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Jon Singleton has a ton to Prove in Second Stint with Houston Astros

By Josh Sippie

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Here’s Jonny! I literally could not resist.

The Houston Astros have given Jon Singleton the all-important call as the slugging first baseman will join the big leagues for his second go-around. This time around, however, Singleton will not be jumping into the middle of the lineup of an experimenting, last place team. This time around, Jon Singleton will be trying to elbow his way into a division leading, power-hitting (and swinging and missing) Houston Astros. 

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All that considered, you may think that the pressure is off of the first baseman’s shoulders, but au contraire! Singleton was incredibly lackluster in his first go with the Astros, as he displayed some really good power but pretty much nothing else.

Last year, Jon Singleton hit a guffawing .168 in 310 at-bats. He did augment that atrocious number with 13 home runs and 44 RBIs but if you are hitting with a lower average than Chris Carter, things need to change, especially seeing as how he struck out 134 times in those 310 at-bats.

And so, Jon Singleton began the year in Triple-A, where he got off to a mixed-review start, but given how well the big league club was doing, it was not that big of a deal.

And then, Singleton had two home runs and ten RBIs in the span of

a week

a game. Nothing like a good kick start.

Now, the top first base prospect in the league is leading the Pacific Coast League in home runs (17), RBIs (66) and runs (56) (via astros.com) and as such, there really is no point to keeping him in Triple-A any longer.

Jon Singleton will join the Astros on June 26th prior to the match up with the New York Yankees, though he will not be in the starting lineup. Singleton is filling the roster place of Chad Qualls, who has been sent to timeout for ineffectiveness sent to the DL with a pinched nerve.

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Being just 23 years of age, you hate to say that it is sink or swim time for ol’ Jonny, but it really is getting to the point where you are either part of the Astros future, which is now, or you are not. George Springer, Preston Tucker, Carlos Correa, Lance McCullers, even the K-Machine Domingo Santana – all these guys that are part of the core of the Houston Astros future, the core that was supposed to include Jon Singleton, are establishing themselves in the MLB.

If the worst case scenario does occur and Singleton can only muster a sub .200 batting average and zero consistency, he can always be sent back down to continue his prospect status but you can only do that so many times before you start to wonder if he is ever going to pan out.

As one of the most highly-touted prospects in the Astros’ highly-touted system, it is time to stop being a prospect and start being a Major League baseball player.

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