The Astros reached agreement with first-round pick Xavier Neyens last night, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2. The Washington high schooler receives a $4.1225MM bonus that matches the slot value for the 21st selection. Neyens had been committed to Oregon State.
Neyens ranked between 17th and 26th on pre-draft rankings from Baseball America, Keith Law of The Athletic, MLB Pipeline and Kiley McDaniel of ESPN. He’s a 6’4″ infielder who projects as a third baseman. Evaluators credit Neyens with some of the best raw power in the class. He’s a patient hitter but faces questions about his elevated swing-and-miss rates. McDaniel wrote that Neyens has some similarities to Joey Gallo at the same age.
The Astros were confident in his ability to develop enough as a pure hitter to build their draft around him. Houston had one of the smaller bonus pools of any team, checking in at roughly $7.18MM. They can go up to 5% beyond that without facing additional penalties. Houston paid the luxury tax last year and signed Christian Walker, who had rejected a qualifying offer. They forfeited their second and fifth draft choices as a result. They gave up their second-round pick and the compensatory selection they’d received for Alex Bregman’s departure.
Neyens is one of two prep hitters whom the Astros selected within the top 10 rounds. They used their seventh-round pick on Jase Mitchell, a high school catcher from Delaware.