Gavin Dickey was as close to a can't-miss prospect coming out of Lincoln High School in Tallahassee, Fla., as there is. He was considered one of the top high school football players in the state in 2001, earning a spot on the prestigious Parade All-America Team and being named the Florida Gatorade Player of the Year. Dickey, who was recruited by Notre Dame and Clemson, attended the University of Florida and backed up both Rex Grossman and Chris Leak at quarterback for the Gators. He also played center field on the baseball team at Florida and was drafted in the 12th round by the Mariners in 2006, reaching Double-A in 2009. He hung up his cleats in 2011 after a cup of coffee with the Double-A Mississippi Braves and was suddenly in search of a career. "I was 27 and about to be 28 and never had a real job. It was time," Dickey said. "I started applying for jobs [as a scout] halfway through the season. I'd basically email teams and once the season ended, I had two interviews -- the Mets and one with Bobby Heck and the Astros." Heck, the former Astros scouting director who is now a special assistant with the Rays, hired Dickey to be a scout in South Texas for Houston. The former can't-miss prospect was now trying to find some for the Astros. More than a decade later, Dickey is one of the longest-tenured members of the Astros' baseball operations staff, and he was promoted by general manager Dana Brown to assistant GM late last year. "I don't feel old and I don't feel like I've been here that long, but for some reason, the room flipped on me really fast and I'm like one of the older guys now," Dickey, 40, said. "So yeah, I would say I have seen a lot of change. I've had an opportunity to learn from really bright people -- forward-thinkers, traditional and analytically driven, the whole gambit. I've been fortunate enough to do that all in one place." Dickey's role with the Astros covers player development, player personnel, performance science and Minor League operations. He said senior director of player development and performance science Jacob Buffa will serve as farm director, but Dickey will oversee the player development of a Minor League system ranked 30th by MLB Pipeline. |
The Astros have graduated top prospects during their recent run of success -- Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, Lance McCullers Jr., etc. -- while trading away several others in deals. The latest was last July's trade to reacquire Justin Verlander from the Mets that cost Houston two of its top prospects -- outfielders Drew Gilbert and Ryan Clifford. Still, the Astros keep churning out Major League talent. Catcher Yainer Diaz finished fifth in AL Rookie of the Year voting last year -- the ninth time in the past 10 years the Astros have had a player finish in the top five. That's a nod to Houston's player development system. "Obviously, everybody knows we lost [first-round picks in 2020 and '21 as punishment for the sign-stealing scandal] and we've made some trades, but with that, we've gone on an historic run here," Dickey said. "I would trade the comforts of [not] having a first-round pick in the system for the run that we've been on the last seven-plus years -- two World Series titles. But look, there's no secret we don't have the depth we maybe used to when we started to build this thing up, and I think that's the thing we have to do. We have to accelerate the build process." Dickey's time with Houston has spanned four general managers -- Ed Wade, Jeff Luhnow, James Click and Brown -- and he's worked with three others who lead baseball front offices in David Stearns (Mets), Mike Elias (Orioles) and Pete Putila (Giants). Dickey has seen Houston's scouting efforts take a hard analytical turn and then ease back to a mix that values more the opinions of trained scouts like Brown and himself. "Having the information is one thing, interpreting the information is another," Dickey said. "And using the information to make concrete evaluations is another. It was constantly evolving and being flexible and receptive to information while also sticking to your roots of traditional scouting. Sometimes it has to pass the eye test. Sometimes it doesn't look right. The information is coming on so fast and we have so much information, sometimes you have to pare it back and say, 'Let's use the stuff we understand now.'" |
The Astros announced the signing of nine players Monday on the first day of the international signing period, which runs through Dec. 15. Seven of those players are 17 years old or younger, so their impact on the Major League roster will be years away. Still, these are significant signings for the Astros, who have a good track record of finding some hidden talent in this market in recent years. Five of the team's current core pitchers were signed as international free agents -- reliever Bryan Abreu ($40,000 signing bonus) in 2013, starters Framber Valdez ($10,000), Cristian Javier ($10,000) and José Urquidy ($100,000) in 2015 and starter Luis Garcia ($20,000) in 2017. Abreu (16 years old) and Javier (17 years old) were younger when they signed, but Valdez (21), Garcia (20) and Urquidy (19) were considered older signings. And of course, franchise icon Jose Altuve was famously signed for $15,000 as a 16-year-old after a tryout in Venezuela in 2007. |
Of the 30 Astros prospects ranked by MLB Pipeline, 11 were international free agents, including No. 2-ranked Luis Baez, an outfielder. He was signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2022 for $1.3 million and last year reached Single-A Fayetteville and posted a .737 OPS in 41 games. No. 13-ranked Pedro León, a 25-year-old Cuban outfielder/second baseman who was signed for $4 million in 2021, has 260 career Triple-A games under his belt. He possesses tremendous tools, including a great arm, but his high whiff rate continues to hold him back. The Astros spent $4.35 million of their $5.28 million international bonus pool last year on a trio of Dominican position players: shortstop Camilo Diaz ($2.25 million), infielder German Ramirez ($1.2 million) and outfielder Esmil Valencia ($897,500). Diaz is the team's No. 28 prospect, and Valencia is ranked No. 29. |
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