Put back Whitlock where he belongs
Flip with Houck makes most sense
It was easy to understand why the Red Sox began the year with Tanner Houck in the starting rotation and Garrett Whitlock in the bullpen.
The arrangement had worked marvelously last year. Even after the team yanked Houck back and forth between Triple-A and the big leagues, he was still dominating in a critical Game 161, in which Houck was removed with a perfect game and eight strikeouts in the sixth inning.
The arrangement worked well early this season, too, as Houck looked strong through his first three starts and Whitlock starred as the ace reliever. The Sox went 2-1 in Houck’s starts and 3-1 in Whitlock’s relief appearances.
And while it made sense that the team had to pull Houck out of the rotation in late April to prepare for his non-vaccinated-related absence in Toronto and replaced him with Whitlock, that was expected to be a temporary fix.
What’s confusing is why the Sox are still going with this.
If it was working, it’d be less confusing. But it isn’t. It hasn’t.
Whitlock clearly looked exhausted in his last two innings of his start against the Astros on Monday. After cruising through the first four innings on 60 pitches, Whitlock started the fifth inning with a 94 mph fastball, down from 96 mph in the first inning. His next pitch was an 84-mph slider in the same spot that got cranked out of the yard in center field.
His command and velocity faded completely in the sixth, when Michael Brantley hit a belt-high slider for a double, then Whitlock walked Alex Bregman on four pitches before his night was over.
It wasn’t a bad night by any means. Whitlock still finished with five-plus innings, allowing two runs on three hits and two walks, striking out three. It was good enough for the Sox to win the game.
But the question that needs to be asked continuously is this: is it best for the 2022 Red Sox to have Whitlock in the starting rotation and Houck in the bullpen?
Is it best for the Sox in the future? Is it best for the players’ development? Those are relevant questions, too. But with the Sox’ season slipping away — they were 12 games back of first place entering Monday — and chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom saying publicly that the team needs to behave with a sense of urgency, one would think there has to be a priority on this season.
As has been discussed often, this is the last season before some key players can test free agency. Among them: Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez, Nathan Eovaldi, Kiké Hernandez, Christian Vazquez and Michael Wacha.
And it’s a season in which the Sox entered with a payroll over $240 million for luxury tax purposes.
One would think there’s a strong desire to win this year.
So while it may make sense to prioritize Whitlock as a starter long-term — a debatable topic on its own considering the evolution of relief pitching in the modern game — it doesn’t necessarily make sense right now.
It’s not Whitlock’s fault he is struggling the second time through an order. For a young pitcher who hasn’t started regularly since 2019, it’s going to take him time to build up strength and stamina. It’s going to take experience for him to learn how to set up hitters in the first at-bat to attack them in different ways in the second at-bat.
He’s lauded for his intelligence and teachability, so he’ll learn. He’ll adapt.
But are the Red Sox actively decreasing their chances of winning by having him learn all of this on the fly? He’s essentially being developed as a starting pitcher while on the roster of a major league team that is built to win this year but struggling to contend.
And it’s not like Houck has been nails in the bullpen.
He, too, is struggling with the transition, despite pitching out of both roles last year.
It’s a small sample size, so it’s hard to focus too much on the numbers, but they aren’t great. Whitlock was better as a reliever, Houck was better as a starter and both have been worse in these new roles.
Being able to control when Whitlock enters a game and ensuring the Sox’ best pitcher only pitches in the moments where a game can be won adds another element to this equation. His start in Toronto was preplanned, and it came against the Blue Jays’ best pitcher on a day when two of the Sox’ best hitters were not in the lineup.
It was a low-percentage game for the Sox before it even started, and they lost 1-0.
These are two great pitchers who should have great careers in whatever roles the team chooses. But for the 2022 Red Sox, it hasn’t worked out as well as it could have.