# List of Houston Astros first-round draft picks

The Houston Astros, originally called the "Colt .45s", are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Houston, Texas. They play in the American League West division. Since the institution of Major League Baseball's Rule 4 Draft, the Astros have selected 57 players in the first round. Officially known as the "First-Year Player Draft", the Rule 4 Draft is Major League Baseball's primary mechanism for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its franchises. The draft order is determined based on the previous season's standings, and the team that had the worst record receives the first pick. In addition, teams which lost free agents in the previous off-season may be awarded compensatory or supplementary picks. The First-Year Player Draft is unrelated to the 1961 expansion draft in which the Astros initially filled their roster.
Of the 57 players picked in the first round by Houston, 24 have been pitchers, the most of any position; 21 of these were right-handed, while 3 were left-handed. Ten catchers were selected, while nine outfielders, nine shortstops, two first basemen, and two third basemen were taken as well. The team also selected one player at second base. Thirteen of the players came from high schools or universities in the state of California, while Texas and Tennessee follow with five and three players, respectively. They have also drafted two players from outside the United States: Carlos Correa (2012) and Ramón Castro (1994), both from Puerto Rico.
The Astros won their first World Series title in 2017 with three of their first-round picks on the World Series roster—Correa, series MVP George Springer (2011), and Alex Bregman (2015). One Astros first-round pick is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Craig Biggio (1987), who played his entire 20-season MLB career (1988–2007) with the Astros and became a member of the 3,000 hit club, was elected to the Hall in 2015. Carlos Correa is the only Astros first-round pick to have won a Rookie of the Year award, joining Jeff Bagwell (1991, originally drafted by the Red Sox) as the two Astros to win ROY. No Astros first round pick has won a Most Valuable Player award or Cy Young Award with the team. Brad Lidge (1998) won the Comeback Player of the Year Award in 2008 with the Philadelphia Phillies, his first season after leaving the Astros.
The Astros have made 12 selections in the supplemental round of the draft. They have made the first overall selection in the draft five times; in 1976, 1992, 2012, 2013, and 2014. They have had 16 compensatory picks since the institution of the First-Year Player Draft in 1965. These additional picks are provided when a team loses a particularly valuable free agent in the prior off-season, or, more recently, if a team fails to sign a draft pick from the previous year. The Astros have failed to sign three of their first-round picks. First, pitcher Randy Scarbery (1970) did not sign though the Astros received no pick in compensation. John Burke (1991) and Brady Aiken (2014) also did not sign. The Astros were given the 37th pick of the 1992 draft and a pick in the 2015 draft in compensation for Burke and Aiken, respectively.
| Year | Links to an article about that year's Major League Baseball Draft |
| Position | Indicates the secondary/collegiate position at which the player was drafted, rather than the professional position the player may have gone on to play |
| Pick | Indicates the number of the pick |
| * | Player did not sign with the Astros |
| § | Indicates a supplemental pick |
| † | Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame |
| '17 | Player was a member of the Astros' 2017 championship team |
| '22 | Player was a member of the Astros' 2022 championship team |

## Picks

| Year | Name | Position | School (Location) | Pick |
| 1965 | Alex Barrett | Shortstop | Atwater High School (Atwater, California) | 4 |
| 1966 | Wayne Twitchell | Right-handed pitcher | Wilson High School (Portland, Oregon) | 3 |
| 1967 | John Mayberry | First baseman | Northwestern High School (Detroit, Michigan) | 6 |
| 1968 | Martin Cott | Catcher | Hutchinson Technical High School (Buffalo, New York) | 3 |
| 1969 | J. R. Richard | Right-handed pitcher | Lincoln High School (Ruston, Louisiana) | 2 |
| 1970 | Randy Scarbery* | Right-handed pitcher | Roosevelt High School (Fresno, California) | 7 |
| 1971 | Neil Rasmussen | Shortstop | Arcadia High School (Arcadia, California) | 12 |
| 1972 | Steve Englishbey | Outfielder | South Houston High School (South Houston, Texas) | 9 |
| 1973 | Calvin Portley | Shortstop | Longview High School (Longview, Texas) | 20 |
| 1974 | Kevin Drake | Outfielder | Cabrillo High School (Lompoc, California) | 15 |
| 1975 | Bo McLaughlin | Right-handed pitcher | Lipscomb University (Nashville, Tennessee) | 14 |
| 1976 | Floyd Bannister | Left-handed pitcher | Arizona State University (Tempe, Arizona) | 1 |
| 1977 | Ricky Adams | Shortstop | Montclair High School (Montclair, California) | 14 |
| 1978 | Rod Boxberger | Right-handed pitcher | University of Southern California (Los Angeles, California) | 11 |
| 1979 | John Mizerock | Catcher | Punxsutawney High School (Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania) | 8 |
| 1980 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 1981 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 1982 | Steve Swain | Outfielder | Grossmont High School (El Cajon, California) | 15 |
| 1983 | Robbie Wine | Catcher | Oklahoma State University–Stillwater (Stillwater, Oklahoma) | 8 |
| 1984 | Don August | Right-handed pitcher | Chapman University (Orange, California) | 17 |
| 1985 | Cameron Drew | Outfielder | University of New Haven (West Haven, Connecticut) | 12 |
| 1986 | Ryan Bowen | Right-handed pitcher | Hanford High School (Hanford, California) | 13 |
| 1987 | Craig Biggio$^†$ | Catcher | Seton Hall University (South Orange, New Jersey) | 22 |
| 1988 | Willie Ansley | Outfielder | Plainview High School (Plainview, Texas) | 7 |
| 1989 | Jeff Juden | Right-handed pitcher | Salem High School (Salem, Massachusetts) | 12 |
| 1989 | Todd Jones | Right-handed pitcher | Jacksonville State University (Jacksonville, Alabama) | 27$^§$ |
| 1990 | Tom Nevers | Shortstop | Edina High School (Edina, Minnesota) | 21 |
| 1990 | Brian Williams | Right-handed pitcher | University of South Carolina (Columbia, South Carolina) | 31$^§$ |
| 1991 | John Burke* | Right-handed pitcher | University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida) | 6 |
| 1991 | Shawn Livsey | Shortstop | Simeon Career Academy (Chicago) | 29$^§$ |
| 1991 | Jim Gonzalez | Catcher | East Hartford High School (East Hartford, Connecticut) | 40$^§$ |
| 1991 | Mike Groppuso | Third baseman | Seton Hall University (South Orange, New Jersey) | 44$^§$ |
| 1992 | Phil Nevin | Third baseman | California State University, Fullerton (Fullerton, California) | 1 |
| 1992 | Kendall Rhine | Right-handed pitcher | University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia) | 37$^§$ |
| 1993 | Billy Wagner$^†$ | Left-handed pitcher | Ferrum College (Ferrum, Virginia) | 12 |
| 1994 | Ramón Castro | Catcher | Lino Padron Rivera High School (Vega Baia, Puerto Rico) | 17 |
| 1994 | Scott Elarton | Right-handed pitcher | Lamar High School (Lamar, Colorado) | 25 |
| 1994 | Russ Johnson | Shortstop | Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) | 30$^§$ |
| 1995 | Tony McKnight | Right-handed pitcher | Arkansas High School (Texarkana, Arkansas) | 22 |
| 1996 | Mark Johnson | Right-handed pitcher | University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (Honolulu, Hawaii) | 19 |
| 1997 | Lance Berkman | First baseman | Rice University (Houston, Texas) | 16 |
| 1998 | Brad Lidge | Right-handed pitcher | University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame, Indiana) | 17 |
| 1998 | Mike Nannini | Right-handed pitcher | Green Valley High School (Henderson, Nevada) | 37$^§$ |
| 1999 | Mike Rosamond | Outfielder | University of Mississippi (Oxford, Mississippi) | 42$^§$ |
| 2000 | Robert Stiehl | Right-handed pitcher | El Camino College (Torrance, California) | 27 |
| 2001 | Chris Burke | Second baseman | University of Tennessee (Knoxville, Tennessee) | 10 |
| 2002 | Derick Grigsby | Right-handed pitcher | Northeast Texas Community College (Mount Pleasant, Texas) | 29 |
| 2003 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 2004 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 2005 | Brian Bogusevic | Left-handed pitcher | Tulane University (New Orleans, Louisiana) | 24 |
| 2005 | Eli Iorg | Outfielder | University of Tennessee (Knoxville, Tennessee) | 38$^§$ |
| 2006 | Maxwell Sapp | Catcher | Bishop Moore High School (Orlando, Florida) | 23 |
| 2007 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 2008 | Jason Castro '22 | Catcher | Stanford University (Stanford, California) | 10 |
| 2008 | Jordan Lyles | Right-handed pitcher | Hartsville High School (Hartsville, South Carolina) | 38$^§$ |
| 2009 | Jiovanni Mier | Shortstop | Bonita High School (La Verne, California) | 21 |
| 2010 | Delino DeShields Jr. | Outfielder | Woodward Academy (College Park, Georgia) | 8 |
| 2010 | Mike Foltynewicz | Right-handed pitcher | Minooka High School (Minooka, Illinois) | 19 |
| 2010 | Michael Kvasnicka | Catcher | University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minnesota) | 33$^§$ |
| 2011 | George Springer '17 | Outfielder | University of Connecticut (Storrs, Connecticut) | 11 |
| 2012 | Carlos Correa '17 | Shortstop | Puerto Rico Baseball Academy (Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico) | 1 |
| 2012 | Lance McCullers Jr. '17 '22 | Right-handed pitcher | Jesuit High School (Tampa, Florida) | 41$^§$ |
| 2013 | Mark Appel | Right-handed pitcher | Stanford University (Palo Alto, California) | 1 |
| 2014 | Brady Aiken* | Left-handed pitcher | Cathedral Catholic High School (San Diego, California) | 1 |
| 2015 | Alex Bregman '17 '22 | Shortstop | Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) | 2 |
| 2015 | Kyle Tucker '22 | Outfielder | H.B. Plant High School (Tampa, Florida) | 5$^§$ |
| 2015 | Daz Cameron | Outfielder | Eagle's Landing High School (McDonough, Georgia) | 37$^§$ |
| 2016 | Forrest Whitley | Right-handed Pitcher | Alamo Heights High School (Alamo Heights, Texas) | 17 |
| 2017 | J. B. Bukauskas | Right-handed Pitcher | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) | 15 |
| 2018 | Seth Beer | Outfielder | Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina) | 28 |
| 2019 | Korey Lee '22 | Catcher | University of California (Berkeley, California) | 32 |
| 2020 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 2021 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 2022 | Drew Gilbert | Outfielder | University of Tennessee (Knoxville, Tennessee) | 28 |
| 2023 | Brice Matthews | Shortstop | University of Nebraska (Lincoln, Nebraska) | 28 |
| 2024 | Walker Janek | Catcher | Sam Houston State University (Huntsville, Texas) | 28 |