Garrett Whitlock

Organization Prospect Rankings

• 
  Ranked Boston Red Sox #14 prospect in 2021
  TRACK RECORD: Whitlock's draft-eligible sophomore season at Alabama-Birmingham in 2017 was thrown off by food poisoning and a back strain. His strong turn in the Cape Cod League in 2016 was enough to convince the Yankees to sign him as an 18th-rounder for nearly $250,000, a total that counted against the Yankees' bonus pool He had Tommy John surgery in the middle of the 2019 season but was recovered by December 2020, when the Red Sox selected him in the major league Rule 5 draft.
  
  SCOUTING REPORT: Whitlock's main weapons are a low-to-mid-90s fastball and a hard-darting slider. His lower arm slot gives his fastball excellent sinking life and has made him a reliable groundball pitcher. Whitlock also throws a changeup in the low-to-mid 80s, but the pitch lags behind his fastball and slider. The 2019 season was Whitlock's first long look at Double-A, but his injury limited him to 70.1 innings.
  
  THE FUTURE: Boston's pitching was not good in 2020 and was exacerbated by losses of Chris Sale to Tommy John surgery and Eduardo Rodriguez to Covid-19. Whitlock has a chance to stick in either the rotation or bullpen, giving him a chance to stick on the major league roster as a Rule 5 pick.
• 
  Ranked New York Yankees #18 prospect in 2019
  Track Record: Whitlock was a draft-eligible sophomore at Alabama-Birmingham and got off to a hot start in his second season with the Blazers before a bout of food poisoning and a back strain scuttled the second half of the year. Still, his stuff and an impressive turn in the Cape Cod League convinced the Yankees to take a flyer on him in the 18th round and sign him for $247,500, almost double the recommended slot amount.
  
  Scouting Report: Whitlock is a true sinker-slider pitcher. He starts his repertoire with a low-90s two-seamer that peaked at 95 mph in 2018. The pitch plays up thanks to nearly seven feet of his extension in his delivery, a figure well above-average. The action on the pitch also helped him coax a 1.71 groundout-to-airout ratio, the second-best in the organization behind only Nick Green. Whitlock couples his sinker with a slurvy, potentially average slider that shows occasional plus depth in the 79-82 mph range. He’s been able to land it for strikes and use to get swings and misses as well. His changeup, thrown in the same velocity band as his breaking ball, is his clear third pitch. He’s shown feel for it but needs to develop it further. His delivery is a little bit rigid, which gives evaluators some pause when projecting his potential role.
  
  The Future: Whitlock has the ceiling of an innings-eating back-end starter, with a solid fallback option of a setup reliever. He’ll return to Double-A Trenton in 2019.

Draft Prospects

• Ranked #331 prospect in 2017 draft
  An eligible sophomore, Whitlock touched 95 mph with sink in the Cape Cod League last summer and has flashed a plus fastball and plus slider at his best. He got off to a tremendous start in 2017 and went 3-0, 0.53 in non-conference games, but a bout of food poisoning that weakened him, followed by a back strain, diminished Whitlock considerably in the second half. Shifting between starting and relieving, he went 0-6, 8.44 in Conference USA play for UAB, pitching with a diminished fastball that topped out at 93 and becoming a flyball pitcher instead of a sinkerballer. If he can regain his lost strength, the listed 6-foot-4, 192-pounder could be an effective sinker-slider reliever in pro ball. He also could re-establish himself by returning to UAB as a junior.

• March, 2021 Scouting Report
  TRACK RECORD: Whitlock's draft-eligible sophomore season at Alabama-Birmingham in 2017 was thrown off by food poisoning and a back strain. His strong turn in the Cape Cod League in 2016 was enough to convince the Yankees to sign him as an 18th-rounder for nearly $250,000, a total that counted against the Yankees' bonus pool He had Tommy John surgery in the middle of the 2019 season but was recovered by December 2020, when the Red Sox selected him in the major league Rule 5 draft.
  
  SCOUTING REPORT: Whitlock's main weapons are a low-to-mid-90s fastball and a hard-darting slider. His lower arm slot gives his fastball excellent sinking life and has made him a reliable groundball pitcher. Whitlock also throws a changeup in the low-to-mid 80s, but the pitch lags behind his fastball and slider. The 2019 season was Whitlock's first long look at Double-A, but his injury limited him to 70.1 innings.
  
  THE FUTURE: Boston's pitching was not good in 2020 and was exacerbated by losses of Chris Sale to Tommy John surgery and Eduardo Rodriguez to Covid-19. Whitlock has a chance to stick in either the rotation or bullpen, giving him a chance to stick on the major league roster as a Rule 5 pick.
• December, 2020 Scouting Report
  TRACK RECORD: Whitlock's draft-eligible sophomore season at Alabama-Birmingham in 2017 was thrown off by food poisoning and a back strain. His strong turn in the Cape Cod League in 2016 was enough to convince the Yankees to sign him as an 18th-rounder for nearly $250,000, a total that counted against the Yankees' bonus pool He had Tommy John surgery in the middle of the 2019 season but was recovered by December 2020, when the Red Sox selected him in the major league Rule 5 draft.
  
  SCOUTING REPORT: Whitlock's main weapons are a low-to-mid-90s fastball and a hard-darting slider. His lower arm slot gives his fastball excellent sinking life and has made him a reliable groundball pitcher. Whitlock also throws a changeup in the low-to-mid 80s, but the pitch lags behind his fastball and slider. The 2019 season was Whitlock's first long look at Double-A, but his injury limited him to 70.1 innings.
  
  THE FUTURE: Boston's pitching was not good in 2020 and was exacerbated by losses of Chris Sale to Tommy John surgery and Eduardo Rodriguez to Covid-19. Whitlock has a chance to stick in either the rotation or bullpen, giving him a chance to stick on the major league roster as a Rule 5 pick.