Brice Matthews Should Be Astros Starting Second Baseman Going Forward No Matter What

The Houston Astros have another star rookie.

Following in the footsteps of Cam Smith -- who rocketed into stardom during spring training to make the Opening Day roster -- the Astros have another youngster who is beginning to look like a future foundational piece of this team going forward; Brice Matthews.

Called up on July 11 for his Major League debut only because multiple infielders were hit with injuries, the current top-ranked prospect in Houston's pipeline is making his case to own the starting second base spot for the rest of the season.

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And that's exactly what should happen.

Predictably, Matthews was quiet when he first faced MLB pitching, going 0-for-7 in his first two games before collecting his first big league hit in the first contest following the All-Star break.

That was a good moment, but he followed it up with an 0-for-3 performance.

However, something has clicked for the 23-year-old in the last two games, because Matthews has hit three home runs on the road against the Arizona Diamondbacks, with the first being a 397-foot three-run blast to give the Astros a 3-1 lead and the second being a 423-foot two-run shot to left center field that gave Houston a 6-3 advantage later in the same game. His third career Major League homer was another deep shot in a clutch situation, with him hitting a two-run blast 396 feet to give the Astros a 2-1 lead in the top of the eighth inning on Tuesday.

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Without Matthews, Houston would have lost both of those contests, and their lead in the AL West would have shrunk with the Seattle Mariners hot on their trail.

This is the exact type of player the Astros believed they were getting when they took him 28th overall in the 2023 draft, and now that he has arrived to The Show, he should have a place on the roster for the rest of the season.

Houston has been searching for someone to be a consistent factor for them at second base all year long, with Brendan Rodgers underperforming on offense before hitting the injured list and Mauricio Dubon also not up to par with the bat in his hand.

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Matthews is not just the future, but he's showing that he's the present, too.

Even when players start getting healthy, the Astros need to keep Matthews as their starting second baseman, because he's provided more of a ceiling in two games than has been on display all year for this team.

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