WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The reason Astros pitching prospect Spencer Arrighetti wore jersey No. 35 while growing up stemmed from his admiration of Justin Verlander, something plenty of up-and-coming pitchers of his generation probably did. Verlander was the man -- and still is -- entering his age-41 season with the Astros.

When Arrighetti, Houston No. 3 prospect per MLB Pipeline, arrived for Spring Training at the Astros’ facility earlier this month, he scoured the nameplates for his locker, which, as luck would have it, is right next to Verlander. Well, it wasn’t luck at all. The Astros placed Arrighetti, their top pitching prospect, next to Verlander by design. The Astros’ hope is Arrighetti can learn a thing or two over the next few weeks from the future Hall of Famer.

“You get drafted by a team and you end up in the locker room next to somebody you’ve been watching since you’ve been little,” Arrighetti said. “It’s a dream come true, for sure.”

Arrighetti, a sixth-round Draft pick by the Astros in 2021 out of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, could make his Major League debut at some point this year after reaching Triple-A in 2023. He posted a 4.40 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and 10.2 strikeouts per nine innings in 124 2/3 Minor League innings last year split between Double-A Corpus Christi (60 2/3 innings) and Triple-A Sugar Land (64 innings).

Arrighetti began the season with an 11.05 ERA in his first four outings at Corpus Christi and quickly righted the ship, posting a 0.67 ERA in five outings in May en route to being named the team’s Minor League Pitcher of the Month. He settled in from there and earned a midseason promotion to Triple-A. The turnaround was credited to a small change in his mechanics and controlling his emotions on the mound a bit more.

Astros senior director of player development and performance science, Jacob Buffa, said one of the most impressive things about Arrighetti is his ability to adjust.

“No one that plays in the big leagues for multiple years, they’re not the same player at the end of their career [as] they were at the beginning,” he said. “Spencer’s ability to identify, with the help of our coaches, where performance lacked and what we need to change, was fantastic.”

Like Verlander, the 24-year-old right-hander is a student of pitching. He loves to talk about pitching and isn’t shy about diving into analytics, though sometimes admittedly a bit too much. He discusses his pitches as plots on a graph and says when he’s going well, the plots are far apart.

“I eat it up,” he said. “I’ve fallen in love with the analytics a little bit and sometimes I get a little bit too high on them and I’ll think about that more than I think about the game itself. I’m in a position where I’m trying to find that balance. I think the more that I worry about execution and the less I worry about what the data is saying, the better the ball is coming out of my hand. I have to find a happy spot in the middle.”

• Arrighetti excited for Spring Breakout

Arrighetti threw five pitch types last year and this season has added a sinker to go along with his four-seam fastball, cutter, changeup, curveball and sweeper. His focus is to consistently find the strike zone with his offspeed pitches and get ahead in the count quickly with his fastball. The addition of a sinker speaks to Arrighetti’s willingness to try new things.

“The sinker, it’s going to be a slow burn I think,” he said. “It’s not going to be my predominant fastball ever, most likely, but it will be a useful weapon for me against righties once I start building it in and finding good spots in the zone to throw it.”

Arrighetti grew up in Houston as an Astros fan, so a chance to pitch for his hometown team -- and be a teammate of Verlander -- is something he still can’t fully grasp. If he can keep refining his arsenal and cut down on his 4.26 walks per nine innings from a year ago, the dream could carry him to Minute Maid Park this year.

“I need to go be Spencer,” he said. “I need to attack the zone. I think that in baseball, if you control walks and you punch people out, you’re on a good page. That’s what I’m here to do: control walks and punch people out.”