Carson Whisenhunt

A year after East Carolina produced a first-round arm in righthander Gavin Williams, the program has a chance for another with lefthander Carson Whisenhunt. However, Whisenhunt didn’t throw a pitch for the program in 2022 after being ruled ineligible by the NCAA after a positive drug test. Whisenhunt said the positive result was from supplements he took over the winter break. Because of that, the only in-game looks scouts will be able to see from the 6-foot-3, 205-pound lefthander will come in the Cape Cod League. As the Pirates’ No. 2 starter in 2021, Whisenhunt posted a 3.77 ERA over 13 starts and 62 innings, while striking out 30.9% of batters faced and walking 8.6%. Last year, Whisenhunt operated with a three-pitch mix that included a fastball, changeup and curveball. His heater averaged 92 mph and touched 95, while his curveball sat in the upper 70s with two-plane break. His best offering is a low-to-mid-80s changeup, which is one of the better changeups in the entire draft class. He throws it frequently (26% of the time in 2021) and generated whiffs at a 59% rate with the pitch in 2021. He has tremendous feel to land the pitch and regularly buries it at the bottom of the strike zone for whiffs and ground balls when hitters do manage contact. He throws the pitch with fastball arm speed, and it will fall off the table hard and sneak under barrels regularly with around nine mph of velocity separation from his fastball. Whisenhunt projects as a starter with good pitching ability and a three-pitch mix, but he is a bit of a wild card after missing his junior season. How he performs in the Cape Cod League will heavily impact his draft stock. If he comes out pitching with similar stuff that he showed in 2021, he should be a first-rounder with a chance to be one of the first college arms off the board. If not, a missed draft year could hurt him, but overall Whisenhunt has a well-rounded and safe profile.