Houston Astros: Three prospects the team should willingly give up in a trade
By T.A. Mock
Abraham Toro, 3B, Corpus Christi Hooks, #21 prospect
The Houston Astros have a phenomenal front office. That’s why you have seen teams poach these guys for higher ranking jobs in their organizations. Most recently, Mike Elias left the Astros to go be the general manager of the Orioles and he took Sig Mejdal with him.
Elis and Mejdal were major players in Houston’s scouting department and their hard work helped land many of the key players that have pioneered two of the best seasons in franchise history. One of the things that the team has done well is scout the places no one else does.
One of those places is the small schools in Oklahoma where the Astros found Abraham Toro playing for a school called Seminole State College in Seminole, Oklahoma. Seminole has about 7,000 to 8,000 people and somehow they had a ballplayer from Canada playing for them in Toro.
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Toro finished the 2018 season as the Astros #21 prospect but was extended an offer to continue his development in the Arizona Fall League alongside Astros top prospects Whitley and JB Bukuaskas. He absolutely exploded in the AFL and could climb prospect boards as well as catching the eye of other teams.
Toro was doing a solid job at A+ ball, Buies Creek, that earned him a promotion to Corpus Christi. However, he struggled to adapt to the higher level of competition and entered into a 50 game slump. He shook that off in a major way in the AFL, where he hit .348 and had a 1.023 OPS. He was excellent and showed off his immense potential.
Toro is a switch-hitter who is stronger from the left but has been improving his right. He has shown the ability to make contact and a penchant for drawing walks as well as budding power potential. He also had a strong arm and good feet that show he can stick it at third base. Teams may want Toro as a lower tier prospect with developing potential.