Space City Prospects: Schiavone Goes Deep at Sugar Land, Nezuh Keeps Finding Zeros
By Drew Mitchell ·
Space City Prospects covers the last 7 days of action for the Astros farm system.
Schiavone's Power Keeps Playing Up the Ladder
Jason Schiavone (AAA, C, Rank: 17) went 6-for-19 with a home run, three doubles, and three RBI across his Sugar Land plate appearances this week, adding four walks along the way. The production fits a broader pattern: over his last 30 days at Double-A, he has seven home runs and 19 RBI across 93 plate appearances, with a 12.9 percent walk rate that keeps his on-base profile healthy even as the strikeout rate climbs to 36.6 percent in that window. His combined 2026 season numbers, spanning High-A, Double-A, and now Triple-A, show 32 home runs, a 17.4 percent walk rate, and a 63 percent contact rate across 540 plate appearances. That is a genuinely unusual power and patience combination for a 23-year-old catcher.
The profile has always carried real tension at its center. Schiavone is a 40 hit tool with a 55 power grade, and the swing-and-miss is not incidental to how he produces: he generates lift and pull-side carry by letting the ball get deep, which creates vulnerability to hard stuff up and in and to spin off the plate. The bat-to-ball questions that defined his 2025 season (.180 average at Low-A) have not gone away, but the volume of damage in 2026 has been loud enough to keep the conversation going. He was assigned to Sugar Land on September 8, and the early returns at Triple-A have continued in the same vein. Whether the contact rate holds against better arms at this level will do a lot to determine whether the quad-A projection is a floor or a ceiling. For now, 32 home runs across three levels at age 23 makes a case that there is more bat here than the 40 hit tool implies.
Nezuh Posts Another Clean Line in the Triple-A Bullpen
Jackson Nezuh (AAA, RHP, Rank: 21) worked four innings this week, allowing two hits and no runs while striking out five against 16 batters. He threw 36-of-74 pitches for strikes and generated 10 whiffs in the process. It was another scoreless appearance in what has become a productive late-season run out of the Sugar Land bullpen: over his last 30 days at Triple-A, he carries a 2.35 ERA across 15.1 innings with 19 strikeouts. The 16.4 percent walk rate in that window is still a real concern, but the zero on the runs-allowed line has shown up consistently enough to take seriously.
Nezuh is a four-pitch right-hander with a 45-grade fastball sitting 92-94 mph and an average slider that does the most damage when he tunnels it off an elevated heater. The changeup and cutter both grade below average and have not been reliable enough to change how opposing hitters approach his at-bats. His combined 2026 line shows a 3.83 ERA across 103.1 innings at Double-A and Triple-A, with a walk rate that has climbed from 8.1 percent at Double-A last season to 14.4 percent at the Triple-A level this year. The walks are the persistent variable affecting his outcomes compared to his stuff on a given night. When he gets ahead and sequences the slider correctly, he can make Triple-A lineups uncomfortable in short stints; when the walk rate balloons, the margin for error on a 45-grade fastball disappears fast. The long reliever or swingman projection still fits the profile, and a stretch like this one suggests he can be a useful depth arm without needing to be more than that.
Quick Hits
- Zach Cole (AAA, CF, Rank: 14) · went 6-for-19 with two doubles, a triple, and two RBI across his Sugar Land plate appearances, adding a hit-by-pitch but no walks. The contact rate over his last 30 days has climbed to 63.9 percent, and five home runs in that window represent his most productive stretch of the Triple-A season. The tension in the profile has not changed: a 30 hit tool with real power and speed who runs a 39.3 percent strikeout rate at Triple-A for the season, and a .157 average across 53 MLB plate appearances in 2026 that shows how quickly upper-level arms can expose the breaking-ball vulnerability. A week like this one counts; it just needs a lot more company.
- Alimber Santa (AAA, RHP, Rank: 24) · threw 2.2 innings in relief, allowing three hits and no runs while striking out three. The week looked fine in isolation, but his last 30 days at Triple-A tell a harder story: an 8.18 ERA across 11 innings, a 12.5 percent walk rate, and a whiff rate that has dropped to 15.8 percent in that stretch. His 95-98 mph four-seamer and slider/sweeper combination give him legitimate swing-and-miss stuff, and a 1.17 ERA across 15.1 MLB innings this season shows what the ceiling looks like when the command is there. The Triple-A sample this month has been rougher, and the command inconsistency that caps his profile has been front and center lately.
- Bryce Mayer (AAA, RHP, Rank: 9) · had a difficult outing this week: 4.1 innings, five earned runs, four walks, and eight strikeouts against 20 batters. He generated 18 whiffs on 51-of-84 pitches for strikes, so the swing-and-miss was present even when the results were not. That is a consistent thread in his Triple-A numbers: a 33 percent whiff rate for the season paired with a 5.45 ERA across seven Triple-A starts. The stuff is real, a 55-grade fastball sitting 95-97 mph with a curveball that can flash plus and a slider that misses bats, but the home run rate (nine allowed in 33 innings at Sugar Land) and the walk count have kept the ERA from reflecting the raw quality of the arsenal. His Double-A ERA of 2.61 across 17 appearances this season is a reminder that the stuff plays; Triple-A hitters have just found more mistakes to punish.