Houston Astros Calling Up Top Prospect Now Could be Huge Mistake

There has been a lot of noise surrounding this Houston Astros top prospect making the Opening Day roster.

Mar 16, 2025; Port St. Lucie, Florida, USA; Houston Astros outfielder Cam Smith slides safely into third base during the fourth inning against the New York Mets at Clover Park. | Reinhold Matay-Imagn Images

The Houston Astros are less than 10 days away from Opening Day and there's one player who has become the talk of the town throughout spring training, and for good reason.

Top prospect acquired over the offseason in the Kyle Tucker trade with the Chicago Cubs, third baseman Cam Smith, has absolutely destroyed pitchers throughout camp.

In 11 games played, Smith has 11 hits in 26 at bats, slashing an absurd .423/.516/.846 for an OPS of 1.362 with three home runs and nine RBI. Understandably, with numbers like Smith has put up, the hype train has left the station and momentum from the fanbase has built toward clamoring for him to be on the Opening Day roster.

It was even reported on Monday that Smith has a "good" shot of making it right out of the gate. Whether or not the team is actually considering this is not known, but perhaps there needs to be some brakes pumped here.

While Smith looks like an superstar in the making and may be even better than the Astros thought he was when they were willing to ship Tucker out of town, rushing him along and pushing him into the big leagues is not going to benefit anybody if he's not completely ready.

It's important to note that Smith was drafted just last year and has yet to play even close to a full season in the minor leagues. Having just turned 22 years old a few weeks ago, he's still an incredibly young player.

While his slash line of .313/.396/.609 is exactly what you want to see from a young player, it came over a minuscule sample size of 32 games. Even more significant is the fact that only five of those 32 games were at the Double-A level.

The simple fact of the matter is that Smith has simply not played enough professional baseball for the team to think that he's ready for the show.

While the initial outlook when Houston acquired Smith was probably 2026 at the earliest and more likely 2027, it's not out of the reasonable realm of possibility for the youngster to come up at some point this season and make an impact.

That being said, rushing him into the Opening Day lineup is going to run counter to Smith's long-term development if — and more likely when — things don't go perfectly.

To this point in his professional career, Smith has not dealt with any real adversity. If he starts the year in Double-A and continues to hit at the same level he's been smoking the ball at, then call him up.

But in reality, figuring his way out through an inevitable slump while still in Double-A or Triple-A is not only beneficial, it's a critical skill he will need to weather the storm of the ebbs and flows that come with being an every day big league player.

Smith is an outstanding talent and very well may be capable of helping the Astros this season. However, Houston cannot afford to jump the gun and negatively impact him in the long run.