Tanner Houck to begin rehab assignment Saturday, target returns for injured pitchers revealed
The Red Sox will be welcoming back four key contributors within the next few weeks.
Red Sox starter Tanner Houck will begin a rehab assignment in Worcester on Saturday, per WEEI’s Rob Bradford.
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Houck took a line drive to the face against the New York Yankees on June 16. He was diagnosed with a facial fracture and has remained on the 15-day injury list ever since. After throwing multiple bullpen sessions with no issues, Houck feels ready to return to game action.
“[Returning to pitching] felt like riding a bike again,” Houck told NESN’s Adam Pellerin after one of his bullpen sessions. “Just hop back on it and get back into the swing of things with the throwing program. Things have been going great. The training staff’s been great to work with.”
Houck isn’t the only injured Red Sox nearing his return. A day after Houck’s rehab assignment begins, Chris Sale will make his second start at Worcester, The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham. In his first start on Tuesday against the Syracuse Mets, Sale pitched two scoreless innings and registered two walks, one hit and three strikeouts.
“He was all over the place, with [a few] walks,” said manager Alex Cora, per MassLive’s Lauren Campbell and Sean McAdam. “But he feels good about his mechanics, feels good about his arm. Now it’s a matter of harnessing the stuff in the strike zone. The [pitching] line wasn’t great, but he got his repetitions in. We’re very pleased with [him].”
Sale could make his return in the very near future if everything goes well on Sunday. When that happens, there is no doubt as to what his role on the team will be.
“The only thing we know for sure is that Chris is going to start,” Cora said, per MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. “After that, we’ve got to see where we’re at roster-wise and schedule-wise and see what we’re gonna do. The one thing we don’t want to run into is to have these guys and all of the sudden they’re limited and it puts us in a bad spot bullpen-wise. …Role-wise, we’ll decide what we do later on.”
Cora does not yet know what he plans to do with Houck or Garrett Whitlock, who Cotillo reports could also begin a rehab assignment on Sunday. Both are capable of starting and serving in relief roles. But he is exploring several different options with them, even possibly using them in a role with Sale as the opener.
“There’s a good chance we piggyback somebody with Chris [Sale],” Cora said. “Then, obviously we’ve still got [Chris Murphy], we’ve got [Nick] Pivetta. We’ll see what we do with [Whitlock].”
Regardless of what roles they will play, Cora hopes that all three pitchers will return by Aug. 15, per Ian Browne of MLB.com. The Red Sox will begin a road trip starting in Washington on that day. It’s possible that Sale returns even earlier and pitches against the Detroit Tigers at Fenway Park, the weekend before the road trip begins.
The Red Sox may even have shortstop Trevor Story back by then as well. He’ll be back soon, but not too soon. The Red Sox will not activate Story in time for Friday’s game against Toronto, per Cotillo, and it’s not likely that they will do so this weekend either. Story wants to maximize his time in Worcester and make sure he is 100 percent ready to return to the Red Sox. It’s likelier that he returns at some point during the series against Kansas City, which begins on Monday.
“I know he threw it out there to you guys that [Friday] is his goal,” Cora said, per Cotillo. “We’ll see how it goes. It’s not in black and white that he’ll be with us this weekend. But it’s getting closer.”
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