Whisenhunt pitches in MLB All-Star Futures game

Published 10:25 am Tuesday, July 22, 2025

By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

Everything appears to be clicking for Carson Whisenhunt, the Triple-A pitcher from Davie County. His changeup has been salty; that’s nothing new. He has the sinker dialed in. And he’s been able to step it up a notch in 2025 because of his refined slider.
“The changeup is still very consistent with where it needs to be, and the sinker has been a lot better this year,” said Whisenhunt, who participated in the 2025 All-Star Futures Game on July 12. “Last year I struggled a little bit finding the zone (with the sinker) and worked on some different stuff with it. But this year I am trying not to overthink it.
“(The slider) is a completely different pitch than what it was last year. Last year I started messing around with it, trying to get comfortable with a grip. Coming into the offseason before this year, it was: ‘Hey, let’s sit down and find a grip that is comfortable, work on getting in the zone and using it as a put-away if I need to.’ I have tweaked the grip a couple times, and now I feel really confident in that pitch. I trust it with lefties and righties. It’s honestly opened a lot of different avenues for me to not use the changeup as much and save it for later in counts. Same thing with the curveball. I can use (the slider) early or late in counts against righties or lefties if I need to and not have to use the changeup as much or the heater. It has worked really well because I have a bunch of different options now.”
Whisenhunt couldn’t have asked for much more in the first half of the season for the Sacramento River Cats. In 16 starts, he went 7-5 with a 4.55 ERA. The 24-year-old lefthander earned two Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week honors. He leads the minor leagues with 89 innings pitched. He’s first in the PCL in WHIP (1.27), he’s second in wins and strikeouts (79) and he’s fourth in opposing batting average (.262). And he’s only issued 25 walks while throwing his fastball in the 92-94 mph range.
“I’m pretty happy with how it’s gone,” he said. “There’s been a couple outings where I did not feel great and the stuff wasn’t as good as it could have been. But that is just part of baseball. You are going to have outings like that. But other than that, I can’t really ask for much better. I’m healthy, I am throwing strikes and just trying to enjoy it.”
The Whiz made his second trip to the Futures game, the other coming in 2023. The National League defeated the American League 4-2 at Atlanta’s Truist Park in Major League Baseball’s annual showcase of top prospects. The game was part of a thrilling weekend for Whisenhunt and his family and friends.
“Mom, dad, my grandparents, my girlfriend and her family were down there,” he said. “My sister and one of my buddies as well.”
The coaches for Whisenhunt’s NL team included manager Chipper Jones, Mark DeRosa, Andruw Jones and Tim Hudson.
“I did not get to talk to (pitching coach) Tim Hudson that much,” he said. “We chatted for a little bit, but I talked with Chipper for a little while. He was pretty funny. He was talking about things he did when he was playing. It was getting an understanding of how baseball was for them back then compared to how it is now. Now you’ve got everybody diving into pitch metrics, bat speed, exit velocity, everything like that. Chipper was like: ‘It doesn’t matter what the exit velo is if you don’t make contact.”
Whisenhunt entered the game in the bottom of the seventh (it was a seven-inning game), recorded two quick outs and then handed the ball to Chipper.
“Before I went in the game, the pitching coach in the bullpen said: ‘Hey, you are only going to face two guys,’” Whisenhunt said. “We had one pitcher left that had to throw. I said: ‘Yeah, that’s fine.’ It was pretty cool watching Chipper walk out to the mound to take the ball.”
He struck out the first man in three pitches. He retired the second batter on a routine fly to left. Six pitches and Whisenhunt’s day was over. Welinton Herrera got the last out for the save.
“First pitch was a curveball and the next two were changeups,” he said of the swinging strikeout. “I did not want to go fastball early to him because they were cheating to it. Then I threw a changeup, but it was not exactly where I wanted it and I got him to foul it off. It was black away. Since he chased that one, I said I’ll just throw it further off the plate and see what happens. And he swung and missed it.”
Whisenhunt seems destined to get the call to the San Francisco Giants in the not-too-distant future, possibly when rosters expand in September. A second-round draft pick in 2022, he’s the club’s No. 2 prospect according to MLB Pipeline.
“I’m really hoping I do,” he said during Spring Training. “Obviously, you don’t know. All I can do is just go out there and compete and get outs, do what I need to do and see what happens from there.”