Zach Dezenzo made his major league debut with the Astros in 2024.
Zach Dezenzo was Houston’s 36th most positively impactful Houston Astro in 2024.
On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays through the first part of Houston’s post-postseason, we’re running down the 40 most positively impactful Astros in 2024. I used both quantity and quality in these rankings, For hitters, I used OPS+ and plate appearances, taking the product of those two numbers. I repeated the process for the pitchers, only substituting ERA+ and batters faced, respectively. This way, each PA (or BF) is a constant currency for the player in question. One Babe Ruth plate appearance is worth more on the open market than one Pee Wee Reese plate appearance, and so each of Yordan Alvarez’ plate appearances is worth more than a Chas McCormick plate appearance.
So if you were very bad, but not for very long, your negative impact will be negated through the brevity of your sucktitude. On the other hand, a great month’s worth of PA’s can only lift you so far if you just showed up late in the season (apologies to Ben Gamel and Justin Upton).
So far, we’ve been limited to a few bit-part players in the grand scheme of things, with Parker Mushinski (50 BF), Jake Bloss (55 BF), Shay Whitcomb (46 PA) and Cesar Salazar (32 PA) getting an article each. Zach Dezenzo, with 65 PA, was the number 36 most positively impactful member of the 2024 Houston Astros.
55. Grae Kessinger
54. Cooper Hummel
53. Pedro Leon
52. Aledmys Diaz
51. Jacob Ayama
50. Wander Suero
49. Miguel Diaz
48. Dylan Coleman
47. Forrest Whitley
46. Blair Henley
45. Joel Kuhnel
44. Jose Abréu
43. Alex Speas
42. Luis Contreras
41. Nick Hernandez
40. Parker Mushinski
39. Jake Bloss
38. Shay Whitcomb
37. Cesar Salazar
Dezenzo is a six-foot-five, 220 lb. corner infielder from Canton, OH. Born on May 11, 2000, he was Houston’s 12th-round choice in 2022 out of The Ohio State University. Taken 373rd overall and signing to a $125,000 bonus, Dezenzo’s rookie status remains intact after his prolonged cup of coffee.
Dezenzo was 15-for-62 with a pair of doubles and two home runs, with five runs scored and eight RBI. He drew three walks and struck out 22 times, slashing .242/.277/.371 with an OPS+ of 84. Advanced metrics show better only concerning his power, at .226/.300/.444.
Defensively, Dezenzo played 102 innings at first base, making one error for a .988 fielding percentage. He also took seven innings at third base, making two plays without an error.
Prior to the 2024 season, Dezenzo was ranked as Houston’s number five prospect, according to both Baseball America and the MLB Pipeline, while clocking in at number two on ESPN’s board. In 2023, he ranked ninth in the Texas League with a .229 ISO for the Corpus Christi Hooks at Double-A.
After going 0-for-4 in his major league debut against the Texas Rangers on August 6, he came back with a walk, a single, and a double in his second game against them the next day. He scored twice in the 6-4 Houston victory. On August 10, in a 5-4 win over the Boston Red Sox, he clocked his first home run, a solo shot, and added a single for good measure.
On September 28, Dezenzo racked up a .247 WPA, his best showing of the season in a 4-3 victory against the Cleveland Guardians. He hit an RBI single in the first, then reached on an error while two runs scored in the second inning to put Houston in front for good. He added a single in the ninth inning.
Advanced metrics show that Dezenzo has demonstrated elite bat speed, at 75.4 MPH, but a K-rate over 1⁄3 and a 4.6 percent walk rate both require a little honing before he’s considered any sort of offensive solution. His 28.3 fps sprint speed puts him in the top quarter of the majors.
Dezenzo has faced a total of 239 pitches as a big leaguer, and eight different pitch-types. His favorite pitch, by far, has to be the sinker, against which he is hitting .385 on 43 offerings for a run value of four.
With nothing written in stone in regards to the future employment of Alex Bregman, Dezenzo could be in play for the top of Houston’s 2025 depth chart at the hot corner. As it stands, however, I rank him solidly behind Mauricio Dubón, although Dubón would probably serve better as a super-utility guy. Of course, Dezenzo can also make appearances at the not-hot corner as needed, but there’s also a glut of decent catchers plus Jon Singleton to divvy up playing time for.