Astros Pitching Prospect Pegged as ROY Candidate

The Houston Astros have consistently been ranked towards, if not at, the bottom of prospect rankings for the past few years.

Dana Brown wants to starting rebuilding their pipeline and has already stated that they would like to get more youth involved on the team during the 2024 season.

The Astros have been veteran reliant for many years, trading away their top prospects to acquire Major League talent to help them win World Series championships.

One area where Houston needs to upgrade this offseason is their bullpen.

Three of the Astros relievers hit free agency following 2023 and they will need to replace that production. They could target available pitchers to rebuild their bullpen or could call-up their current prospects.

If they do the latter, then their No. 3 overall prospect, Spencer Arrighetti, should find himself in the mix during 2024.

The sixth round draft pick in 2021 appeared in 13 Triple-A games last year and is expected to debut at some point in the upcoming season.

MLB Pipeline also thinks that he is Houston's most likely player to win Rookie of the Year since Yordan Alvarez won it in 2019.

"The Astros have a seemingly endless supply of unheralded pitchers who become key cogs on their big league staff and their next could be Arrighetti ... With a pair of plus pitches in a 92-97 mph fastball with good metrics and a low-80s slider, he posted a 4.40 ERA, .217 opponent average and 141 strikeouts in 124 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A," they write.

One interesting thing regarding Arrighetti is that he has done the majority of his work as a starting pitcher at the minor league level.

If the Astros see him as a future starter, then there's a chance he won't see much playing time this season because of the packed rotation.

However, they could use him out of the bullpen since that is a major area of need.

He'll be an interesting player to monitor throughout 2024 as he attempts to win an AL Rookie of the Year award.