Whitley prepares for next major step
After 3 lost seasons, Heights grad closer to long-awaited debut
HOUSTON — The Astros saw several rookie pitchers make their debuts in the shortened 2020 Major League Baseball season, but top prospect Forrest Whitley wasn’t one of them.
As injuries and personal issues ravaged Houston’s pitching depth, new names were called on to provide relief. Dealing with his own health issues, though, the Alamo Heights graduate didn’t get his call while the Astros made a run to Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.
“I’ve felt pretty close to the big leagues before and have had some things pop up before that,” Whitley said Friday. “But for sure, you definitely got a little bit jealous when you see your friends out there competing and you’re hurt. There’s nothing you can do about it.”
Whitley, 23, has shown flashes of his potential but hasn’t shown he can sustain it in the minors. Over four seasons, he has posted a 9-15 record with a 4.71 ERA and walked over four batters per nine innings.
After enduring a 50-game suspension in 2018, an injury-plagued and ineffective 2019 campaign, and not pitching at all in 2020, Whitley essentially is coming off three lost seasons.
But Houston has kept faith in its 2016 first-round pick, enough that Whitley was added to the Astros’ 40-man roster in November.
“I feel very rewarded to have been added to the 40-man roster, so I’d like to thank the Astros for giving me that opportunity,” Whitley said. “It’s definitely something where I feel one step closer, so just making sure I give them every reason to believe in me.”
Whitley said he feels fully cleared from his injury issues last season, including a forearm strain
that had him shut down in August. Needing no surgery to heal, the offseason was about rest and recovery.
Exposure to a positive COVID-19 case before reporting to spring training forced him to quarantine for an extra seven days, as per protocol, but he arrived this week ready to continue his preparation.
Whitley said his offseason work didn’t involve a lot of pitching mechanics, but he did focus on maintaining heel contact on the rubber during his delivery. He didn’t put much into developing pitches as far as shape but did try to develop better command in the ones already in his repertoire.
On the mental side, Whitley continues to work on blocking out the noise around him.
Having been drafted straight out of high school, an explosive rise straight to the majors likely wasn’t in the cards. But even with the tempered expectations that might’ve been out there, Whitley hasn’t delivered, and with his struggles have come plenty of criticism.
Early in his career, Whitley said he was the type of person to read up on himself and see what others were saying, good or bad. When he performed poorly, the criticism messed with his head. But after some seasoning and speaking with older players who had been through it before, Whitley is learning to keep a level head and not listen to his detractors.
“It’s kind of always the same thing: just block out the noise, stay in your lane, do what you can to have your own personal success,” Whitley said. “It’s easy when some older guys say it, but you’ve got to really hone in on that and work on it. It’s not something you can just get overnight.”
Nothing is guaranteed for Whitley in 2021. There likely will be less opportunities to go around should the Astros keep their roster relatively whole this season.
A healthy Whitley could throw anywhere from 140 to 160 innings if called on, he said, so now it’s down to showing the Houston staff this spring that he belongs in the big leagues.
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