This 'hardnosed' draftee is ready to roll with Astros

This story was excerpted from Brian McTaggart’s Astros Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

HOUSTON -- Some have compared Nick Monistere’s game to Hall of Fame second baseman Craig Biggio, who always played hard no matter the circumstance. The first word on Biggio’s Hall of Fame plaque in Cooperstown, N.Y., is “gritty” for a reason. Biggio was a bit ahead of Monistere’s time, but he did model his game after another hardnosed Astros infielder.

Monistere, taken by the Astros in the fourth round (No. 126 overall) in last month’s MLB Draft out of Southern Mississippi, idolized former Astros third baseman Alex Bregman when he played at LSU. Former LSU coach Paul Mainieri had to give Bregman the keys to the stadium because he always wanted to be on the baseball field. Monistere is cut from the same cloth.

“I feel like I’m hardnosed, I’m a blue-collar player,” he said. “Maybe I’m not the most analytic guy jumping off the page when you watch me play, but I get in there and win baseball games and play hard. I make the play whenever it needs to be made, and I feel like I get the big hit when the team needs the big hit. I’m a hardnosed player who will do anything to win the game.”

A super athletic right-hander with tremendous bat speed, he was named the Sun Belt Player of the Year in 2025 after slashing .323/.410/.623 with 12 doubles, one triple, 21 home runs and 72 RBIs for Southern Miss. He was mostly at second base for the Golden Eagles but also played third base, center field, left field, first base and even pitched.

“He’s got some versatility, and he’s the type of personality that he don’t care [where he plays],” USM coach Christian Ostrander said on Draft night. “He just wants to win.”

The Astros plan to keep Monistere up the middle -- second base and shortstop -- and he’s started one game at each position in his first two professional games this week at Single-A Fayetteville. He said he’s more than willing to move around the diamond defensively.

“I think they want me to stay in the middle at shortstop or second base for as long as I can, and they know if they have to move me, they can,” Monistere said. “I think they’re kind of letting me have a chance to make myself a shortstop or second baseman, and knowing they have an option to put me anywhere else is a great thing.”

Monistere, who was born in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land, spent about two weeks at the Astros’ facility in West Palm Beach, Fla., after being drafted, and this week, he was assigned to Fayetteville. Several other 2025 Draft picks went with him, including outfielder Ethan Frey (third round), second baseman Kyle Walker (eighth), shortstop Zach Daudet (10th) and outfielder Chase Call (16th).

“It’s a whirlwind,” Monistere said. “One minute you’re at home and celebrating getting drafted, and 24 hours later you’re on a flight to Houston to do your physical and sign, and then you’re doing that until the middle of September. It happens really fast, but it’s really fun.”

Monistere, as you may expect, is ready for the grind of professional baseball, which means playing six days per week and long bus rides.

“If you have one bad game up here, you can’t get in your head about it because you have another [game] the next day and six more after that,” he said. “It’s kind of nonstop for five or six months, however long it is. It’s all about getting better and testing yourself every single day and maximize your potential as a baseball player. It’s what it comes down to.”

Since the days he watched Bregman at LSU to the bright lights of college baseball and now in the Carolina League, Monistere’s dream lives on.

“Everyone always asked me what I wanted to do after college, and I said I wanted to play baseball,” he said. “That was really the only goal I ever had, the only dream I ever had, and I’m getting to live it now, and it’s amazing. It’s everything I could have asked for, and I’m excited for the rest of my future doing it.”