ASTROS’ FUTURE QUICKLY ARRIVES
Phenom Correa, 20, joins talented team
The Houston Astros sat around the clubhouse Monday as it rained outside, watching college baseball on TV, trying to pretend this day was like any other.
They were fooling nobody, least of all themselves.
Entering the Astros clubhouse for the first time this season was a kid who not only was younger than many college players selected in Monday’s baseball draft but the youngest who has stepped onto any major league field this season.
It was the arrival of Carlos Correa, 20, who just three years ago was the No. 1 pick in the draft and now is already acclaimed as one of the most talented young shortstops the game has seen.
Let the comparisons to young Alex Rodriguez begin.
“We’re not rushing him. This isn’t a response or a panic,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch told USA TODAY Sports in between bites of his omelette during breakfast. “I think it’s a luxury we’re able to add him, breaking him in when he doesn’t have to carry the team.
“Besides, he’s one of the most talented players in our organization, and he’s going to be one of the most polished 20-year-olds we’ll ever be around.
“He deserves this. It’s just ironic this is the first day of the draft.”
It’s also quite appropriate this is the day the Astros organization might never be looked at the same again.
Those comical days of losing at least 106 games in three consecutive seasons are over.
The Astros, the biggest surprise in baseball with the secondbest record in the American League, 34-24, can no longer be considered a fluke one month until the All-Star break and Monday became the first team with two top-five selections in the draft.
“It’s nice to build that way, but I guarantee you there’s no one in that clubhouse who wants the Astros to pick in the top five ever again,” Hinch said. “The excitement level around here is pretty high. The funny thing is that you don’t often see a team like this get younger.”
In the last three weeks, the Astros have called up Lance McCullers, 21, who started Monday against the Chicago White Sox; Vincent Velasquez, who’s scheduled to make his debut Wednesday, and now Correa. Mark Appel, 23, their No. 1 pick in the 2013 draft, should be next sometime this summer.
And the team that wasn’t supposed to contend until 2017 has been atop the AL West standings for the last seven weeks, the latest they’ve been in first place since 2003.
Go ahead, Hinch says, you try to figure this game out.
The Astros certainly planned to bring up Correa this year, but there was no urgency, and they were unsure of the timing. If they were struggling again, the Astros weren’t sure they wanted to bring him into a losing environment. It had to be the perfect storm. The storm hit Chicago with full force Monday, Correa finding himself surrounded by 16 reporters at his locker after earlier being sandwiched between businessmen in first class on his flight to Chicago.
“It hit me when I was on the plane,” Correa said. “Both the guys sitting next to me were reading the newspaper and reading my article. ‘Are you this guy?’
“Then they started talking to me how glad they were to meet me. It was really a good time. But I just didn’t get a chance to sleep on it because I was talking the whole time.
“That’s when it really hit me that I was going to be in the big leagues with the Houston Astros.”
It didn’t even matter the man he’d be facing was none other than White Sox All- Star Chris Sale, who happens to be one of the top pitchers in the game.
“That’s OK,” said All-Star second baseman Jose Altuve, who hugged Correa when he came into the clubhouse. “We all know Sale is one of the best pitchers in the game, but we think Carlos will be one of the best hitters in the big leagues.” These are the new Astros. This is a team that strikes out more than any other team in the AL and hits more home runs than any other team in baseball but also steals more bases than anyone else in the AL.
“We’re all over the map, aren’t we?” Hinch said. “We play with a loose spirit. That’s our identity. That’s something we embrace.
“We’re not perfect, but we don’t have to be perfect to be good. It’s June 8, and we’re still being talked about, so it can’t be too bad.”
Buoyed by Hinch’s faith and confidence, the Astros might not be inviting their friends and family members for postseason games yet, but they certainly think they’ll be in contention all season.
“A.J. has us all believing we can win and compete with anybody,” right fielder George Springer said. “We haven’t had success in a while. Everybody expected us to get beat every night. The expectation now is to go out and beat you every night. There’s no more accepting mediocrity. A.J. has changed all of that.”
The guy who was in the San Diego Padres front office a year ago at this time, who was last in uniform in 2010 after being fired as the Arizona Diamondbacks manager, is leading baseball’s greatest comeback story.
“I think it would be a mistake to consider ourselves having already arrived,” said Hinch, 41. “But the league is not going away from us, and we’re not going away from the league.
“I don’t know what will happen. We might succeed. We might fail. But we are going to compete.”
And, yes, they’re not afraid to compete with some of the finest young talent in the game.
The Astros might be more worried about mosquitoes in Houston than Correa’s development. They’re convinced, even after playing just 53 games above Class A, he’ll be fine. Watching Correa hit .335 with 21 doubles, 10 homers, 44 RBI and 18 steals in 19 attempts will do that.
“He’s immensely talented, but what I learned this spring is that he’s very, very strong mentally,” Hinch said. “He doesn’t take anything for granted. He doesn’t just want to make it to the big leagues. He wants to be great, and he’s earned a lot of respect from players and coaches at how hard he works. He won’t be scared. He won’t be timid. He’ll compete.
“I can’t wait to see what happens.”