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Forrest Whitley

Rays Designate Forrest Whitley, Promote Joe Rock

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The Rays announced that right-hander Forrest Whitley has been designated for assignment.  Replacing Whitley on the active roster is left-hander Joe Rock, who has been called up from Triple-A Durham to make his first appearance on a big league roster.

It was just over two weeks ago that Tampa Bay acquired Whitley in a trade with Houston, after the Astros also DFA’d the right-hander.  The move marked the end of Whitley’s nearly nine-year run in the Astros organization, as the 17th overall pick of the 2016 draft dealt with a bunch of injuries and a 50-game PED suspension (in 2018) over the course of what had been a star-crossed career.  Whitley didn’t make his MLB debut until 2024 when he made three appearances for Houston, and the Astros opted to finally move on after the righty posted a 12.27 ERA over 7 1/3 innings this season.

Things haven’t gone much better for Whitley since the trade, as he has a 15.43 ERA in 4 2/3 innings over five appearances with the Rays.  All of the damage came in the final two of those appearances — Whitley didn’t retire any of six batters faced and was charged with all six runs in a disastrous outing on June 22, and he was tagged for four runs (two earned) in an inning of work in yesterday’s 22-8 Rays loss to the Orioles.

As you might expect from such a football-esque score, the Rays ran through a lot of their bullpen last night, so Rock represents a fresh arm for the relief corps.  Whitley is out of minor league options, so the Rays had to first go the DFA route before Whitley can be moved to Triple-A and off the 40-man roster.  Tampa Bay could work out another trade to send Whitley elsewhere during the DFA period, or an interested team could simply claim him away on waivers.

Whitley’s prospect pedigree is such that another club might well pick him, though his out-of-options status complicates matters.  It could be that Whitley might be in for a string of claims/trades and designations, unless he shows enough immediate results to get himself a longer look in a team’s bullpen.  In the small sample of his time with the Rays, he threw his cutter far more often (51% of the time) than he did during his previous MLB stints with the Astros, though that attempted fix didn’t last long.

Rock will be making his Major League debut whenever he officially appears in a game.  The southpaw has a notable draft position in his own right, as the Rockies selected 68th overall of the 2021 draft.  Tampa acquired Rock in a trade in March 2024, and added him to its 40-man roster last November in advance of the Rule 5 Draft.  After posting a 4.58 ERA in 137 2/3 Triple-A innings last year, Rock has pretty similar numbers in Durham this season, delivering a 4.81 ERA along with a 19.8% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate that are each steps backwards from his metrics in 2024.

Rock has worked primarily as a starter during his minor league career, but could be viewed as an innings-eating long reliever in the Show.  MLB Pipeline (which rates Rock as the 21st-best prospect in Tampa Bay’s farm system) suggests that relief work might be in Rock’s future, as his 55-grade slider and fastball could be an effective one-two punch coming out of the pen.

Rays Acquire Forrest Whitley

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June 16: The Rays announced today that Whitley has been added to the club’s active roster with righty Mason Englert optioned to Triple-A Durham as the corresponding active roster move.

June 13: The Astros announced that they have traded right-hander Forrest Whitley to the Rays in exchange for cash considerations. Brian McTaggart of MLB.com first reported that Whitley was going to the Rays while Chandler Rome of The Athletic reported the cash return. The Rays’ 40-man roster count climbs from 38 to 39. Since Whitley is out of options, they will need to open an active roster spot once he reports to the team.

Whitley, 27, is a complete wild card at this point. Selected 17th overall in the 2016 draft, he put up huge numbers in the lower minor league levels as a teenager, working around a 50-game drug suspension going into 2018. His performance vaulted him towards the top of prospect lists. Going into 2019, Baseball America ranked him #5 overall and the top pitcher on the list.

He has hit a number of speed bumps since then, largely due to injuries. Shoulder problems seemed to hamper him in 2019, as he finished that year with a combined 7.99 earned run average across various minor league levels. The minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020. He required Tommy John surgery in March of 2021, wiping out that season and most of the following year. He got back on the mound in 2022 but showed plenty of rust, posting a 6.53 ERA over his 40 minor league innings. In 2023, a lat strain limited him to 30 minor league innings with a 5.70 ERA.

The Astros added Whitley to their 40-man roster in November of 2020, to protect him from being exposed in the Rule 5 draft. He used up three options in those 2021-23 seasons. The Astros were granted a fourth option for 2024 but the clock was ticking, so they moved him to the bullpen.

He showed some promise in that role last year. He logged 34 innings at the Triple-A level with a 2.12 ERA. His 11.6% walk rate was high but he struck out 31.5% of batters faced and got grounders at a 55% clip. He also made his major league debut, logging 3 1/3 scoreless innings.

He came into 2025 out of options and started the season on the injured list, this time due to a bone bruise in his left knee. He was reinstated from the IL on April 19th but went back on the shelf on April 27th due to a left knee sprain. He was reinstated in late May but didn’t last long before the Astros decided to give up and designated him for assignment. Around those IL stints, he has thrown 7 1/3 innings this year with ten earned runs allowed. He struck out eight opponents but gave out six walks, hit another batter and threw a wild pitch.

Whitley’s future is anyone’s guess at this point. The talent that made him the top prospect in baseball may be in there somewhere. He still averages in the upper 90s with his fastballs. But he’s now out of options and has proved so little. His major league track record consists of just 10 2/3 innings, which haven’t been especially impressive. He was good in the minors last year but has otherwise been hurt and/or ineffective.

The Rays have a strong reputation when it comes to developing pitchers, so it’s a good landing spot for him. However, they are also a contender, currently holding one of the three American League Wild Card spots. Since Whitley is out of options, he will have to produce some results in order to stick on the roster. If he does, the Rays can cheaply retain him for years to come. He came into 2025 with just six days of major league service time, meaning he can’t get to arbitration until after 2027 and isn’t slated for free agency until after the 2030 season. But as mentioned, those will be moot points if he can’t right the ship.

Photo courtesy of Erik Williams, Imagn Images

Astros Designate Forrest Whitley For Assignment

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The Astros announced that right-hander Forrest Whitley has been designated for assignment.  Left-hander Brandon Walter was called up from Triple-A Sugar Land in the corresponding move.

Selected 17th overall in the 2016 draft, Whitley was once viewed as one of baseball’s top pitching prospects, and he was a fixture on top-100 prospect lists even as injuries and a 50-game drug policy suspension in 2018 hampered his career.  Due to the canceled 2020 minor league season and a Tommy John surgery, Whitley went over 21 months (from September 2, 2019 to June 16, 2022) between a proper in-game appearance in the minor leagues.

That long layoff was the turning point in Whitley’s career, as he only showed flashes of his prior form once he returned to the mound.  A lat strain limited him to 30 Triple-A innings in 2023, but a move to full-time bullpen work in 2024 seemed to put Whitley on the right track, as a 1.89 ERA over 33 1/3 relief innings for Round Rock earned Whitley his first taste of MLB action in the form of three appearances for the 2024 Astros.

More injuries arose this year, as a left knee bone bruise and left knee sprain resulted in two separate trips to the IL for Whitley.  It is quite possible his health issues impacted his performance, as the righty struggled to a 12.27 ERA over 7 1/3 innings for the Astros, with two home runs and six walks allowed within that small sample.

Whitley’s lack of effectiveness didn’t leave Houston with much choice beyond a DFA, as Whitley is out of options and can’t be sent to the minors without first being exposed to waivers.  Should he clear waivers, Whitley can be outrighted off the Astros’ 40-man roster and returned to Sugar Land, though it is worth wondering if the Astros might be ready to simply move on from Whitley entirely.

Given Whitley’s past pedigree, it wouldn’t be a shock if another team claimed him away to see if a change of scenery could finally unlock the right-hander’s potential.  The pure stuff still seems to be there, as Whitley’s fastball (96.3mph) and slider (96.7mph) have plenty of velocity even if his walk rates have spiraled upwards.  Whitley is still only 27 years old, and might yet be able to join the long list of former top prospects who became late bloomers in terms of big league success.

Astros Activate Kaleb Ort, Place Forrest Whitley On 15-Day IL

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The Astros activated right-hander Kaleb Ort from the 15-day injured list today, and placed righty Forrest Whitley on the 15-day IL (retroactive to April 24) in the corresponding move.  Ort didn’t see any action in today’s 7-3 win over the Royals, so the reliever is still waiting to make his season debut after beginning the year on the IL due to an oblique strain.

Whitley also began the season on the IL due to a bone bruise on his left knee, but after making just one appearance, Whitley now finds himself back on the shelf with a left knee sprain.  Manager Joe Espada told the Houston Chronicle’s Matt Kawahara and other reporters that Whitley’s two injuries are likely linked, and the reliever will undergo more testing on Monday to determine the extent of the issue.  The decision was made to place Whitley on the IL when he reported more knee soreness after a game of catch on Saturday, Espada said.

It represents yet another setback for Whitley, as the former top prospect has dealt with multiple injuries and a 50-game PED suspension during his long minor league career.  Chosen 17th overall in the 2016 draft, Whitley finally made it to the Show last year, throwing 3 1/3 scoreless (despite five hits and three walks) innings over three appearances for the 2024 Astros.  His big league ERA has remained spotless through his fourth career game, as he tossed two more scoreless frames in mop-up duty during Houston’s 7-0 win over the Blue Jays on April 21.

Whitley’s multiple injuries have already altered his career path from starting to relief pitching, and he had very strong results working in a full-time bullpen role with Triple-A Round Rock in 2024.  There is still plenty of opportunity for the 27-year-old Whitley to carve out a niche for himself in the majors, if he can only stay healthy.

Speaking of late bloomers, Ort had a 6.27 ERA in 51 2/3 career MLB innings (all with the Red Sox) before he broke out with Houston last year in his age-32 season.  After being claimed off waivers from the Orioles last May, Ort posted a 2.55 ERA, 28% strikeout rate, and 4.3% walk rate across 24 2/3 innings out of the Astros’ pen.  While Ort benefited from some favorable batted-ball luck, his metrics were still intriguing enough to indicate that he can be a helpful bullpen piece for Espada’s team.

Astros Activate Forrest Whitley From Injured List

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The Astros announced earlier today that they’ve activated right-hander Forrest Whitley from the injured list. Righty Nick Hernandez was optioned to Triple-A in a corresponding move.

The move sets up what could be the first extended shot in the majors of Whitley’s career. Selected 17th overall by the Astros all the way back in 2016, Whitley was a consensus top-10 prospect in the entire sport in the late 2010s and considered by many to be the best up-and-coming young pitcher in the minor leagues. Unfortunately, things came off the rails somewhat for the righty from there. He was suspended for 50 games for violating MiLB’s drug policy prior to the 2018 season, and that suspension, shoulder issues, the canceled minor league season in 2020, and Tommy John surgery led to Whitley throwing just 66 innings in minor league games over a four-year period.

When he finally made his way back onto the mound in 2022, the results were not good. Whitley struggled to a 6.53 ERA in 40 innings spread across three levels of the minors, including a 7.09 ERA at Triple-A. He struggled again the following year with a 5.70 ERA in 30 innings before being sidelined by a lat strain but stuck around to make his big league debut last year. He threw just three innings in the majors last year but did not surrender a run and also posted an excellent 1.89 ERA with a 31.9% strikeout rate in 32 appearances at Triple-A last year after moving to the bullpen.

A bone bruise in Whitley’s left knee prevented him from making the Astros’ roster out of camp this year, but the issue didn’t keep him sidelined for long. Since Whitley is out of options, he had to either be designated for assignment or added to the Astros’ big league roster once he was ready to be activated from the injured list. Houston chose to bring him back up to the majors, and he’s now set to join a bullpen that has virtually no certainty outside of closer Josh Hader and top setup man Bryan Abreu. Bryan King has looked good as another potential high leverage arm from the left side to complement Hader, but there’s little in Whitley’s way to stop him from becoming the club’s second high leverage arm from the right side after this offseason’s Ryan Pressly trade vacated the role.

With that being said, the righty will need to show better control than he did during his latest stint at Triple-A. While Whitley struck out a solid 26.3% of his opponents during his latest rehab assignment, he walked an unplayable 21.1% of batters as well. Fortunately, that was across a sample of just four appearances. It’s not at all difficult to imagine a player with Whitley’s talent and prospect pedigree finally being able to put things together in the majors this year, particularly now that he’s moved to the bullpen full-time in a move that should help to minimize injury risk.

Making room for Whitley on the Astros’ active roster is the departure of Hernandez, who will head to Triple-A Sugar Land and wait for his next opportunity. Hernandez departs the roster without having made an appearance this year, though he has a 9.00 ERA in seven appearances with the Astros and Padres in his career since debuting with San Diego back in 2023. The 28-year-old’s career 3.34 ERA at Triple-A suggests there’s reason for optimism he could be effective in the majors if offered the opportunity, but he doesn’t appear ticketed for an extended look in the majors any time soon given the current construction of Houston’s bullpen.

Astros Designate Cooper Hummel For Assignment

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The Astros have designated catcher/infielder/outfielder Cooper Hummel for assignment and placed righty J.P. France on the 60-day injured list as he recovers from last summer’s shoulder surgery. That pair of moves opens two additional spots on a 40-man roster that already had two vacancies. The four openings will go to righty Rafael Montero, lefty Steven Okert, second baseman Brendan Rodgers and top prospect Cam Smith, all of whom have been selected to the 40-man roster and are on the Opening Day club.

Houston also placed outfielders Pedro Leon and Taylor Trammell on the 10-day injured list due to a knee strain and calf strain, respectively. Right-handers Shawn Dubin, Luis Garcia, Cristian Javier, Lance McCullers Jr., Kaleb Ort and Forrest Whitley have all been placed on the 15-day IL.

The Astros had telegraphed all these moves. They’d already announced that Montero, Okert, Smith and Rodgers were making the team. Houston had previously informed Hummel that he would not break camp. Since he’s out of options, that made a DFA or waiver placement inevitable. France, who’ll be out into at least July rehabbing last year’s shoulder procedure, was an obvious 60-day IL candidate to open the final roster spot.

Houston claimed Hummel off waivers from the Giants last spring. They outrighted him off the 40-man roster a couple weeks later but reselected his contract in June when they released José Abreu. He spent most of the season in Triple-A, exhausting his final option season in the process. Hummel went 0-8 with a pair of strikeouts in his big league work. He had a solid year in Triple-A, hitting .277/.419/.454 with a massive 17.9% walk rate through 442 plate appearances.

The Astros will have five days to trade Hummel or place him on waivers. He’s not viewed as a regular behind the plate, but he can catch on occasion while playing first base or the corner outfield. His patient plate approach has translated to a .285/.419/.480 career slash in Triple-A. He owns just a .159/.255/.275 line with a 31.9% strikeout rate over 82 major league games.

Trammell, Whitley, Ort and Dubin are all out of options themselves. Their Spring Training injuries delay the Astros’ need to make a decision on any of them, as they’ll begin the year on the major league IL. Ort has the best chance of holding a roster spot once he returns after pitching to a 2.55 ERA with a 28% strikeout rate last season.

Astros Release Ben Gamel, Jalen Beeks

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The Astros announced this afternoon that they have released outfielder Ben Gamel and left-hander Jalen Beeks. Additionally, the club announced that infielder Luis Guillorme and right-hander Miguel Castro will not make the club’s Opening Day roster, though they’ll remain with the club through the end of big league Spring Training. The Athletic’s Chandler Rome adds that right-handers Forrest Whitley and Kaleb Ort will begin the season on the injured list. Gamel was on the 40-man roster, so today’s slate of moves drops the club’s 40-man total to 39.

Gamel, 33 in May, played 20 games for the Astros down the stretch last year and re-signed with the club on a one-year big league contract that guaranteed him a $200K signing bonus with a $1MM salary if he broke camp with the club. That will not come to pass, though he’ll head back into free agency having pocketed the signing bonus for his trouble as he searches for a job with a new club. The journeyman is a veteran of nine MLB seasons who has struggles to find a consistent home over the years, but has accumulated more than 700 games in the majors since he debuted with the Yankees back in 2016.

In that time, Gamel has generally been an average to slightly below average hitter at the big league level while mostly playing the outfield corners despite occasional cameos in center field and at first base. His career .252/.334/.382 slash line is good for a wRC+ of 96 that hardly jumps off the page, but makes him a solid enough option in a bench or platoon role for clubs that lack depth in the outfield corners. That’s a situation the Astros found themselves in after trading Kyle Tucker to the Cubs earlier this winter, though they’ve since rectified the issue somewhat by shifting longtime second baseman Jose Altuve into left field. That left Gamel seemingly ticketed for a timeshare with Chas McCormick in right field alongside Altuve in left and Jake Meyers in center, but now Gamel has been pushed off the roster entirely.

Gamel’s departure could make room for non-roster invitee and top prospect Cam Smith, the Cubs’ first-round pick in the 2024 draft who was shipped to Houston alongside Isaac Paredes and Hayden Wesneski in the Tucker deal, to break camp as the club’s starting right fielder. That would push McCormick into a bench role following a brutal 2024 season where he posted a 66 wRC+ in 94 games, though it would register as something of a surprise given that Smith has just five games of experience at even the Double-A level and McCormick was a three-win player as recently as 2023. If the club instead gives the right field job to Chas McCormick, Cooper Hummel appears to be the most likely candidate to round out the club’s outfield mix. As for Gamel himself, his 108 wRC+ against right-handed pitching since the start of the 2021 season and a solid .384 on-base percentage in 99 trips to the plate between the Mets and Astros last year seems solid enough to earn him a look elsewhere, though perhaps only a minor league deal at this stage of the winter.

Beeks, meanwhile, is a 31-year-old lefty who has struggled to a 5.05 ERA with the Rays, Rockies, and Pirates the past two years despite a decent 3.93 FIP. Despite those lackluster numbers, his 3.92 ERA and 3.12 FIP in 26 games for Pittsburgh down the stretch in conjunction with his decent 3.70 ERA and 3.83 FIP with the Rays from 2019 to 2022 offer some reason for optimism that Beeks could provide solid production for a bullpen in need of help from the left side. He’ll re-enter free agency with less than a week left until Opening Day having posted a 2.25 ERA in four innings of work for the Astros during camp in hopes of finding a new job. Lefty Steven Okert and righty Rafael Montero are both non-roster veterans in camp who appear ticketed for the Opening Day roster at this point, though Blake Weiman and Logan VanWey are among the other non-roster players still in the mix.

Joining Beeks in failing to make the team is veteran right-hander Miguel Castro, although the 30-year-old veteran of 10 MLB seasons will remain in Houston’s organization for at least the time being. The same can be said for utility man Luis Guillorme, who won’t make the club’s roster after a 2024 season where he slashed just .205/.301/.273 in 77 games with Atlanta, Anaheim, and Arizona last year. That bench spot that otherwise may have gone to Guillorme instead figures to be occupied by Brendan Rodgers after he was non-tendered by the Rockies back in November and signed a minor league deal with the Astros last month.

Meanwhile, the club’s bullpen takes a bit of a hit as both Whitley and Ort will open the season on the shelf. A former top starting pitching prospect, Whitley toiled through injuries and ineffectiveness in the minors for years before making his big league debut as a reliever last year with 3 scoreless outings. Ort, meanwhile, struggled in parts of three seasons with Boston before delivering a strong 2.55 ERA despite a 5.23 FIP in 24 2/3 innings for the Astros last year. Both players figure to have a role with the Astros this year when healthy enough to take the mound.

Astros Promote Forrest Whitley

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2:28pm: The Astros made it official, announcing Whitley’s recall with Spencer Arrighetti optioned in a corresponding move. Arrighetti’s rotation spot will likely be taken by Justin Verlander, who is expecting to be activated off the injured list shortly.

12:31pm: The Astros are recalling former top prospect Forrest Whitley for his first MLB promotion, reports Michael Schwab of the Juice Box Journal (X link). He’s already on the 40-man roster, so they’ll only need to make a corresponding active roster transaction.

Whitley, now 26, took a circuitous route to the majors. He was a first-round pick in 2016 out of a San Antonio high school. The 6’7″ righty dominated for his first year and a half, pitching his way to Double-A as a teenager. By 2018, he looked the part of a potential ace and the top pitching prospect in the sport.

Things haven’t played out the way Whitley or the Astros envisioned from that point. He was hit with a 50-game suspension for violating the minor league drug policy going into the ’18 season. Whitley battled shoulder issues the following year and lost his feel for the strike zone. The canceled 2020 campaign cost him another year of reps, although Houston nevertheless made the easy call to select him onto the 40-man roster to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft.

Whitley has held that spot ever since, although it didn’t always seem as if that were a guarantee. He underwent Tommy John surgery in March 2021 and posted subpar results when he returned. His control issues resurfaced as he pitched to a 6.53 ERA in the upper minors in 2022. He got off to another rough start last season before sustaining a lat strain that ended his year in May. The Astros were granted a fourth minor league option as a result of Whitley’s injury history.

The front office decided to keep him on the 40-man roster throughout last offseason. They moved him to the bullpen this year upon optioning him to Triple-A Sugar Land. Whitley hasn’t gotten off to a great start, allowing four runs on a trio of homers in three innings, but he’s a fresh arm for a bullpen that has been tasked with 71 innings through the season’s first three weeks. Only the Dodgers and Padres — who leaned heavily on their relief groups during their abbreviated series in Seoul a week before every other team’s Opening Day — have used their bullpens more heavily than Houston has.

While Whitley’s promotion isn’t going to be met with the same level of fanfare as it would have a few years ago, it’s surely rewarding for the righty all the same. It’s the culmination of a nearly eight-year climb through the minors that has been littered with injury setbacks. It could prove to be a fairly brief call — Houston may need to continue cycling through middle relievers until their rotation finds any kind of groove — but he could get the chance to make his debut.

Astros Notes: Verlander, Whitley, McCormick

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Astros ace Justin Verlander discussed his ongoing shoulder issues with reporters (including Chandler Rome of The Athletic) today, and his comments shed little light on whether the veteran righty will be able to take the mound on Opening Day next month.

“We still got some time, obviously it’s tight, but things are progressing,” Verlander told reporters, as relayed by Rome. “…We’re not even looking a week out or two weeks out, so it’s kind of hard to forecast anything past that.”

Verlander went on to make clear that he’s feeling no discomfort in his shoulder, adding that “Every day I touch the mound has been progression.” While the veteran ace has yet to face live hitting this spring, Rome adds that manager Joe Espada indicated Verlander could start to face live hitting “at some point” after his next bullpen session, adding that said bullpen would likely “determine” Verlander’s readiness for Opening Day.

Verlander, who celebrated his 41st birthday last week, followed up his AL Cy Young award winning campaign in 2022 with a solid 2023 split between the Mets and Astros. In 27 starts between the two clubs, the right-hander pitched to a strong 3.22 ERA in 162 1/3 innings of work. That being said, his 21.5% strikeout rate last year was the lowest he had posted since 2015, leaving him with a 3.85 FIP that puts him closer to “solid mid-rotation arm” than “surefire ace.” Even if Verlander isn’t the dominant pitcher he was in his late 30s now that he’s entered his 40s, however, the right-hander figures to be a key piece of the Astros rotation alongside Framber Valdez and Cristian Javier. Should Verlander miss time to start the season, that would likely leave Houston to lean more heavily on their back-of-the-rotation arms such as Jose Urquidy and Hunter Brown.

More from out of Houston…

  • Espada also provided an update regarding the status of right-hander Forrest Whitley, who Rome relays has been dealing with inflammation in his middle finger. Espada indicated that while that inflammation has now subsided, Whitley will be sat down for the next week on a no-throw program. Once a consensus top-10 prospect in the sport, the Astros’ first-round pick in the 2016 draft has not yet made his big league debut despite being on the 40-man roster since 2020 due to a lengthy injury history and a 50-game suspension for violating the league’s drug policy. Whitley has struggled badly as a started at the Triple-A level, with an 8.04 ERA in 87 1/3 career innings at the level, but figures to work exclusively out of the bullpen going forward and entered camp with a chance to compete for a spot in the club’s bullpen this spring.
  • Outfielder Chas McCormick is expected to step into a larger role with Houston in 2024, as MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart notes that both Espada and GM Dana Brown have indicated that McCormick will be an everyday player this season. The 28-year-old slashed an impressive .273/.353/.489 (133 wRC+) last year but appeared in only 115 games while making 457 trips to the plate. The retirement of veteran left fielder Michael Brantley has opened up additional playing time in the club’s outfield mix, however, and it appears that McCormick could be a major beneficiary of that playing time. With Jake Meyers as the club’s likely starting center fielder, that figures to push McCormick to left for the most part, though McTaggart indicates that McCormick could see time in center on days where Yainer Diaz moves from behind the plate to DH, pushing superstar slugger Yordan Alvarez into left field.

Astros GM: No Interest In Trading Alex Bregman

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Astros general manager Dana Brown spoke with reporters at this week’s Winter Meetings. Most notably, the second-year baseball operations leader emphatically shot down speculation about the possibility of moving star third baseman Alex Bregman.

“We’re not interested in trading him,” Brown said (video provided by Chandler Rome of the Athletic). “I think Alex knows that and understands that based on our conversations, so I’m not worried one bit about the articles and the rumors. At the end of the day, Alex is a pillar here. … We’re trying to win here.”

That’s a rather firm rejection of any suggestion the Astros could look to deal the two-time All-Star before his final season under contract. Bregman will make $28.5MM next year and hit free agency going into his age-31 campaign. Bob Nightengale of USA Today wrote over the weekend that while the Houston organization wasn’t optimistic about the chances of another extension, they had no intention of trading him.

With Houston still firmly in win-now mode as they battle with the World Series champion Rangers (and perhaps the Mariners or Angels) atop the AL West, it’s an understandable course of action. Bregman remains an excellent player, hitting .262/.363/.441 with 25 home runs while appearing in 161 games last season. While his production has dropped from his MVP finalist level of 2018-19, he’s still one of the sport’s best third basemen.

Brown also discussed a few other matters. He noted the club received a fourth minor league option on right-hander Forrest Whitley (via Rome). The one-time top prospect is apparently being moved to relief, as he’ll compete for a bullpen spot in Spring Training. Brown indicated a few months ago that Houston would seek an additional option on Whitley, who has missed extended time in the minor leagues because of various injuries and a 2018 suspension for a violation of the drug program. Whitley has yet to make his major league debut despite being on the 40-man roster since 2020.

Upgrading the relief corps still seems a priority for a front office that saw each of Hector Neris, Ryne Stanek and Phil Maton hit free agency. Brown reiterated that bolstering the bullpen and adding a backup catcher remained offseason goals, although he hinted he might be cautious on the relief front. “I’m not interested in overpaying in the relief market,” he told the Houston beat (relayed by Brian McTaggart of MLB.com).

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