Team adds five to roster
Top prospects now protected from Rule 5 draft
Four years after beginning his setback-filled journey within Houston’s farm system, Forrest Whitley finally landed on the Astros’ 40-man roster.
Whitley was among five prospects added Friday to Houston’s 40-man roster, protecting them from selection in next month’s Rule 5 Draft.
Houston protected Whitley — its top overall prospect — and shortstop Freudis Nova, whom MLB Pipeline pegs as the franchise’s best position player prospect. Whitley and Nova are ranked first and second, respectively, in MLB Pipeline’s top 10 Astros prospect rankings.
Righthanders Jairo Solis, Peter Solomon and Tyler Ivey were added to the 40man along with the touted duo. Houston cleared room by trading righty Brandon Bailey to the Cincinnati Reds and dropping righthander Rogelio Armenteros and utilityman Jack Mayfield off the roster. The Atlanta Braves claimed Mayfield on waivers. The Arizona Diamondbacks claimed Armenteros.
The Astros now have 39 players on their 40-man roster. Players who are selected in the Rule 5 draft are added to their new team’s 26-man roster and must remain there all season. If they’re taken off, they can be offered back to their original club.
Neither Nova nor Solis has played above Class A. Solis and Solomon are recovering from Tommy John surgery they underwent in
2019. Ivey, a former Texas A&M player, threw sparingly in 2019 because of an elbow injury, too. Whitley was shut down during the regular season with what the team termed a “forearm strain.”
“(Whitley) is working out, and he is on what I’ve been told is a more aggressive workout regimen for the offseason,” general manager James Click said Friday. “We don’t have any reason to believe he won’t be healthy and ready to go at the start of the season.”
Once regarded as the sport’s top pitching prospect, Whitley has thrown just 86 innings in affiliated ball since 2018. A drug suspension cost him most of the 2018 season before nagging injuries derailed his 2019 campaign. The team shipped him to West Palm Beach, Fla. in July 2019 for what former general manager Jeff Luhnow termed a “season reset.” Whitley finished the year with a 7.99 ERA in 592⁄ innings while
3 walking 6.6 batters per nine innings.
Whitley reported to major league spring training in 2020 “not ready physically to compete for a position,” pitching coach Brent Strom said at the time. Whitley lost 30 pounds during the pandemic shutdown and appeared re-energized during summer camp workouts.
“The game or two he came into in spring training 2.0 in July, you could see the top of the rotation stuff and top of the rotation command,” Click said. “It lets you get a window into what his potential is and why everybody is so high on him despite what has been a bumpier path than any of us would have liked.
The forearm strain rendered it all useless — at a time when the Astros were desperate for pitching help. Houston had a franchise-record 10 pitchers make their major league debuts in 2020. Whitley was not among them.
“He obviously has that talent in there,” Click said. “It’s aquestion of how do we get him in a spot where he can harness that on a big league mound.”
All five of thenew40-man players reside within the top 25 of Baseball America’s organizational prospect rankings. Though none was included in the Astros’ 60man player pool this year, Solomon, Nova and Solis all participated in the club’s 52man instructional league in West Palm Beach, Fla.
A 20-year-old Dominican who signed for $1.2 million in the 2016 international signing period, Nova has yet to play above Class A ball. His strong infield throwing arm is among his best attributes — a trait that could allow him to play either third base or shortstop. Nova had a .670 OPS in 299 plate appearances with Class A Quad Cities in 2019.
Ivey had an elbow sprain that limited him to 52 minorleague innings during the 2019 season, but Click said the team “anticipated” that was “behind him.” Solomon and Solis didn’t throw at all in 2019 after Tommy John surgeries. Click claimed their upside was too good to ignore.
“These are two guys that, when healthy, have stuff to help us sooner rather than later,” Click said of Solomon and Solis. “We would anticipate that other teams would see the same thing. Leaving them off the roster, we felt like, held too high of a risk of them being selected in the Rule 5 and ultimately being able to stay with another team.”