George Springer is the heart and hustle of the Astros

Welcome to the 2017 MLB postseason, baseball fans! You’ve spent 162 games with your favorite team, and now it’s time to watch the teams you haven’t paid much attention to. Who are these teams, and who are their best players? We can help.

Who is George Springer?

George Springer is a 28-year old outfielder for the Houston Astros, splitting his time between center field and right field. This season he put in 82 games of work at center and 78 games in right, starting a combined 127 of those. He also bats leadoff for Houston. Springer is a leader on the Astros and a player who always remains positive in the clubhouse — a major piece of the heart and soul of the team.

What did he do this year?

Statistically, he did well — again. He hit .283/.367/.522 with an .889 OPS and finished with a fielding percentage of .996 after committing only one error all year across both positions.

But he also grew into himself as a player and a star, opening up about a lifelong stutter and how baseball helped him to work through it — even embracing the chance to speak to an audience of millions live in the middle of the All-Star Game to prove to fans that having a stutter won’t keep him from putting himself out there.

After Hurricane Harvey, he stepped up and coordinated a donation drive in his hometown back in Connecticut to help those affected.

Players and staff might have known him as the heart of the team in seasons past, but the PR machine really kicked into overdrive this year to make sure that all baseball fans understand Springer not just as someone who hits a lot of Springer Dingers but as someone who injects optimism and life into the team as well.

How did the Astros acquire him?

Springer was chosen 11th overall in the 2011 MLB draft out of the University of Connecticut, making him the highest draft pick in Connecticut history. Springer spent 2012 in AA ball before shifting to the AAA ranks in 2013 — and was a finalist to be USA Today’s Minor League Player of the Year. He has now spent four full seasons with the major league club.

Was he always supposed to be this good?

Draft picks aren’t always the arbiters of success — especially not in baseball — but as the 11th overall pick yes, he was sort of always expected to be this good. Our own Crawfish Boxes predicted his ceiling as “a .270 hitter with 30 home run potential playing somewhere in the outfield” and...his four-season batting average is .267 with a shade under 25 home runs a year on average. Right on target as far as his on-field talents go.

tl;dr

Springer is a ray of sunshine, which is especially needed on a team that is playing for a city recently hit by catastrophe, and he’s one of the clubhouse leaders in a group that could very well go all the way this year. The Astros have been rebuilding and laying the seeds of hope for years now and Springer was a core piece of that rebuild. Now’s the time for Houston to cash in on all of that promise and for Springer to be in the middle of it all while it happens.