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 -- In his first 12 games at Triple-A Sugar Land, outfielder Zach Cole (the Astros’ No. 19-ranked prospect by MLB Pipeline), blasted five home runs and drove in 15 runs, highlighted by a walk-off grand slam to beat Oklahoma City on Sept. 4. That helped earn him Pacific Coast League Player of the Week honors last week, as well as opening some eyes in the Astros’ system.
Cole’s smashing start with the Space Cowboys has the Astros feeling bullish about the future of the 6-foot-2 left-handed-hitting outfielder, who was a 10th-round pick in the 2022 MLB Draft out of Ball State University. Cole said he had never even hit a walk-off homer before -- much less a grand slam -- to win the game like he did for Sugar Land last week.
“It was a cool experience,” he said. “I was kind of caught up in the moment. Didn't really have too many words for it when it happened, but they did tell me it was the first one in the history of the Space Cowboys, so that was cool.”
Cole had gone 1-for-4 with three strikeouts in the game before coming to the plate in the ninth inning with the bases loaded and the score tied at 3. He hit a first-pitch fastball from Oklahoma City pitcher Bobby Miller and sailed it 399 feet over the left-center-field wall with an exit velocity of 105.6 mph.
“I actually had been having some tough ABs previously,” Cole said. “It was a new at-bat and an opportunity to help the team, and I was like, ‘Flush it, go up there and have an open mind and just trust your abilities and see what happens.’ And I was lucky enough to get a fastball and not miss it, so I'm very, very fortunate.”
Cole spent most of last season at Double-A Corpus Christi, hitting .214/.302/.408 with 10 homers, 14 steals and 36 RBIs in 70 games at that level. He began this year back with the Hooks and hit .267/.363/.505 with six triples, 14 homers, 49 RBIs and 15 stolen bases in 82 games before being promoted to Triple-A at the end of August. Since joining Sugar Land? He’s slashing .375/.479/.875 (1.354 OPS) with eight walks.
“Throughout this year, his barrel rate jumped a lot from last year,” said Jacob Buffa, Astros senior director of player development and performance science. “It looked like he came in with a little bit of a different swing in Spring Training and started hitting balls hard again. He did this earlier in his career, and last year the barrel rate dropped a little bit. This year he came back in looking really, really good, hitting balls hard in the air a long way. The swing and miss was up a little bit, the K rate was up. Around the middle of June, he and the hitting coaches decided to make a little bit of a swing adjustment.”
Cole said he’s always been open to trying new things and worked with Corpus Christi hitting coach Bobby Bell and hitting coordinators Aaron Westlake and Dan Hennigan on not moving his hands as much and understanding he always doesn’t have to swing at max effort.
“I'm a big effort guy, in terms of I've always swung really hard, so having to dial that back a little bit to try to give myself an opportunity to make more contact, to be on time on a more regular basis, has been huge for me at the plate, especially as the velo continues to jump up at every level and the stuff continues to get better,” Cole said. “I can't be trying to do too much against these guys. So that's been a lot of big adjustments for me so far in my pro career.”
Cole has been hampered by hamstring injuries the last few years, which is why staying healthy the rest of the season is one of his top goals. He’s scheduled to play for the Scottsdale Scorpions of the Arizona Fall League and will almost certainly be added to the 40-man roster in the offseason to be protected from being exposed in the Rule 5 Draft.
“It's a good opportunity for me to get those at-bats that I missed out on and whatever happens, just be consistent with my process with what I know works, whether or not the results are there or not, just stick with it and not jump around too much,” Cole said. “I feel like I'm in a good spot right now with what works.”