Houston Astros eyeing up burgeoning LSU pitcher

Paul Skenes might be the most exciting thing to happen to the Pittsburgh Pirates in years. Imagine a kid who comes into the big leagues and almost immediately becomes the talk of the town. That’s Paul Skenes for you, a right-hander with the kind of electric stuff that makes even seasoned scouts sit up and take notice. He’s only been in the majors since May, but already, folks are whispering his name in the same breath as the Cy Young and Rookie of the Year awards. Pittsburgh knew they had something special when they picked him first overall last July, and he’s been nothing short of a sensation since.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Skenes didn’t just materialize out of thin air. He came up through LSU, a program that’s long been a breeding ground for top-tier talent. If you’re a scout and you see a player from LSU, you know you’ve got to do your homework. And with Skenes, they didn’t just do their homework—they went back for extra credit. Everyone wanted to make sure they weren’t missing the next big thing. Turns out, they weren’t.

Now, if we take a little detour down to Houston, we see another name starting to float around in those same scouting circles: Chase Shores. Bleacher Report ran a mock draft for 2025 and linked the Astros to this kid, another LSU product, projected to go 23rd overall. But don’t get your hopes up for another Skenes story just yet—Shores is a different case altogether.

Shores, you see, spent the last season on the bench, recovering from Tommy John surgery. It’s the kind of thing that makes scouts nervous, no matter how much potential a guy has. But even before that, Shores was showing flashes of brilliance. As a true freshman, he took the mound as both a starter and a reliever, racking up a 0.96 ERA in just over 18 innings. Fifteen strikeouts, nine walks—those aren’t numbers that jump off the page, but they do make you sit up a little straighter and take notice.

This kid was a force in high school, too. Hailing from Midland, Texas, Shores put up an 18-2 record with 211 strikeouts over 142 innings. That’s the kind of performance that gets you noticed, and he was, ranked as the nation’s top right-handed pitcher before heading to LSU. Now, at 6-8 and 245 pounds, he’s got the kind of build that would make even a football coach drool. But instead of catching touchdowns, he’s hoping to catch the eye of the MLB scouts again, showing them that the arm talent is still there post-surgery.

It’s a gamble, no doubt about it. But it’s a gamble that could pay off big time if Shores can put together a solid 2025 season. The Astros have been leaning heavily on college players in their recent drafts, with six straight first-round picks coming from the college ranks. But only one of those was a pitcher, and that was North Carolina’s J.B. Bukauskas back in 2017. Bukauskas never threw a pitch for the Astros in the majors, but he’s made his way through the big leagues with Arizona, Seattle, and Milwaukee. Houston is still looking for that next great arm.

Whether Shores will be that arm is anyone’s guess. But one thing’s for sure: just like Paul Skenes, he’ll have the scouts watching closely. Baseball has a funny way of surprising you, and if Shores can bounce back, he just might be the next big thing coming out of LSU. Only time will tell, but for now, all eyes are on him.