HOUSTON -- Lucas Spence had a big day on the water while at home in northern Illinois during the All-Star break, catching a personal-best 11-pound, 30 1/2-ounce walleye while fishing with his father. That wasn’t even the best thing to happen to him this week.
While returning from the fishing trip, Spence got a call from Triple-A Sugar Land manager Mickey Storey. Spence’s mind began to race when he saw Storey’s name on his phone. Had he done something wrong? Did he get traded? After all, the Astros were working on a deal to send veteran pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. to the Brewers.
But instead of this, Storey delivered the best news possible: Spence (the team’s No. 10-ranked prospect) was being called up to the Major Leagues for the first time and was told to fly to Houston. The 23-year-old was in the lineup, batting eighth and playing center field, in the Astros’ series and second-half-opener against Baltimore on Friday at Daikin Park.
“Super surreal,” he said of receiving the news. “The turnaround was pretty quick. I got the phone call, and my dad was sitting right next to me when it happened. It was super exciting for both us and the family.”
Spence fills the roster spot left by Brice Matthews, who was placed on the 10-day injured list on Friday with a sprained left knee. He banged the knee against the wall at Globe Life Field in Arlington while trying to make a catch on Sunday. The Astros also activated pitcher Kai-Wei Teng from the injured list on Friday and promptly assigned him to the bullpen.
Spence, a left-handed hitter, appeared in only 17 games at Triple-A, where he slashed .246/.313/.386. In 63 games across three levels, Spence grabbed a .777 OPS. He spent most of the season at Double-A Corpus Christi, hitting .269/.371/.433 in 44 games. Spence makes some of the best swing decisions in the system, rarely straying from the strike zone while using the entire field.
“Swing decisions have been good,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “He’s hitting the ball hard, uses the whole field. He provides a little spark. He did it in Double-A, and we saw it in Spring Training [too]. There’s more power in there. We still haven’t tapped into it yet, but he’s done enough to be able to earn this promotion to the Major Leagues.”
Spence said he’s made some recent adjustments and is staying on fastballs more and driving the ball to all fields. Aggression is the key.
“I feel prepared; I feel ready to go,” he said. “Stick to what I do and try to get on base as much as possible for these guys and play hard.”
An undrafted free agent out of Southern Illinois-Edwardsville in 2024, the left-handed-hitting Spence slashed .244/.368/.403 across three levels in his first full season of professional baseball in ’25. He hit 10 homers with 55 RBIs and 27 stolen bases overall, and he finished the season with a .775 OPS in 30 games with Double-A Corpus Christi.
Spence began his collegiate career at Black Hawk College in Moline, Ill., where he slashed .367/.447/.597 in two seasons while also getting regular work on the mound. He continued to play both ways after transferring to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, where he won the 2024 Ohio Valley Conference batting title (.385) before signing with the Astros for $150,000 as an undrafted free agent.