The Astros don’t usually promote pitchers as early in the season as they did with 23-year-old righthander Bryce Mayer this year.
Mayer started the year with Low-A Fayetteville, struck out 30 and walked six in 17.2 innings, and then moved to High-A Asheville in early May.
It’s fair to say that he is further along in his development than Houston expected when it drafted the 6-foot-3, 210-pound Mayer in the 16th round last year out of Missouri.
His offseason work clearly paid off, because he impressed Astros officials right away in spring training. That continued with the Woodpeckers, for whom he struck out 39% of batters in five appearances.
“For him, it was a total body of work, even since spring training,” Astros farm director Jacob Buffa said. “He stepped on the mound close to the start of spring training, and he dominated almost every time he stepped on the mound.
“In Fayetteville, he was just blowing fastballs by guys. We felt like it was time to challenge him a little bit more.”
Mayer’s fastball sits at around 93 mph and tops out at 95 when he needs it.
“He’s got a good vertical break on his fastball and good extension,” Buffa said. “He’s in the zone a lot and has pretty good location.”
If Mayer can refine his repertoire and continue to blow fastballs past hitters regularly at Asheville, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him promoted to Double-A Corpus Christi by the end of the season.
Mayer struck out 25% of batters through his first six appearances for Asheville.
“I do think he’s ahead of where we expected him to be,” Buffa said. “I don’t know that we ever expect anybody to be promoted after 20 innings at a level. We knew he was talented, but he’s done pretty well.”