Overall the last few years, there has been a trend with the Astros in their draft philosophy. They have rolled the dice on a few college arms that were relievers in college, but the Astros have converted them to starters in professional baseball. One pitcher they selected in 2022, Tyler Guilfoil, is an example of that.
Guilfoil was a good reliever for Lipscomb his first three years in college but he transferred from Lipscomb to Kentucky for his senior year of college and he absolutely dominated in relief.
“Just trying to prove myself once I got to Kentucky,” Guilfoil said. “I knew I was in a new league and some of the best baseball in college. So I knew I was going to have to prove myself so I went out with that mentality every single day and it worked out.”
And prove himself he did. In 21 games for the Wildcats, he totaled 51 innings while striking out 80 and posting a 1.59 ERA helping Kentucky to a 33-26 record in the SEC. He also picked up 6 saves and allowed just 27 hits in those 51 innings.
The Astros ended up selecting Guilfoil in the 8th round of the 2022 draft. Following the draft, he pitched in 7 games totaling 17.1 innings. The next year, Guilfoil was converted to starter and pitched a career high 84 innings as he started 13 games, and pitched another 10 games in relief.
The Astros employ a “piggy back” system with their starters. One week they may start, another week they may come out of the bullpen in the 4th or 5th inning and still get a starter’s workload of pitches. This transition has been a work in progress for Guilfoil.
“It’s been a process, but it’s been good,” Guilfoil said. “With professional baseball you don’t have to worry about classes, you don’t have to worry about any of the other stuff. You can just focus on baseball and adapt to it.”
This isn’t the first time Guilfoil started though. He did start a game in college and made starts in baseball before his college days. Though he sees the bright side to both starting and pitching out of the pen.
“There’s positives to both side because I love closing. The adrenaline of coming in and trying to shut the game down is awesome,” Guilfoil said. “But there’s also so much more with starting and it’s where you can impact the team for a longer period of time and really be a true impact to the game.”
As Guilfoil has made progress in the minors, the Astros have made changes to his repertoire. Like most newcomers in the system, the Astros had Guilfoil add a cutter in 2023.
“It’s [cutter] has been great. It’s been a solid pitch for me, especially to lefties,” Guilfoil said. “Working on the changeup a lot as well. Adding that cutter allowed me to put that in on the lefties hands and then let my changeup play away from them.”
In 2024, Guilfoil has had an up and down season. The potential has been there with some dominant performances, including 4 outings where he went at least 5 innings and allowed 1 run or less. There has been some rough outings too, but he’s just taking the outings day by day.
“Get outs and go strike as many people out as I can,” Guilfoil said on his goals for this year.
Guilfoil also mentioned he’d like to see a bump in his velocity this year from where he is sitting at right now, which is about 91 MPH. He is now up to a new career high of 108.1 innings, including 95 strikeouts in Double-A.
Guilfoil is still just 24 years old, and only in his second year of starting. With the addition of pitches, the positives he’s shown on the mound and the success in the pen, he will continue to be a prospect worth monitoring as he moves up in the system.
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