GM trying to sort out Whitley’s struggles
After another abysmal outing Thursday inflated Forrest Whitley’s ERA north of 12 at Round Rock, general manager Jeff Luhnow said the Astros are assessing every aspect of their prized pitching prospect’s struggles.
Assigned to Class AAA despite throwing just 26⅓ innings in Class AA during his curtailed 2018 season, Whitley has a 12.21 ERA in 24⅓ innings with Round Rock.
The 21-year-old righthander has walked 15, struck out 29 and allowed nine home runs. Opponents are hitting .343 and slugging .725 against him. Whitley’s WHIP is 2.05 and he has thrown only 45 percent of his pitches for strikes.
“The good news is the stuff still seems to be the same,” Luhnow said Friday. “The (velocity) is there. The spin is there. The pitch shapes are there. He’s not commanding it, he’s putting guys on base and allowing a lot of home runs. It’s a combination of probably the delivery, the pitch selection and a lot of different things that are going on. He’s had a bit of bad luck, too.”
The general manager acknowledged Whitley has “had some complaints” regarding his physical health, though was coy with any other specifics.
“Every pitcher has had some complaints,” Luhnow said. “We’re looking at that as a possibility right now. Our trainers are discussing whether there’s anything we need to do, give him a blow or if there’s anything physically that he needs to address. It’s something that we’re looking at.”
Whitley was placed on the 10day minor league disabled list twice last season with oblique and lat issues, respectively.
“It’s nothing like that,” Luhnow said. “I think there’s just some arm fatigue, something in that area. There’s no pain necessarily, just he’s mentioned a couple times some discomfort. Pitchers have that (normally) so we just need to figure out if it’s real or what we’re going to do about it.”
Luhnow and minor league pitching coordinator Bill Murphy — who is in Houston this week — are among the personnel discussbefore ing Whitley’s wretched start and what may cure it. Whitley’s innings already were set to be monitored this season. He threw only 52 innings between Class AA and the Arizona Fall League in 2018, a year in which he incurred a 50game drug suspension.
Once considered nearly a lock to make his major league debut this season, Whitley has undergone a precipitous decline since departing spring training.
He entered the season as baseball’s consensus top pitching prospect, but he has since been passed on various rankings by reigning No. 1 overall pick Casey Mize and Padres prospect MacKenzie Gore.
Corbin Martin, the Astros’ No. 5 overall prospect, was promoted from Class AAA to fill a rotation vacancy three weeks ago. Martin forged a 1.48 ERA in 24⅓ innings his call-up.
Whitley, meanwhile, must remedy this terrible start to place himself in consideration for the next promotion. Asked if there was consideration to skipping Whitley’s next turn in the Round Rock rotation, Luhnow was noncommittal but did not rule it out.
“We’re going to do whatever we need to do to make sure he gets back on track because he’s such a valuable part of our future,” Luhnow said. “It’s 20 innings, so keep that in mind, too.
“Josh James was struggling here, and he’s sorted it out in the last eight or so innings. I know Forrest is fully capable of getting it all together, and it’s just a matter of what our plan is going forward.”