Cam Smith's on-the-job training is far from ideal, but the Astros don't have a choice

Cam Smith wowed the Houston Astros coaching staff and front office (along with everyone else) during spring training. Smith performed so well that he left Joe Espada and Co. no choice but to add him to the team's Opening Day roster. Smith hit .342/.419/.711 with four home runs and 11 RBI during Grapefruit League play.

But the Astros rookie has been unable to maintain that red-hot hitting once the season got underway. Smith is barely hitting above the Mendoza line, but given the struggles the Astros lineup has endured at the outset, those numbers might suggest he should be hitting cleanup. Smith is hitting just .205/.279/.333, though his number have improved slightly over the past week.

There's no way to cover up the fact that Smith was rushed to the big leagues. No one on the Astros coaching staff will admit that, and stating as much does not mean that the 22-year-old cannot have a successful rookie season and eventually go on to have a great major league career. However, the Astros really pushed the envelope and fast-tracked Smith to the big leagues. That said, they didn't have much of a choice.

Cam Smith's on-the-job training is far from ideal, but the Astros don't have a choice

Smith was part of the return from the trade that sent Kyle Tucker to the Chicago Cubs this past offseason. Once Houston executed that trade, right field became a gigantic black hole. The Astros had already seen a preview of that void last year when Tucker was saddled with a shin injury that kept him out of the lineup for three months. But Astros GM Dana Brown did little to fix it.

The Astros will tell you that it was always their intention to move Smith to the outfield. While that may be true, why did the team wait until midway through spring training to make the switch. Houston knew they wanted Jose Altuve in left field this season and deployed the former AL MVP into left field from the jump. Why was Smith's shift to the outfield so delayed?

The truth is that Houston didn't have a backup plan for life without Tucker. Rather than signing or trading for a suitable replacement, Brown tried to resurrect the career of Ben Gamel while at the same time assumed that Chas McCormick would magically return to the player he was two years ago despite all the evidence to the contrary.

The Astros botched this big-time, and out of sheer desperation have turned to Smith to help bail them out. So far, he's struggling to keep his head above water — which isn't surprising seeing as how he had just 32 minor-league games under his belt prior to stepping onto the field at Daikin Park a little over two weeks ago.

Houston is too deep into this to turn back now, and even if they wanted to, what's their alternative? The hope is, of course, that Smith's flashes of brilliance fans saw during spring ball will eventually translate to the major league-level. If they don't, Brown's going to have a lot of explaining to do.

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