For the first month of the season, it looked as if the Houston Astros' controversial decision to include Cam Smith, a 22-year-old with only 32 games of minor league experience, on their Opening Day roster, was a poor one. His play has only picked up ever since, though, not only allowing him to enter the AL Rookie of the Year race, but also helping the Houston Astros take firm command of the AL West.
Smith was slashing .213/.306/.373 with three home runs and 10 RBI by the end of April, raising the question of whether the Astros should send him back to the minors. Houston kept him up, and Smith has rewarded the team for it. He's slashed .298/.356/.435 in 36 games since May 1, and just put together his best game at the MLB level on Wednesday. He had four hits and smacked a pair of home runs in a dominant Astros victory.
Cam Smith goes 4-for-5 with 2 HR and 3 RBI in an offensive outburst from the @Astros! pic.twitter.com/mTZKfu1A9v
— MLB (@MLB) June 18, 2025
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Cam Smith is helping the Astros run away with AL West
It looked as if the Astros were in deep trouble when they were just 17-17 at the beginning of May and placed Yordan Alvarez on the Injured List with a hand injury. They weren't scoring many runs at that time, and just lost their best hitter by far, so it wouldn't have been shocking to have seen them fall in the standings. Instead, the opposite has happened. They've taken control of the division thanks in large part to Smith's elevated play.
The Astros are now 42-31, meaning they've gone 25-14 since Alvarez landed on the IL. They've gone from being a third-place team sitting 3.0 games back of the AL West lead to the division leaders, 5.0 games ahead of the Seattle Mariners with the American League's easiest strength of schedule the rest of the way.
There's still time for the Mariners or even the Texas Rangers to go on a run, but the Astros building up this lead with Alvarez on the mend has them in the driver's seat when it comes to the division.
Cam Smith is starting to make an AL Rookie of the Year case
For much of the year, Jacob Wilson has been the clear favorite to win the AL Rookie of the Year award, and if we're being honest, he still is the frontrunner. However, for the first time this season, he's hit a bit of a skid, as he has just five hits in his last 22 at-bats.
I'm not here to say Wilson's struggles will persist, and Smith has a lot of ground to make up, but with how Smith has played, he's starting to at least enter the conversation. He now has a .748 OPS (third among AL Rookies), a 115 WRC+ (fourth), and has been worth 1.2 fWAR (third).
Wilson and Carlos Narvaez have a clear leg up over Smith, but as Smith continues to rake, the race only becomes tighter. It'll be interesting to see how it shakes out when all is said and done.