This story was excerpted from Brian McTaggart’s Astros Beat newsletter. This edition was written by Kenny Van Doren of MLB Pipeline. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Approaching the midway point of the Minor League season, the Astros have seen the most shifting of their top prospects at the top of their system.
Multiple top prospects -- including Jacob Melton, AJ Blubaugh and Colton Gordon -- have already made their big league debuts. But over the past week, it was Moving Day for some of the more unheralded Astros prospects, ones who have played their way into early-season promotions across all four affiliated levels.
Triple-A Sugar Land
For Michael Knorr, the spots were open, and the Astros felt ready for the test. Houston’s No. 22 prospect reaped the benefits of movement above him to receive his first promotion to Triple-A Sugar Land after sporting a 3.46 ERA and .214 batting average against with 35 strikeouts in 26 Double-A innings.
“He’s been in a form of a relief role for us for a while now,” said Jacob Buffa, the Astros’ senior director of player development and performance science. “We’re going to continue to push that … make sure he’s in leverage. As you get closer to the big leagues, you got to know what your role is, and we’re going to go [with] the reliever role.”
Selected as a starter in the third round of the 2022 Draft, Knorr’s progress was stagnant the past two seasons due to persistent shoulder issues, but after staying healthy through the first two-and-a-half months, the 25-year-old righty has ridden a quartet of 50-grade pitches into the final stop before the Major Leagues.
“He’s just extremely diligent about his work,” Buffa said. “It’s probably more our SM&P [sports medicine and performance] department has done a really good job of giving him a routine to stick with, to execute, and he’s very diligent about that. We haven’t made any repertoire changes.”
Double-A Corpus Christi
Amilcar Chirinos repeated Single-A in 2024, but after 19 outings at High-A, he was ready for the Texas League. The righty posted a near-30% strikeout-minus-walk rate (27.5%), an impressive mark for the 23-year-old in Asheville. Chirinos fires two fastballs and a slider that generates most of his whiffs.
“He’s got the weapons that a reliever needs,” Buffa said. “He showed that he was striking out over two-thirds of the hitters he sees, not walking guys. It was time to challenge him to Double-A, and that’s usually a pretty big jump for guys. We don’t mind getting him there quick and allowing him to make that transition.”
Chirinos, another low-bonus international signing for the Astros, fanned 38 batters in 22 2/3 innings for the Tourists. The 23-year-old posted a 5.56 ERA in a hitter-friendly South Atlantic League, allowing just six extra-base hits.
High-A Asheville
Going unsigned after the 2024 MLB Draft, Drew Brutcher turned to the Pioneer League, an independent affiliate of Major League Baseball, for his first taste of professional baseball. He hit .363 and slugged .605, garnering a late-March contract from the Astros.
“He’s a physical specimen,” Buffa laughed. “It looks like he’s got all the physical tools in the world. … We thought we’d take a chance at someone who’s got performance, who’s got physical tools, looked like an outfielder, and he’s done that for us.”
Playing his college career at the University of South Florida, Brutcher, a 6-foot-5, 215-pound outfielder, never posted an OPS south of .900 in four seasons. He parlayed those performances into a short stay with Single-A Fayetteville, where he slashed .330/.429/.467 with 15 doubles, 34 walks and a sub-10% chase rate.
“He showed more than what we could have hoped for,” Buffa said. “We wanted to challenge him.”
Single-A Fayetteville
While a little older coming out of the Dominican Summer League this past winter, Hector Salas wasn’t bound for the Florida Complex League for long. After 22 contests, where he slashed .284/.454/.405 with 23 walks to 16 strikeouts, he received a bump to Single-A Fayetteville on June 16.
As a left-handed-hitting shortstop, Salas displayed strong bat-to-ball skills with an 80% contact rate, while also posting a 23.7% walk rate, an absurd Rookie-level mark for the 21-year-old infielder.
“I think that’s rare to see coming out of the complex,” Buffa said.
“Usually, these guys are much more aggressive. They’re used to swinging out of their shoes. They’re used to swinging their way to production, and Salas has just shown a maturity that we thought was ready for the next level.”
The Astros want to anchor Salas to how he found success with the FCL Astros. The Higuey, Dominican Republic native hasn’t shown much power in his two years in the system, but his overall approach boded well for his second promotion in the calendar year.