Four Biggest Surprise Astros Standouts Halfway Through 2025 Campaign

The Houston Astros are once again in the driver's seat of the AL West after the first half of the year is in the books, but there are some different names leading the charge.

Jose Altuve has had ups-and-downs, Yordan Alvarez struggled and then was hurt, even someone like Yainer Diaz has playd below expectation.

In their stead, a couple of players have stepped up to provide some much needed standout performances this season. These are the biggest surprises of the year for the Astros so far:

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3B Cam Smith

First of all, it's still surprising that Houston even ended up with a talent like this. The Chicago Cubs sent Smith to the Astros in the Kyle Tucker this past winter. While many expected him to be a major contributor at some point, few knew it would be so soon.

Smith took MLB by storm with a fantastic spring training and forced his way onto Houston's Opening Day roster. He struggled out of the gate and it looked as though the transition into the Majors had finally caught up to him, but he has answered by looking like one of the best outfielders in all of baseball for the last couple of months.

The 22-year-old is already one of the best defenders in right field and now finally has the offense to match that. Once he finds his power stroke, he will become a true superstar.

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RHP Hunter Brown

Brown is another case where people knew he would be good, but maybe just not as good as he has been.

Over his first 17 starts, he has posted an MLB-best 1.82 ERA with 126 strikeouts over 104 innings. He's been hard to get hits off of, barely walking anyone and picking strikeouts at an elite rate.

There are few pitchers working at a better rate than Brown in all of baseball. Him repeating his 3.49 ERA from last campaign would have been a win, but he has taken his game up to the next level.

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CF Jake Meyers

Meyers has been a massive surprise up to this point. He has remained playing Gold Glove level defense in center field, but is also one of the most reliable bats that the Astros have right now.

Through 88 games, he has a .308/.369/.405 slash line with three home runs and 14 stolen bases. It's the first time since his first career stretch back in 2021 that he has a positive OPS+, currently sitting at 118.

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LHP Bennett Sousa

Sousa came out of nowhere to provide a much-needed presence in the bullpen.

The 30-year-old was claimed off waivers back in 2023 and then he missed all of 2024 due to surgery. Heading into this season, he had posted a 7.06 ERA over 29.1 innings of work for his MLB career.

He has been lights out in his first healthy campaign with Houston, putting up a 1.83 ERA with 42 strikeouts in 34.1 innings.

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