Astros minor league pitcher Forrest Whitley has been diagnosed with a lat strain and will miss between three and four months, the club announced today (relayed by Chandler Rome of the Athletic). That timetable puts his 2023 campaign in jeopardy.
It’s the latest brutal blow for a player who was once among the sport’s top prospects. Whitley was a first round draftee in 2016 and looked like a potential top-of-the-rotation starter early in his pro career. Baseball America ranked the 6’7″ hurler among the sport’s ten most promising minor leaguers in both 2018 and ’19.
Things have unfortunately gone sharply downhill since then. Whitley was suspended for a violation of the minor league drug program in 2018, keeping him to eight starts that year. He battled shoulder issues the next season, then was kept out of game action by the pandemic cancelation of the minors in 2020. Whitley underwent Tommy John surgery in Spring Training 2021 and only returned towards the tail end of last season.
Whitley opened this year back in Triple-A Sugar Land. He surrendered a 5.70 ERA over 30 innings while struggling to throw strikes. Whitley’s 23.7% strikeout rate was solid but he walked nearly 13% of opposing hitters. He’s had scattershot command the past few years, though that’s not especially surprising since the injuries have prevented him from staying on the mound consistently.
The Astros added Whitley to the 40-man roster after the 2020 season to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He has still yet to reach the majors. This is his third minor league option year. Most players can only be sent to the minors in three separate seasons before being exposed to waivers. Exceptions are sometimes made for players who’ve spent a significant chunk of time on the injured list, however. Whitley would seem a prime candidate for a fourth option. That likely won’t be known until next offseason.
Houston will have to weigh whether it’s worth keeping Whitley on the 40-man regardless. They could clear a spot in-season by placing him on the MLB 60-day IL and paying him a major league salary for time spent rehabbing. There’s no injured list over the offseason and Whitley will be five years removed from the peak of his prospect stock if he doesn’t return this season.
Imagine my shock.
Who the hell is Forrest Whitley and why did his parents give him a name that probably led to a number of bloody noses on the playground?
Poor kid’s had a rough go. Next Spring be he’ll 26 with that awful minor league track record and basically having to start all over again; he’s got an uphill battle ahead of him.
Pint and Appel got chances because of their draft pedigree, even though they blew dogs for quarters.
Whitley will get a shot somewhere. An uphill battle for sure, but I’m sure a lot of teams would love to have him as a bullpen project.
Blew dogs for quarters?!? What a tough way to make a livin’
Whitley got more common with Brent Honeywell than Appel and Pint
I don’t see the Astros putting him on the 60 day IL. He’s hurt so much that there’s no telling when he comes back. Plus, there’s still a pipe dream scenario when he could actually become a useable SP. At the same time, they might cut bait next offseason to move on.
He’s such a strange case.
Zack Wheeeler had a similar start to his career. If they allow the 4th year option, Houston should take it. Can make him a reliever to regain his health next year.
In what way exactly? When Wheeler was 25, he already had nearly 300 innings under his belt in the big leagues where he performed pretty well for the most part. Whitley had missed a significant amount of time, like Wheeler, but it’s far from a close comparrison.
Is this the price the universe has decided the organization will pay for their malfeasance? The team keeps the titles and the money and the illusion of being “men of faith”, but there’s always a price to pay as Al Lombard taught us.
God has a strange sense of humor if he thinks Whitley should pay for a sign stealing scandal for which he had no part.
Woke-esque statement, at best.
They should be rewarded for taking the fall for the whole league.
Its a shame because this guy got drafted in front of a bunch of guys who never cheated
Guy can’t catch a break.
It’s been downhill since his drug suspension
Brendan McKay and Greg Oden have entered the chat. Think Oden is lost.
“Why won’t they just use him as a reliever already?” — entire Astros fanbase, about him and McCullers
And that is why they call them “prospects “.
This guy can’t catch a break
Again, not a sunny day for Forrest.
Whitley’s no stranger to the rain.
Run Whitley Run!!!!