The Houston Astros are several days away from their spring training opener — or openers, in this case.
The Astros are going to play a split-squad game on Saturday, as they face the Washington Nationals at their shared facility in West Palm Beach, Fla., while they’ll also send a team to Port St. Lucie to face the New York Mets.
On Friday, the Astros started revealing which players will start in at least one of those games.
The Athletic reported that Houston intends to start one of their top prospects, Brice Matthews, at second base in one of those games.
It was part of a social media post that unpacked the Astros’ plan with three well-regarded prospects.
Houston also expects to use Zach Dezenzo as both a left fielder and a right fielder. In addition, Cam Smith — who joined the organization in December as part of the Kyle Tucker trade — will play at third base, though the Astros are not ruling out some work in the outfield.
Last season he spent part of the campaign on the injured list with a back injury. But it didn’t stand in the way of him moving through the system. He played at High-A Asheville, Double-A Corpus Christi and Triple-A Sugar Land and finished the season with a combined slash line of .265/.384/.481/.865 with 15 home runs and 44 RBI.
The infielder, now one of the top prospects for the Astros, joined the organization last year after Houston selected him in the first round (No. 28 overall) out of Nebraska.
In his first two seasons with Nebraska, he batted .266 and then broke out in 2023, moving him up draft boards. He slashed .359/.481/.723 and put together the second 20-20 season in Big Ten history.
Houston started him in the Florida State League in 2023 and later promoted him to the Class-A Fayetteville Woodpeckers as he combined to hit .208/.365/.352/.717 with four home runs and 11 RBI.
Dezenzo made his MLB debut last season, playing third base when Alex Bregman was hurt. He slashed .242/.277/.371/.648 with two home runs and eight RBI. Between acquiring Smith and Isaac Paredes, the top prospect needs to show position flexibility.