‘Good chance’ Garrett Whitlock pitches out of the bullpen when he returns to Red Sox from elbow injury
Whitlock struggled in the rotation this season.
Garrett Whitlock appears to be heading back to a similar role that he had more success in when he returns from his elbow injury.
The Red Sox pitcher will likely pitch out of the bullpen again once he completes his upcoming rehab stint.
“We’re going to meet today to see where we’re at,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters Friday. “I think there’s a good chance we’ll use him the way we did in ’21, multiple-inning reliever and go from there.”
Whitlock has exclusively pitched as a starter this season as the Red Sox returned him to the role he had in the minors when he was with the Yankees. The results haven’t been great for the 27-year-old this season. He’s gone 4-3 with a 5.23 ERA in 10 starts, recording 47 strikeouts and a 1.316 WHIP in 51 ⅔ innings pitched.
On the flip side, Whitlock has been effective in a multi-inning relief role for the Red Sox in the past. In 2021, he went 8-4 with a 1.96 ERA in 46 appearances, which were all out of the bullpen. He recorded 81 strikeouts and a 1.105 WHIP in 73 ⅓ innings pitched that season.
The Red Sox initially returned Whitlock to long-relief in late games in 2022. But injuries to the starting rotation caused the team to pitch Whitlock as a starter during the middle of the season. He had some struggles as a starter, going 1-1 with a 4.15 ERA plus 38 strikeouts and a 1.256 WHIP in 39 innings pitched. He was stellar in his 22 relief outings, going 3-1 with a 2.75 ERA along with 44 strikeouts and a 0.788 WHIP in 39 ⅓ innings pitched.
However, Whitlock suffered a hip injury in September that required surgery. That injury caused him to miss the first month of this season before he went on the injured list with right elbow ulnar neuritis in July.
Whitlock is expected to begin his rehab assignment next week. The start of his rehab assignments comes as Chris Sale might be wrapping up his soon. The lefty will pitch with Triple-A Worcester on Sunday and Cora hinted that his return to Boston could be imminent.
“We’ll see how Chris feels after Sunday,” Cora said. “There’s a good chance he’ll be with us sooner rather than later.”
Sale is expected to have an opener role as the Red Sox plan to ramp him up while he’s up in the majors as opposed to building up his strength in the minors so he could have longer outings when he returns to the majors.
Tanner Houck will begin his rehab assignment on Saturday, starting for Triple-A Worcester as he takes the mound in a game for the first time since suffering a facial fracture in June. Houck is being stretched out, according to Cora, which is a likely sign he’s returning to the rotation.
With all three pitchers likely returning in the coming weeks, Boston has received some solid outings from a pair of players that have replaced them in their absence. Kutter Crawford has gone 3-1 with a 2.97 ERA over his last six starts, while Nick Pivetta has gone 4-2 with a 2.06 ERA ever since he began pitching out of a long-relief role on June 18.
As the Red Sox have also gotten solid performances out of James Paxton and Brayan Bello for much of the season, they could be dealing with a bit of an issue on how to juggle the rotation around. Cora acknowledged that he wants to get to that point first before thinking about it.
“That’s the most important thing. And when we get healthy, then we’re going to have to make decisions,” Cora said. “At the end of the day, it’s going to be a good pitching staff, a really good pitching staff. That’s what we’re trying to accomplish here. We’ve been throwing the ball well since San Diego [in May], one of the best in the big leagues. So adding these guys I think is going to make us better and get ready for the next two months, two and a half months.”
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