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.