Astros Trade Forrest Whitley to Tampa Bay Rays, Ends His Rollercoaster Tenure

The Forrest Whitley saga with the Houston Astros has finally reached its conclusion.

Brian McTaggart of MLB.com reported that the Astros had traded their former top prospect to the Tampa Bay Rays. Chandler Rome of The Athletic later added that the return is for cash considerations.

This comes on the heels of Houston designating Whitley for assignment on June 8.

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It's an unfortunate end to his tenure with the Astros, albeit the rollercoaster one that it was.

Taken in the first round of the 2016 draft, the right-hander was billed as the future ace of the franchise. He looked the part during the early going with a 2.83 ERA across his 23 outings and 18 starts during the 2017 minor league season. But the next year, he was suspended 50 games for violating MLB's drug prevention and treatment program.

After that, injuries derailed his career.

He underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021 and didn't look like the same pitcher when he returned.

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Houston converted him to a reliever ahead of the 2024 campaign with the thought that this would allow him to become a contributor at the Major League level for them going forward.

While it seemed like that was going to be the case, he was snake bitten by multiple injuries and only finished his Astros tenure with eight MLB appearances where he gave up 10 earned runs in 10 2/3 innings pitched.

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How Whitley's career goes from here will be something interesting to monitor.

The Rays have worked magic with pitchers in the past, so perhaps this change of scenery will be what allows him to finally reach the high ceiling that he was billed to have when he was a prospect.

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