Whitley Hopes To Contribute To Astros

It must feel like eons ago that 6-foot-7 right-hander Forrest Whitley was selected by the Houston Astros in the first round of the 2016 draft.

Amazingly, Whitley is only 25 with the hope of making a contribution to the club this season.

“I’ve definitely grown as a person for that stuff that I had to go through,” Whitley told reporters at spring training in West Palm Beach, Fla. “I feel like the expectations were fair. … I feel like I've evolved so much. … You see the media side of it, and it's like generally pretty negative now, but it used to be so overwhelmingly positive and that was a little bit of a culture shock for me mentally, at first. You get over it and just keep throwing the ball.”

Whitley has thrown only 237 innings in his Minor League career because of a roller coaster of events which included a suspension, the COVID-19 pandemic and a litany of injuries, including Tommy John surgery two years ago.

Whitley enters the season as the team’s No. 10-ranked prospect by MLB Pipeline, down five spots from 2022. He was ranked as the third-best right-hander in the Minor Leagues before the ’21 season.

Last year, Whitley made three rehab starts at the lower levels of the Minor Leagues before finishing the season at Triple-A Sugar Land. He appeared in 13 games, making 11 starts, and posted a 6.53 ERA in 40 innings. Whitley’s season abruptly ended when he was scratched prior to a start in September when he felt pain in the back of his shoulder.

Whitley believes that he’s fully healthy now and ready to prove his mettle.

“I feel like I’ve kind of been at fulcrum point the past four years,” he said. “I'm just kind of ready to break that barrier. Finally healthy … first healthy spring in a while. Just kind of go out there and show them what I got and show them the work I put in this offseason.”