The MLB season is coming up on its final month of the regular season, and the Houston Astros have been able to stay above water in the AL West despite a strong push by the Seattle Mariners.
Entering Tuesday, the Astros are still 1.5 games ahead of the Mariners for the division lead, but Seattle will go into the new day on a two-game win streak.
After an off-day on Monday, the Astros will play host to the team with the worst record in the league, the Colorado Rockies. Heading into the series, questions remain on what the team will do with one of their top rookies.
A recent report suggests that the Astros could demote Cam Smith
While the Astros will head into the start of their final week of August, questions have come to the forefront about rookie outfielder Cam Smith. July wasn't very friendly to the 22-year-old, and this month has been even worse.
In 55 at-bats this month, Smith has a .145 batting average, .203 on-base percentage, .382 slugging percentage, and a .710 OPS. He's also struck out 17 times this month and hasn't hit a home run since June.
Drew Koch of Climbing Tal's Hill suggested that Houston could move the young outfielder back to the minor leagues and even leave Smith off of the team's 26-man playoff roster in October.
"The Astros could option Smith back to the minor leagues in order to give him more reps. That would seem to be rather extreme, however, and the Minor League season will be coming to a close very soon anyways," Koch wrote. "But one thing the Astros may have to consider is leaving Smith off the postseason roster."
With newly acquired Jesus Sanchez finding his groove with the Astros after getting traded to the team at the trade deadline, Houston could be on the verge of demoting Cam Smith sooner rather than later.