Despite having just turned 19 in October, Xavier Neyens fit right in with the rest of the Astros\u2019 top prospects in January during an offseason camp in West Palm Beach, Fla.<\/p>\n
The 21st overall draft pick last year drew raves from\u00a0Astros GM Dana Brown and Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell, a special assistant to owner Jim Crane who served as a guest instructor.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an impressive kid,\u201d Bagwell said of Neyens, a product of Mount Vernon (Wash.) High . \u201cHe looks and acts like a professional, at a very young age, and he has great tools.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown\u00a0smiled somewhat proudly as he discussed Neyens\u2019 showing at the club\u2019s minicamp for prospects.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe could hit the ball just as far as all of those guys,\u201d\u00a0Brown said. \u201cI can say it\u2019s lefthanded power, which is more intriguing. He fit right in\u2014not timid, aggressive, having good baseball conversations,\u00a0jelling\u00a0well with the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Astros aren\u2019t represented on the preseason Top 100 Prospects, but Neyens is the top candidate to make the list at some point.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just saw him in early camp,\u201d Brown said. \u201cHe\u2019s a guy we think can play on the left side of the infield, most likely third base. He\u2019s got big lefthanded power, and he\u2019s a big dude with really good makeup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe loves the game, and he seems to be dialed in from what I saw last week . . . down in camp.\u201d<\/p>\n
As with most power hitters, Neyens faces some questions about his ability to both make contact and hit for power.<\/p>\n
The Astros rave about his makeup and intangibles. Neyens appears to ask the right questions. Now, it\u2019s a matter of competing in spring training to give the organization an indication where he should start in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s young,\u201d Brown said of Neyens. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to say (where he\u2019ll be assigned). We got to let him come into camp, see what he looks like, see what kind of adjustments he made.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite having just turned 19 in October, Xavier Neyens fit right in with the rest of the Astros\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2276],"tags":[5,2291,4,1586,3935],"class_list":{"0":"post-552142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-draft","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-major-league-baseball-draft","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-mlb-draft","12":"tag-organization-reports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116006616478485139","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}