This former 2024 fourth round pick looks to be a promising pitching prospect after his 2025 season.
The Houston Astros farm is developing some very notable young names in their minor league system. With names like Brice Matthews, Xavier Neyens, and Kevin Alvarez, the young talent the farm has offensively can make it easier to overlook the pitching prospects within their system.
One of those pitching prospects that is off to a promising start in his professional career is a former fourth-round pick from the 2024 MLB draft. Rice product Parker Smith enjoyed a solid debut season with the Astros organization.
Coming into the 2024 draft, Smith was ranked as the No. 149 overall prospect in his draft class by Baseball America. His secondary offerings, particularly the slider and changeup, were graded as his best pitches, with plus control as well.
Smith appeared in 18 games this season, making 14 starts, and pitching 68.1 innings across the 2025 season between the Complex and Low-A. The 6-foot-4, 230 pound right hander recorded a 3.16 ERA with 63 strikeouts, and a 5-3 record.
When looking at his advanced stats from this past season, Smith struck out batters at just above a 21% rate, while walking batters at a rate slightly above 10%. He generated swing-and-miss at an efficient rate as well, and has proven that he still has room to grow into an even better prospect.
The control has been solid to start his pro career. Keeping the BB/9 below 4.00 is a promising sign for Houston to see, and even more promising, his BB/9 was 3.77 during his time in Low-A this season.
Smith has been great at obtaining ground-ball contact, posting a 51.6% GB% throughout the 2025 season. He was more notably even better at limiting the long ball, not surrendering a single home run in his almost 70 innings pitched.
While Smith is a long way from the Major Leagues at just 22 years old, it’s going to be tough for Astros fans not to get excited about the future for this right-hander. An arm that gets ahead of the count at an efficient rate while limiting the long ball makes for an incredibly intriguing prospect.
For a former draft pick of the organization, a Rice alumni, and a native of Houston, Smith should develop into a fan favorite. A successful career with the Astros would make for an incredible story, and after his debut season, he’s left a lot for the Houston faithful to be excited about.
