA needed some work.
