Former top prospect Forrest Whitley opens up on ’embarrassing’ journey with Astros

Sports

add

HOUSTON — Last month, Forrest Whitley’s left knee buckled before a game of catch at Kauffman Stadium. Swelling and scans ensued, sending Whitley into a spiral. His star-crossed career is a case study in setbacks, one of his own doing and a deluge of others beyond his control.

Coping with them can be complicated. At first, Whitley didn’t know how, the byproduct of being an 18-year-old wunderkind with a $3.148 million signing bonus and a blessed amateur baseball career. First-round picks seldom arrive with any experience navigating adversity and emotions, and when hardships arrive, feelings can vary.

“The honest answer to that is it’s embarrassing,” Whitley said this week.

Now, after nine years of never-ending misfortune, Whitley is nearing a place of peace. Maturation and marriage have helped. Whitley’s wife, Courtney, has been a constant companion since his professional career began. She “knows the key words, key phrases, the key things to do to calm me down,” he said. “And she has pretty much nailed everything since we’ve been together.”

One of Courtney’s most common refrains to her husband: “Bear down, break through it, take it day by day, hour by hour.”

“Otherwise, give up the game,” Whitley said. “That was just never an option for me. Still isn’t an option. I feel like guys in my position that keep going feel like they have stuff to give back to the game, and I still very much feel that way.”

Before the 2019 season, Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus and MLB Pipeline anointed Whitley the best starting pitching prospect in baseball. Now, he is fighting to retain a roster spot in one of the sport’s best bullpens. He made his long-awaited major-league debut last season but has logged just 5 1/3 innings since.

Whitley is out of minor-league options at a position where turnover is constant, creating a real scenario where he won’t finish the season in the only organization he’s ever known.

“It’s impossible not to think about,” Whitley said. “I kind of viewed this year as the last chance, so when I’m on the field, I really got to make it happen.”

The knee that crumpled in Kansas City is sprained, sending Whitley to the injured list for the second time in the season’s first 47 days. Whitley suffered a bone bruise in the same knee toward the end of spring training, costing him a spot on his first career Opening Day roster.

Reinjuring it last month left him “down bad,” Whitley said. Courtney tried to counsel him, but the shame that has haunted him for the past six seasons remains.

“I told (manager Joe Espada) this, I told the pitching coaches this: I honestly feel embarrassed every time I have to go on the IL or something pops up,” Whitley said. “I don’t want it to be a reflection of my work ethic. I feel I do everything I can to stay on the field, and it just hasn’t worked out lately.

“I feel like I have a certain level of responsibility to give back to the people that have supported me that I don’t.”

What irks Whitley most is any thought that this is a result of negligence or complacency. He has worked with countless physical therapists, checked “under the hood” more times than he can count and has drawn a few vials of blood to figure out why he can’t stay healthy.

“The game is going to be the game. You just have to deal with it. I’m a hard thrower. Got good spin. Got a good changeup. I put a lot of stress on my body,” Whitley said.

Forrest Whitley’s 2Ks in the 8th. pic.twitter.com/7003hdFXAe

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 22, 2025

“It makes sense that this stuff would happen,” he continued, “but you look around the league, and there’s a lot of guys doing the same thing that throw 160 innings every year. For me, I try to ask myself why, but that’s the kind of comparison you can’t make.”

Pondering Whitley’s past is a pastime of most Astros fans. He reached Double A before turning 20 and became the main attraction at his first major-league spring training. Former general manager Jeff Luhnow labeled him untouchable in trades that constructed Houston’s golden era. That Whitley hasn’t contributed to it is a fate few could’ve envisioned.

Whitley has thrown 169 1/3 innings across the six seasons since becoming baseball’s top pitching prospect. A 50-game drug suspension stalled his progress before Whitley’s barrage of injuries began.

Tommy John surgery sidelined him in 2020 and 2021 before a lat strain limited him to 30 innings in 2023. Prospects passed him within the organizational pecking order and within every outside ranking he once topped.

“It was just such a quick rise to such a steady fall. For me, mentally, that was really tough. It hurt my ego a lot,” Whitley said. “I was just so used to being the guy in the room. I come to spring in ’21, ’22, ’23 — you’re not the guy anymore.

“While I believe that I’m not the guy just because I don’t have the prospect status or the numbers to back it up in general, I still have to maintain that belief that I am that guy without being an a–hole.”

Belief is what buoys Whitley, even when his body might betray him. He “likes to think” he will pitch into his 40s, even as a 27-year-old with such an extensive injury history. Whitley has exchanged some messages with Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Tyler Glasnow, one of the few pitchers in the sport who can commiserate with his situation.

“You come into the clubhouse every day with a certain level of apprehension, knowing that today could be the day something really flares up and something happens,” Whitley said. “You try to hold that mindset and carry that with you. It almost makes you feel humble coming in day to day, knowing that every day really, really matters.

“It wasn’t a perfect process to get to this mental state right now. It’s still not perfect. It’s far from it.”

Flashes of Whitley’s brilliance remain, even if they’re relegated to minor-league rehab assignments or bullpen sessions out of public view. His sinker and four-seamer can touch 99 mph, complementing two breaking balls and a changeup that have already authored success in his brief big-league career.

“Every day I throw the baseball, it reminds me of why I keep doing this stuff,” Whitley said. “I know when I go out there, I’m going to be competitive. I know exactly what to do. I have the stuff to get the best big leaguers out. I just have to go out there and do it and make sure I’m out there every time.”

That process begins again Tuesday, when Whitley will throw a rehab inning for Triple-A Sugar Land in hopes of an imminent return to the major-league roster. Where the game takes him after is a mystery, one Whitley has stopped trying to solve.

“The way I dumb it down for myself is there are millions of people — maybe billions of people — in far worse situations,” Whitley said. “Look where I am. I’m in a major-league locker room. Yeah, it sucks that my knee is hurt. Yeah, it sucks that I’ve had a laundry list of s— go on the last few years. But I’m here.”

(Photo: Erik Williams / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

Share on

email

Previous

trending_flat

McGregor is still obsessed with being above Floyd Mayweather: his latest attack through an image

Boxing - English

Next

trending_flat

The Timberwolves’ biggest remaining battle against the Warriors? Complacency

Sports