JUPITER, Fla. — The Houston Astros’ beacon of hope lives between an insurance office and a beer garden. He received more money than any Astros draft pick in a decade and bides his time as a barber who charges nothing for his services. Xavier Neyens will cut hair in either a Cooper Flagg jersey or the personalized Seattle Kraken sweater he slips on during this nondescript Thursday night.
The seafood restaurant below Neyens’ balcony is bustling, but the sun has already set, scrapping plans to set up on the patio. Neyens improvises. He removes a lamp from one of the apartment’s end tables, brings the barstool-shaped piece of furniture into the bathroom and invites a client to sit. A comb, a pair of scissors and clippers sit near the sink. The clippers cost $100 and came with a barber’s cape, but Neyens lost it while moving into this spring training apartment.
Chase Call sits shirtless as a result, staring into the bathroom mirror while Neyens makes final preparations for his pre-dinner touch-up. Call is an outfield prospect and one of the dozen clients for the barber everyone calls “X.” He is the closest thing Neyens has to a test dummy, someone who allows him to try any technique on his head of curly brown hair.
“X, if he wasn’t playing baseball,” Call said as the cut begins, “he’d have his own barbershop.”
Call and a dozen other players in the Astros’ minor-league system are Neyens’ regular clients. He has mastered two types of fades — taper and skin — but still relies on social media reels to refine the rest of his arsenal. Yet word still spreads across the back fields in West Palm Beach, where Neyens works his full-time job as a future foundational part of Houston’s franchise.
For a farm system bereft of top-end talent, Neyens might represent a source of rejuvenation. Houston took him with the 21st pick in July and paid him a $4.12 million signing bonus, more than any Astros selection since Kyle Tucker. On the day he got it, Neyens compared himself to Corey Seager and Bryce Harper. Standing 6 feet 4, swinging left-handed and playing on the left side of the infield lends at least some credence to the claims.
Before spring training began, The Athletic’s Keith Law named Neyens as Houston’s second-best position player prospect. The only one ahead of him: 23-year-old Brice Matthews, who has already appeared in 13 major-league games.
Neyens turned 19 in October and has not appeared in an affiliated game, part of an organizational plan for his introduction into professional life. Developing does not begin to describe him or his skills, but the hype surrounding him is still high.
The Astros have no top-100 prospects, according to Law and all other outlets that compile those league-wide lists. Those same publications have pegged their farm system at 29th or 30th over the past two seasons, which is problematic for a team with an aging core and a closing championship window. If Neyens performs, he profiles as the player who can change that.
“He’s still very young, and we’re mindful of that, but the excitement is grounded in what we’ve seen internally from the time we drafted him,” Astros farm director Sam Niedorf said. “The combination of power, bat speed and competitive makeup gives him a really strong starting point.”
“Even without affiliated games last season, the quality of his work and the way he’s handled the environment have been impressive.”
Neyens isn’t fazed by much — even not playing. He did appear in eight or nine complex scrimmages after Houston drafted him, but it still amounted to the least baseball of any summer since childhood. It’s an adjustment. So is living away from home for the first time in his life. Getting a giant signing bonus is wonderful, but growing up is still required.
“I talk a lot,” Neyens said, “so it’s easy for me to get along with people.”
In August, a cash-strapped teammate asked Neyens to “just try” giving him a trim. When he obliged, a whole new occupation opened for him.
“I thought it was going to be a one-hit wonder after that,” Neyens said, “but it’s something I actually enjoy doing. I enjoy seeing my work on other people.”
Xavier Neyens “has a great swing for power and swings very hard,” wrote The Athletic’s Keith Law. (Courtesy of the Houston Astros)
“My clippers sound whack because I dropped them,” Neyens confesses. Call laughs, and the haircut begins. Neyens starts on the left side and lines up a fade. Curly hair like Call’s is Neyens’ favorite to cut, in part because of the possibilities it provides.
“And,” Neyens said, “it doesn’t look as bad when you mess it up.”
Neyens does not hide that he is a neophyte. He mimics what he sees on social media and sometimes watches reels during a cut to make sure he’s following instructions. A few weeks ago, he tried his first high burst fade on Call. “Just kind of winged it,” Neyens said.
“There’s mixed reviews,” Neyens acknowledges, “but I’d say right now, probably like 60 percent good reviews, 40 percent bad reviews. I’m batting .600, so I don’t think that’s too bad.”
Vic Blends is one of Neyens’ favorite follows — and the inspiration for his own Instagram account, X Blendz, which features a plethora of Astros prospects who’ve allowed Neyens to cut their hair. His posts have even led prospects from other organizations to reach out for a cut.
This is Call’s third consecutive haircut from Neyens, who charges his teammates nothing in return but does request they sweep their hair after the cut is complete. Being cheap is what birthed this whole barber experience.
In August, Call, Neyens and the rest of Houston’s 2026 draft class stayed at the same hotel upon reporting to the team’s complex. None of them felt like paying for haircuts from barbers they did not know.
Cutting hair had always intrigued Neyens. He watched YouTube videos of famous barbers giving fades, but never wanted to try it himself. What if he messed up? Neyens cut his own hair, but that’s just trimming the sides of an undercut. Teammate Jase Mitchell wears something similar and, one day in August, put Neyens’ nerves at ease and became his first client.
“Man,” Mitchell told him, “I don’t care if you mess me up or anything, here’s my clippers, do the best you can.”
“It ended up being a great way to make friends,” Neyens said. “Then, word gets around that you cut hair and more guys are asking, ‘Hey, man, can you give me a haircut?’”
The left side is finished, and Neyens prepares to tackle the right. “I f—ed up bad on this side last time,” he mutters aloud.
“The hardest thing about cutting hair,” Neyens said, “is remembering what you did on the other side.”
Call offers a cautious smile. He is four years older than Neyens, prompting wonder why he’d even approve this arrangement in the first place.
“I’ve got no one to impress out here. Why not?” Call said. “I’ll let him practice whenever he needs.”
Where it will lead is anyone’s guess. Neyens said he is considering attending barber school with some of the scholarship money from his first professional contract, but stresses it’s “still a maybe.” More pressing matters await on the baseball field.
Barbering, though, is a big help. The fulfillment Neyens gets from seeing his work is something he didn’t expect. It is a welcome distraction from the tedious days of spring training and, soon, the season.
“It’s quite a bit of an outlet, honestly,” Neyens said. “It’s just something I can do to kind of get my mind off things. Cut some hair, talk to the guys about whatever.”
Today, the topics intertwine. Neyens and Call are curious about all things associated with spring training. Neither has been here before, so any help is appreciated. Neyens has already been told he’ll be used as a reserve in some major-league spring training games. Call got that assignment within the first week of Grapefruit League play.
“Actually,” Neyens says, interrupting the conversation, “I saw this trick. Let me try it.”
Neyens picks up the comb, brings it onto Call’s forehead and presses it across both of his eyebrows. The lines are level on both sides of Call’s skull, so Neyens moves to the back. He shaves three new lines, stares at his work and smiles.
“So fresh,” he said.