Wagner carves his own path to the majors
JUPITER, Fla. — As the Baseball Hall of Fame unveiled its newest class last month, Astros infield prospect Will Wagner tuned into the telecast with cautious hope. He also knew that his father was not watching.
Billy Wagner, the former Astros closer, spent that day coaching his high school team in Virginia, awaiting an outcome out of his control. It proved agonizing, as election to Cooperstown eluded him by five votes.
“Definitely frustrated for him,” Will Wagner said last week. “I know how hard he’s worked for it, and he worked 16 years and has great stats and stuff, and it’s just tough not to see him get in there.”
Another chance for the former fireballer looms next winter. Naturally, Will Wagner said: “We really hope he gets in.” Meanwhile, the 25-yearold is poised to continue his own ascent through the Astros’ system.
Wagner is in his second major-league spring training with Houston on the heels of a 2023 season both injury-shortened and eye-opening. Wagner played in only 65 games but posted a .337/.420/.518 slash line with three affiliates and ended the year at Triple-a Sugar Land.
An 18th-round draft pick in 2021, Wagner is propelled by a left-handed swing that produces hard contact and low swing-and-miss rates. After batting .309 in 53 games at Double-a Corpus
Christi last season, he finished with a six-game stint at Sugar Land, going 15-for-26 with a .607 onbase percentage.
“He has this thing called the hit tool,” Double-a hitting coach Bobby Bell said. “Is he going to pass the eye test for a lot of people? No — until that barrel gets to the ball. He has an innate ability to find a way to get his barrel to the ball.”
Where Wagner fits on defense is less clear. He made 39 starts at second base last year and 20 starts at third. He’s taking reps at first base this spring, an attempt by the Astros to make him more versatile on the infield.
Fulfilling it could prove key to Wagner eventually finding his way to the majors.
Second base is where Wagner is most comfortable, he said, but Houston has Jose Altuve in place there through 2029. Corner infield spots are cloudier long-term. Third baseman Alex Bregman is entering his final season under contract and will be a free agent next offseason barring an extension with Houston. First baseman José Abreu is signed through 2025.
Neither has a clear-cut heir.
Wagner played in his first two Grapefruit League games this spring
at third base, where the Astros also have prospect Zach Dezenzo working in camp. Wednesday, Wagner manned first base for the final four innings against the Marlins.
“We could get him to average defense,” said Astros first-year manager Joe Espada, who worked with the team’s infielders in his previous role as bench coach. “I think his IQ is good enough where he could make some adjustments and provide average defense for us to just move him around and look for a spot for that bat to play.”
Wagner finished the 2022 season at Double-a, hitting .251 in 72 games.
He returned to Corpus Christi to begin last season and hit .270 in 20 games before a hamate bone injury sidelined him for two months.
Wagner said he used the layoff to work on his swing. He tried to “shorten up a little bit” and “know my zone” better, after feeling he was “getting too big and trying to do too much” in his first stint at Double-a. Joe Thon, the manager at Corpus Christi, said there was a visible adjustment when Wagner returned from hamate surgery on pitches angling away from him.
“I thought it was noticeable when he was facing lefty pitchers or even changeups against righties,” said Thon. “That was something a lot of other teams were trying to exploit. And all of a sudden, he covered that gap. And they had to come back to him, to his strengths.”
Wagner hit .331 in his final 33 games at Double-a before his torrid week with Sugar Land. He struck out in just 2 of 28 plate appearances in that Triple-a cameo and owns a 19.7% strikeout rate in the minors. Wagner has 19 home runs in 213 minorleague games; Bell said he believes Wagner’s gap-togap ability will translate to occasional power.
“He creates a controlled, violent act, if that makes sense,” Bell said. “... Where you’ll see a lot of guys that either have a leg kick or a knee touch, they’re creating a lot of movement, Will doesn’t do that. He’s just very simple, forward move and barrel to the ball.”
Each step Wagner takes occurs in an organization where his family name is revered. Thon can relate. His father, Dickie Thon, played seven seasons of a 15-year MLB career with Houston.
“I’ve had conversations about this, it’s like, you are your own person,” Thon said. “You have your name, so it’s like your legacy. But it’s just emphasizing you’re your own person. He’s not going to be his dad. He’s a different person. But he has so many things he can take from him to make his own. He’s carving his own path. It’s really nice to see.”