The Houston Astros haven't been able to hide their excitement about top prospect Cam Smith this spring.
Acquired over the winter in the Kyle Tucker trade with the Chicago Cubs, Smith was thought to be at least a year away, given that the 2024 first-round pick had played all of five games above A-ball. But it didn't take long for that timeline to get accelerated: Smith hit the absolute cover off the ball throughout spring training, and before long it was clear Houston would be forced to put him on the Major League roster for Opening Day.
Asking such a young and inexperienced player to handle Major League pitching on a daily basis would've been enough on its own. But the Astros were also asking Smith to learn a new position more or less on the fly: The only way for Houston to fit him into the starting lineup was in the outfield, a position which Smith, a third baseman by trade, had never played professionally. It felt like there were bound to be some bumps in the road, no matter how promising a talent Smith is. And sure enough, the first bump came right in the team's very first game.
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Cam Smith reminds Astros fans that learning right field on the fly is hard
You know what they say: The ball has a way of finding you, wherever you may be. And that was the case in the top of the fifth inning, when Smith failed to corral a soft line drive off the bat of New York Mets catcher Luis Torrens. It appeared to be a catchable ball, but Smith's sliding attempt came up just short, playing what could have been an out into a double.
Luis Torrens has a double and the Mets get their first extra-base hit of the day! pic.twitter.com/FbUmQEg4Ir
— SNY (@SNYtv) March 27, 2025
Which, again, is certainly not to say that Smith is a terrible outfielder, or that he'll never get better. This was his first game at the Major League level, and his first time trying to navigate right field in a game that counts. It would've been totally unreasonable to expect a smooth transition here, and this is simply the tradeoff that Houston is willing to make in order to get Smith's bat into the lineup as soon as possible.
Still, the Astros had better hope that tradeoff is worth it, because this might not get better for the foreseeable future as Smith gets his feet under him.