Monroe's Noah Miller selected by Houston Astros in 19th round of draft

MONROE – The party guests started to file out.

It looked like they weren’t going to get what they came to see.

The family of Monroe High graduate Noah Miller rented a local restaurant Sunday in hopes of allowing friends and family join in the celebration of his being selected in the Major League Baseball draft.

Scouts had told him that he would be picked between the sixth and eighth rounds.

But as the rounds ticked off and Miller’s name was not called, hopes began to dwindle.

“Already some family members were leaving,” he said. “They could not stay any longer.  They said, ‘Sorry’ and ‘Keep your head up.'”

Even Miller thought he would have to put his professional dreams on hold and return for another season at the University of Michigan.

“It got to be like the 16th round and my agent called to keep me updated,” Miller said. “He said, ‘It’s not looking great. To be honest, I don’t think it’s going to happen.

“Around the 17th round, I called one of my coaches at Michigan and was venting, letting it all out. I said, ‘I’ve hit almost .300 two years in row and have arguably some of the best defensive numbers in the country and I’m not getting drafted.'”

Miller went out to his car and composed an e-mail to the 80 to 100 youth baseball players he instructs on the art of catching.

“I was about to put out my lesson schedule in a mass text,” he said. “It said, ‘I didn’t get drafted, so I’ll be doing lessons.’ Just before I hit send, my agent called he said, ‘Hey, Noah, the Astros are going to draft you.'”

Instead of sending out the lesson schedule, he went back to the party.

Miller originally was told he would be picked in the 20th round, but Houston actually pulled the trigger one round earlier.

“It kind of happened all at once,” he said.

It was a rapid conclusion to a long, frustrating day.

Miller arrived at the restaurant at 10 a.m., about 90 minutes before the draft resumed for rounds 5-20.

He finally was picked at around 6:30 p.m.

“It was awesome,” he said. “I got 30 texts in about 10 seconds. I shut my phone off. I wanted to be in the moment.”

Miller didn’t keep his phone turned off.

“I probably had close to 1,000 texts,” he said. “I replied to every single one. I was up until about 2 a.m. Those are the people who helped me get to where I am. I wanted to thank all of them.”

It was a moment he has been waiting for his entire life.

“It was a long day – excitement, nervousness, anger and resentment all in one day,” he said. “I didn’t see happening this way, but the way it happened was perfect. The Astros are the perfect organization for me to be in. They are fired up to have me and I am fired up to be with them.”

Miller wasn’t drafted as early as he had hoped, but didn’t back down on his demands.

“I had two years of eligibility (at Michigan) left,” he said. “I wasn’t going to go unless I got my named called and I got at least $150,000. I had the same agent as Bryce Windham (a St. Mary Catholic Central graduate who reached Triple A with the Chicago Cubs). We kept it in Monroe.”

Miller will report to Houston’s minor-league complex in West Palm Beach, Fla., later this week.

There he will find out his first minor-league assignment.

A strong possibility is the Astros’ low-A team in Fayetteville, N.C. If that happens, he would team up with Bedford graduate Brandon Nigh.

“I’ve been talking to him,” Nigh said. “He’s kind of teaching me the ropes. It would be pretty cool to be teammates with him.”

Miller was an All-Stater in 2023 after an outstanding senior season at Monroe when he hit .367 with a .541 slugging percentage, drove in 26 runs and scored 23 times.

He accepted a scholarship to The University of Michigan.

After a redshirt season in 2024, he hit .293 and drove in 18 runs in 37 games in 2025, then hit .292 and drove in 26 runs in 48 games this spring.

He made the All-Big Ten Tournament team in each season.

“Don’t know what happened,” he said. “I just seemed to turn it on in The Big 10 Tournament.”