Houston Astros Boss Reveals Promising MLB Timeline for Superstar Prospect

The Houston Astros superstar prospect had about as good of a Tuesday in spring training as anyone could have asked for.

Cam Smith's day started with Astros general manager Dana Brown giving him glowing reviews in an interview and ended with the slugger hitting two opposite field home runs against the New York Mets.

Smith, the organization's top prospect, was brought over from the Chicago Cubs in the Kyle Tucker trade and is quickly showing why he could be the next cornerstone player for this franchise.

During the second inning of Tuesday's game, Brown joined the booth to talk about the team and Smith was a large talking point for him.

“[He is an] outstanding human being, good game face. I could see him on a magazine. Face of the franchise type guy,” said Brown. “He’s like a sponge. He’s learning a lot. It’s been great to have him and I expect big things out of him.”

Cam Smith, @MLBPipeline's No. 59 overall prospect, goes the other way for his first #SpringTraining home run 💪 pic.twitter.com/5sNQU849E2
— MLB (@MLB) February 25, 2025

Those are big words for a player with just over 30 professional games under his belt, but every thing he has shown on the diamond so far has earned that.

Brown continued his interview with providing an interesting timeline for Smith to reach the MLB roster.

“His bat will take him up as quick as it will allow him. So if he gets off to a hot start, we’ll move him and try to keep him moving, you know,” the bullish GM added. “I could see him, at some point, getting to the big leagues in the next 18 months.”

It is important to remember that Brown said all of this about Smith before he hit two opposite field home runs later in the game.

Starting hot almost feels like an understatement for what Smith has done with Houston. Before even putting a ball into play, he worked two great at-bats against the Washington Nationals that ended with walks.

Of course, he added two home runs against the Mets on Tuesday. Maintaining a 1.000/1.000/4.000 over this first two career spring training games and four plate appearances has to put a smile on Brown's face.

Trading away a superstar player like Tucker is a hard thing to do, but the early returns on the deal look to be great.

Smith started his professional career with a .313/.396/.609 slash line with seven home runs and 24 RBI over 32 games across three levels of the minors for the Cubs. Being able to build upon that so quickly is a great sign of things to come.

Cam Smith homers again!

The @Astros prospect is putting on a show today. #SpringTraining pic.twitter.com/iFZ4DTdaxN
— MLB (@MLB) February 25, 2025

The next question to answer is going to be where he will end up playing at the next level. Right now, the Astros will have him split time between the corner outfield and third base since he also has a cannon of an arm.

Houston has needed another corner outfielder for some time now and losing Tucker has made that even bigger of a need. If Smith can play in the hot corner, though, that could be too important to ignore.

Moving Smith to third would also allow Isaac Paredes to shift over to second base and give the Astros an impressive infield for years to come.

No matter what, though, it doesn't look like it will take that full 18 months for Smith to get to the Majors.

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