Red Sox Rule 5 2020: Select RHP Garrett Whitlock in major league portion
- Thread starter DeadlySplitter
- Start date
I would say more towards Chance Adams or Michael King, recent NY prospects without dominant stuff who put up incredible minor league numbers but who have yet to translate that to the bigs (Adams went to KC and just had TJS, King was on NY last year and was bad).
Reed has some decent power numbers in the low minors, but a lot of strikeouts. In High A last year he slashed .270/.365/.487 with 13 HRs over 238 ABs. A 2 to 1 K to BB ratio. He was an 8th rounder in 2017.
More king though between the two as Adams wasn't a groundball guy, correct?
Are you worried about King being an AAAA player already?
I think Adams was a big groundball guy before getting hurt (late 2017?) and he’s never really recovered from that.
As for King, 2020 was so strange and he missed most of 2019, but he was pretty awful last season and I was hoping for more. NY has a lot of guys with better stuff waiting behind him so he’ll need to figure things out quickly this year if he wants to stick with NY.
Nothing so interesting, but I posted about Whitlock a few times in the NY 2018 minor league thread:
https://sonsofsamhorn.net/index.php?threads/ny-minor-league-prospect-news-2018-edition.22691/#post-2798273
https://sonsofsamhorn.net/index.php?threads/ny-minor-league-prospect-news-2018-edition.22691/#post-2798273
From Baseball Prospectus:
Boston Red Sox: Garrett Whitlock, RHP (New York Yankees)
You’d be forgiven for thinking the Rule 5 draft is merely an “excess Yankees pitching prospect” dispersal draft. Whitlock is coming off Tommy John surgery—which makes him easier to stash since you can keep him on the IL for a bit—but if he’s fully healthy fits nicely as a bulk inning guy behind an opener, or alternatively as a multi-inning reliever. He showed three useable pitches last time he was on a mound: a mid-90s fastball, a mid-80s slider with hard tilt that flashes plus, and a firm but potentially average change-up. The command and durability have never quite convinced me he’s a starter, but on present stuff, Whitlock might be the best arm taken. He’s also an ideal fit if Chaim Bloom wants to run a Rays-style pitching staff in Boston. And even if he doesn’t, have you looked at the Red Sox pitching depth chart recently?
Odds he sticks: 60 percent
Boston Red Sox: Garrett Whitlock, RHP (New York Yankees)
You’d be forgiven for thinking the Rule 5 draft is merely an “excess Yankees pitching prospect” dispersal draft. Whitlock is coming off Tommy John surgery—which makes him easier to stash since you can keep him on the IL for a bit—but if he’s fully healthy fits nicely as a bulk inning guy behind an opener, or alternatively as a multi-inning reliever. He showed three useable pitches last time he was on a mound: a mid-90s fastball, a mid-80s slider with hard tilt that flashes plus, and a firm but potentially average change-up. The command and durability have never quite convinced me he’s a starter, but on present stuff, Whitlock might be the best arm taken. He’s also an ideal fit if Chaim Bloom wants to run a Rays-style pitching staff in Boston. And even if he doesn’t, have you looked at the Red Sox pitching depth chart recently?
Odds he sticks: 60 percent
The guy I always remember is Matt White, circa 2003. He was terrible and lasted maybe a week when he finally got to pitch. What I remember most about him, however, was that Gordon Edes must have written "Rule 5 Lefthander Matt White" an utterly excessive number of times; so many times one would have thought that "Rule 5 Lefthander" was part of the man's name.
I was getting ready to post that the most memorable thing about Matt White was that he inherited a gravel pit from his aunt and became a billionaire... At least, that was what I remembered.
Turns out, it wasn’t such a fairytale ending: https://www.gazettenet.com/Archives/2014/10/SWIFTRIVERSTONE-HG-100814.
Unfortunately for him, Matt White the businessman might be worse then Matt White the MLB pitcher