Astros Executive Speaks About State of Farm System, Future Changes

The Houston Astros are in a bit of a weird place in terms of roster construction heading into 2026. It's certainly not the caliber of roster that the World Series teams had and it's nearly a playoff caliber roster, but it's a re-tooling period for the franchise.

The farm system, though, is considered to be one of the worst in baseball and severely hinders the Major League depth because of that. Houston is the only team without a prospect in MLB Pipeline's current top 100. Brice Matthews appeared on it last year and 2025 first round pick Xavier Neyens, along with Walker Janek, could find their way on the list in the future.

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Because they don't have a top end prospect, people around the league are low on their system. However, the team feels differently. They believe they have prospects deserving of the distinction and with a new director of player development, they are looking to change the system as a whole.

Assistant general manager Gavin Dickey sat down with MLB.com's Brian McTaggart to discuss the Astros prospect core.

There Is More Upside in the System and Changes Are on the Way

Houston Astros pitcher Miguel Ullola throws a pitch wearing a white jersey and navy blue hat. — Houston Astros prospect Miguel Ullola. | Angela Piazza/Caller-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK

Because there are now incentives to having prospects on the top 100s of MLB Pipeline, Baseball America and ESPN, more front office officials are paying closer attention to them. That includes Dickey, who finds it more important than ever now.

"We do think our system is better than the third parties do... and we definitley feel some of our players are deserving to be Top 100 prospects," he told McTaggart.

With Matthews ready to graduate soon, the next guys up are Neyens, Janek and Miguel Ullola. Neyens is a 19-year-old shortstop with power that "jumps off the page right away," Dickey said. Janek is a good offensive catcher, but Ullola and his 70-grade fastball is a name to watch. He has great strikeout potential.

But it isn't a matter of finding players with good tools to be put on the list. They have to be developed throughout their minor league years in order to progress as prospects. Houston brought in a new face to become their director of player development, Sam Niedorf.

Niedorf has some work cut out for him in order to improve this system in a hurry, but Dickey is exciting about the ideas he is bringing to the table.

"And he's come in with some new ideas, ways that we can streamline our process better, get more player-facing information more quickly turned around," the assistant GM said.

One of those ways is video, which Dickey says the organization is trying to make more "easily accessible for our players."

Niedorf has also held Q&A's with both the minor and major league staffs to see what the big league club needs from players. From a pitching background, the new executive will be providing something new on that front, as well.

" ...he has a lot of unique pitching ideas and looks at things probably how we may have not looked at it in the past and being able to help us get stuff turned around in a more efficient way than we may have in the past," Dickey said.

It's not a change that is going to happen over night, but the Astros working to take those steps is important. It's clearly an area where they can improve, so any changes to the player development system is welcomed by both fans and other fron office officials.