Baseball America Spring Training Prospect Report -- March 4, 2020

Tuesday's Stars

Dylan Carlson, OF, Cardinals — The Cardinals may have incentives to keep Carlson back in the minors for a short stretch for service time reasons (the Kris Bryant grievance result ends almost any hope a player has of winning a case for such a decision violating the CBA). But Carlson is doing everything he can to show he's ready to step into the lineup on Opening Day. Carlson, BA's No. 10 prospect, went 1-for-3 with two runs scored and his second double of the spring.

Shane McClanahan, LHP, Rays — McClanahan struck out three of the four batters he faced yesterday. It's part of a trend--he's now recorded five strikeouts in only two innings of work.

Jose Urquidy, RHP, Astros — Urquidy's second spring outing was outstanding. He allowed two hits and no walks in three scoreless innings while striking out four. His strike-throwing was especially impressive -- he threw 31 strikes in 39 pitches.

Forrest Whitley, RHP, Astros — Whitley's second outing of the spring was much better than his first. Where he allowed three runs in only 1.2 innings in his first appearance, he worked a drama-free inning yesterday. After an error allowed the first batter of the inning to reach, Whitley worked back from a 3-1 count to catch Justin Williams looking and induced Oscar Hernandez into a pop-up. He did walk Max Schrock, but he then struck out Lane Thomas swinging to end the inning. It was a step forward, but Whitley's control and command continues to need to improve.

Matthew Liberatore, LHP, Cardinals — Take everything we said about Whitley and double it when talking about Liberatore. Liberatore's first spring outing was a rough hello -- he allowed five runs and recorded two outs. Tuesday was much more like what he wants to do -- three batters, three outs and one strikeout.

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