Major slide
Houck goes from rookie sensation to minor league depth starter
Luke Voit, who led the league in home runs last year, is on Tanner Houck’s list of strikeout victims.
So, too, is Giancarlo Stanton, Dansby Swanton and Ozzie Albies, among others.
In three starts last year, Houck struck out 21 batters in 17 innings. He only allowed six hits. His slider was arguably one of the only beautiful parts of the Red Sox’ 2020 season, and it was statistically one of the most viscous sliders in the game.
This week, the Red Sox optioned Houck back to the alternate site. He’ll likely begin the year in Triple-A Worcester, though the Woo Sox debut season has been delayed a month due to the pandemic.
There, Houck will wait. “The way I see it, obviously, his velocity is up,” manager Alex Cora said Friday.
“And sometimes it’s like, ‘OK, I can do this, but I need to (change things) deliverywise to be consistent.’ And that’s where he’s at. He understands and he knows that at one point during the season he’s going to be here and he’s going to contribute.”
Houck was touching 98 mph this spring after maxing out at 96 mph during his remarkable debut last fall. But he was wild, his command was off and it looked a bit like a young pitcher trying too hard to prove himself to win a spot in a crowded rotation.
“Just not attacking the zone, honestly,” Houck said. “That’s what it boils down to. It’s as simple as that. Just didn’t throw enough strikes. I’ll come back in tomorrow, continue to work. I still got stuff to work on obviously and I’ll continue to say that for the rest of my career.”
It’s remarkable to pull up the video highlights of last season, watch Houck dominate some of the American League’s best hitters by spotting his fastball on the corners and letting his wipeout slider crash through the bottom of the zone.
Big leaguers were 0-for-15 against his slider, striking out 10 times. They swung and missed 47.5% of the time. The pitch’s horizontal movement ranked among the best in the game.
For those three starts, Houck was a superstar. Never before in baseball history has there been a rookie make a debut as strong as his (based on his 0.88 WHIP and 0.53 ERA) and then get sent back to the minors the next season.
The only other rookie to debut with numbers as low as Houck’s was Mike Norris for the 1976 Oakland A’s. Norris started the next year in the A’s rotation and went on to have a 10-year career with a 3.89 ERA and one second-place finish in the AL Cy Young voting.
Even if you expand the search to any rookies with an ERA and WHIP under 1.00, there are only six in the last century. Houck and Bruce Howard on the 1965 White Sox are the only two to start the next season in the minor leagues.
It’s not that the Red Sox don’t believe in Houck, a first-round pick in 2017. But they went out and added Garrett Richards, are getting Eduardo Rodriguez back from myocarditis and want to give former Phillies righty Nick Pivetta a chance (he’s out of options). Nathan Eovaldi and Martin Perez should round out the rotation to start the year.
Perez has the worst ERA of any big league starter over the last three years, but Cora has liked what he’s seen from him in spring training games.
“You see what we have,” Cora said. “We feel very comfortable not only with the guys we have at the big league level, but (Houck) is part of what we’re trying to accomplish, too. (Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom) has done an amazing job of adding talent, and we’re deeper than usual in that aspect. …
“Now you feel if something happens, we have capable guys that can come in for extended periods of time or a spot start or two weeks that can do the job and keep the level where it’s supposed to be.”
That Houck went from the most impressive rookie pitcher in years to a spotstarter in the minors seems drastic. Chances are he’ll be back soon, and probably for good. Pitchers with elite sliders and 98-mph fastballs don’t stay in the minors long.
The real question is whether or not Houck can develop a third pitch to keep him in the rotation or if he ends up going to the bullpen. He’s been developing a splitter, a pitch he threw just eight times in three starts last year.
A year ago, the Sox were concerned about his ability to get lefties out. Then he went out and held them to a .111 average (2-for-18).
There’s little doubt Houck will figure it out. If Perez (5.30 ERA since 2018) continues to struggle, or if Pivetta (5.40 ERA in his career) doesn’t look much better than his time with the Phillies, or if one of the oft-injured Richards or Eovaldi gets hurt, Houck will be ready.
Few teams have depth starters in the minors as talented as him. No team has one with a career 0.53 ERA in the big leagues.