HOUSTON – The Houston Astros group that has them in the World Series and four wins shy of the first championship in team history is led by a host of home-grown talents. Several key trades and free agent signings have put the additional pieces in place to have this team on the verge of that first World Series crown.
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The Astros entire infield of Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman and Yuli Gurriel have known only one major league organization. Additionally, the same is true for Dallas Keuchel, George Springer and Lance McCullers, Jr.
Correa and Bregman were both top draft picks for the team. Correa was the number one overall pick in the 2012 first-year player draft. Three seasons later, the team tabbed Bregman in the draft with the second overall selection.
Neither spent much time in the minor leagues, with Correa debuting with the Astros as a 21-year old with less than three seasons in the minors, while Bregman was in an Astros uniform barely a year after playing shortstop for the LSU Tigers.
Altuve and Gurriel were both signed as amateur free agents, though that pair joined the team more than nine years apart from one another. Altuve has been with the organization longer than any other after signing in 2007 and debuting with the Astros in July 2011.
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Here’s a timeline of the key members of the team and how the Astros were built:
Gurriel was a flashy and lucrative free agent signing in July of last season, and he made his major league debut just a month later and has been entrenched as the Astros everyday first baseman since the beginning of 2017, what is considered his rookie season.
Gurriel is not your typical rookie, the 33-year old spent nearly 15 years playing professionally in Cuba before signing with the Astros.
The same season the team drafted Correa with the number one overall pick, they tabbed McCullers, Jr, 40 selections later with the 41st selection in the draft and he, too, made a rapid rise through the system, debuting with the team during the same 2015 season as Correa.
Springer was another first round selection. They Astros selected him 11th overall in the 2011 draft and they drafted Keuchel two seasons prior to that with their 7th round selection in 2009.
The battery of ALCS MVP Justin Verlander and Brian McCann were both acquired via trade in the last 12 months. That duo, along with free agent signings, outfielders Josh Reddick and Carlos Beltran and pitcher Charlie Morton, joined the team since the end of the 2016 season.
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