When the Astros drafted University of Louisiana right-handed pitcher Spencer Arrighetti in the 6th round in 2021, he was so excited he calls it the best day of his life.
Arrighetti spent his high school years in Katy at Cinco Ranch, after growing up primarily in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he played travel ball with Alex Bregman’s younger brother A.J. Arrighetti isn’t too far from being teammates with Bregman, if you listen to reports from scouts.
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In 2022, Arrighetti led all Astros minor league pitchers in strikeouts with 152 in just 106.1 innings pitched. He split time between High-A Asheville, where he struggled a bit with command and the altitude. Late in the year, Arrighetti got called up to Double-A Corpus Christi, where he threw 4 sparkling starts within 5 appearances, pitching to a 3.43 ERA with improved command.
Baseball America rated Arrighetti the #8 ranked prospect for the Astros for 2023. Arrighetti relies on a fastball that internally the Astros compare to Cristian Javier, with elite vertical break, and a slider that’s based on Lance McCullers’ slider. According to Arrighetti, the Astros system is working on teaching him how to better use the McCullers slider.
McCullers regularly works out alongside Arrighetti at Dynamic Sports Training West, in Houston. At Astros FanFest, the Astros starter had praise for Arrighetti, unprompted.
“Everyone’s familiar with Hunter (Brown) and Forrest (Whitley), we have some guys though - I’ve seen guys like Spencer Arrighetti,” said McCullers. “We have some good arms.”
Arrighetti is expected to start the season in Double-A Corpus Christi, and just a couple of stops from working his way up to Houston.