Lucas Spence went fishing with his dad over the All-Star break and caught a personal-best 11-pound, 30.5-inch walleye.
That wasn’t even the best news of the day for the former star for Crete-Monee and the Beecher Muskies.
On the ride home Spence saw the name of Houston Astros Triple-A manager Mickey Storey pop up on his phone.
A bunch of scenarios swirled around inside Spence’s head.
“I didn’t know if he was trying to figure out where I was at,” he told reporters on July 17. “I went home for All-Star break, I thought it was gonna be an issue or something. And then yeah, maybe I got traded with all the moves that were going on.”
But the news was a dream come true: Spence was heading to the major leagues with the Astros. According to BaseballReference.com, he is the first player from Crete-Monee to reach the majors. He’s the third former Muskie in MLB after pitchers Joe Skalski and John Ely.
“It’s been super surreal,” Spence said. “… I was shocked when (Storey) told me, but I was ready to go as soon as he said it.”
Spence joined the Astros in Houston for their first series after the All-Star break, against the Baltimore Orioles. The 6-0, 195-pounder started all three games in center field and went 3-for-11 (.273) with a walk and a run.
It’s been quite a journey for Spence, who played college ball at Black Hawk in Moline and at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. He wasn’t drafted after a stellar senior season at SIU-E in 2024 when he hit .385 with a whopping 1.025 on base plus slugging percentage.
But he latched on with the Astros as a free agent and rose rapidly through the Houston farm system after starting at Single-A Fayetteville in the summer of 2024. Last year, Spence batted .244 with a .751 OPS at three levels, rising as high as Double-A Corpus Christi.
This year, he hit .258 with a .776 OPS in the minors, mostly at Corpus Christi with a brief rehab stint in Rookie ball and 17 games at Triple-A Sugar Land before getting called up.
“I feel prepared, I feel ready to go,” he said before his Astros debut. “Stick to what I do, try to get on base as much as possible for these guys and play hard.”
What did he get out of his time in Triple-A?
“KInd of a cultural thing,” said Spence, who is 23. “Playing with older guys was a ton of fun. I learned a lot from those guys in the short stint I was there.”
Now he gets to learn some more in the major leagues.