Carlos Correa. Jose Altuve. George Springer. Lance McCullers. Dallas Keuchel. Yuli Gurriel. Alex Bregman. All were signed to their initial affiliated contract by the Houston Astros. Some were from the draft. Some were from international waters. If you were to put together the excess value created from these names, you would have a whiff of why the Astros are looking so potent now. Even with a major misfire like Mark Appel, they still had plenty of other pieces with which to obtain Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole in trade.
2019 MLB Draft Prep and the Astros
