SEPT. 15: The Houck promotion is official. In corresponding moves, the Red Sox moved lefty Kyle Hart to the 45-day IL and placed RHP Andrew Triggs on the 10-day IL with right radial nerve irritation.
SEPT. 13: The Red Sox are planning to promote pitching prospect Tanner Houck to make his MLB debut on Tuesday against the Marlins, per various reporters (including Jen McCaffrey of the Athletic). Ian Browne of MLB.com first reported that a Houck call-up was likely. He will need to be added to the 40-man roster before the promotion can become official.
Boston’s 2017 first-round pick (24th overall) out of the University of Missouri, Houck needed to be added to the 40-man this winter regardless in order to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. There’s little to lose for the out-of-contention Red Sox in getting an abbreviated look at Houck in the season’s final couple weeks.
The 24-year-old has seen his stock dip somewhat since draft day, although he’s still regarded as one of the club’s best short-term pitching prospects. Houck places among Boston’s top fifteen farmhands in the estimation of Keith Law of the Athletic (10th), MLB Pipeline (10th), Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen (11th) and Baseball America (13th). There’s some division among prospect rankers whether Houck will be able to effectively work through opposing lineups multiple times (particularly those heavy on left-handed batters), although the Red Sox will surely give Houck a shot as a starter initially.
Boston’s rotation, without Chris Sale and Eduardo Rodriguez all year, has been atrocious. Red Sox starters have a league-worst 6.18 FIP, and only the Tigers’ rotation has mustered a worse ERA (6.64) than Boston’s 6.25. Nathan Eovaldi has been passable, but there haven’t been many bright spots behind him. That offers Houck plenty of opportunity to stick in the Sox rotation in 2021 and beyond should he prove capable.
Sox season is over (has been for a while now), so might as well see what all the young guys can do? I mean, why not?
Yeah right.. I’m in tho I buy it unlike most. Part of the process.
It was over since day 1.
It was over before it started
Sorry and the reason y they shouldn’t bring him up sports players a fragile and if he pitches well but they lose he it might mess with his mind and kill his career sports players are pre-Madonna and head cases
That may be the most idiotic comment I’ve ever seen… And I’ve read cleptos comments..
What did I just read? Or try to read…
What? That’s absurd… lol he knows (as does everyone else in baseball) that the Sox suck… if he pitches well but the team loses I’m sure he’ll still feel pretty good about himself (as he should) — the outcome of the game really doesn’t matter at this point — and he surely knows that going in. This start (and any subsequent ones) are purely developmental and for the Sox to gauge what they’ve got in him going forward. It surely won’t “mess with his head and ruin his career” if they lose hahaha… the only thing that could happen to him to “ruin his career” would be a devastating career ending injury — otherwise this kid’s going to get a shot for the next couple of weeks and then probably get another one next season depending on how he pitches.
Better than being post-Madonna
That comment was like a car accident..it was so bad I just couldn’t look away.
Shield
I wonder how many will get it 🙂
“Pre-Madonna?”
Love it. Like, maybe, Ann Wilson? Or even Grace Slick?
About-stinking-time. This is the pitcher have wanted to see face mlb hitters all season. Succeed or not, he’s the best of what they had at the camp and that includes those 18-20 castoffs they signed.
I can see Lin being DFAed to create a roster spot.
Lin does not hit much, but he is the only true defensive short stop of the bench players. The rest are “utility players” and would not be a good defensive fit if Bogaerts were to be on the IL for any length of time. That being said the Red Sox may need his 40 man spot for the next group of Rule 5 additions:
Jay Groome
Tanner Houck
Bryan Mata
Hudson Potts
Jeisson Rosario
Connor Seabold
Connor Wong
That may be true about Lin being able to play SS the best… BUT there are only 12 games left this season… so if the do DFA Lin and Bogearts went down with an injury — I’m sure they could manage for the last 10+ games. And if I’m not mistaken Arroyo was a SS in the minors, as was Chavis for a time… so while they may not really be suited for regular playing time there at the ML level… they would at least have a couple of guys with experience there that they could manage the final couple of weeks. Having said all of that — idk if it will in fact be Lin who’s DFA’d for Houck… but regardless between now and the off-season… there’s probably a pretty good change that Lin is DFA’d at some point to make room for the guys who have to be added to the 40-man roster before the rule-5 draft so whether it’s tomorrow or later on… Lin’s time in Boston may be coming to an end. (Of course he could also conceivably clear waivers and be outrighted to AAA if/when he’s DFA’d as well). He seems like a good guy and has at times provided solid production as a utility guy… but all in all I don’t really think he’s good enough to stick around all that much longer at the ML level.
Matt Hall might be the likeliest DFA for next week. It’s hard to imagine the club wanting to bring him back when they can use his spot for another pitcher (like Houck). I agree that Lin looks pretty close to the chopping block, but I’d imagine Bloom will first try to deal him in the offseason before he has to DFA him to use his slot for the seven prospects vulnerable to Rule 5 draft.
I watch Jay Groome in three Sim City games at Pawtucket and he looked awesome. He will need another full season in AA/AAA, maybe Groome will arrive in 2022. Houck looked the best of any Red Sox drafted prospects….
Has Durbin Feltman , the former TCU reliever, been sighted in Camp Pawtucket for the shortened season? OR. Was he not invited?
Feltman was not invited to Pawtucket.
Daulton Furbush could be the Sox closer in the future. Needs to have better command next year to get his shot.
That’s a good question (that I see has been answered that he’s not at the site) but I wonder why… I really like that kid and he’s been pretty productive in his brief time in the minors. I guess they just felt he was too far away to warrant a spot on their 60-man pool… but still you would’ve thought he might warrant a spot for some development reps. Hopefully him being left off the pool is just running out of room and feeling he needs more seasoning and not that (for whatever reason) Bloom doesn’t think as highly of him as did the prior regim because I definitely think that would be a mistake and waste of legitimate high-leverage bullpen talent.
Feltman is nowhere close to the mlb, and the spots were taken by players with mlb experience, higher upside like Houck and Mata (both need to be added to 40 man this off season), and players that the Red Sox did not need to worry about burning options for little return production or add to the 40 man roster because of Rile 5 draft.
There’s no way you kept a straight face while typing “Nathan Eovaldi has been passable”
I guess by ERA+ he’s been average. But I guess when you need a positive adjective for member of a terrible rotation, passable is the best without giving the reader the impression you think they are good.
Like terrible food is “edible” but still terrible.
Again, he needs to be added this winter, and they’re sure as heck not going to promote him now, and then option him down later (which would burn an option year). So there’s no harm/no foul for bringing him up.
And the Faithfull might want to watch Houck instead of Andrew Triggs.
The Sox need to go into next season with about 8 reliable pitchers, 5 starters and 3 relievers. Then add about 12 more guys out of which at least half need to be decent. That’s a tall order right now. It’s currently a scrap heap. Plus, it’s hard to economically assess talent off the fake season. Maybe one year deals for guys with solid track records. At least I can see this team having a strong lineup without too much effort. It will be an interesting offseason.
They have discovered some new talent:
Munoz was a nice pick-up
Arroyo is a 2 B–nice addition..
Phillips Valdez pitched a lot of innings and was a good find.
Verdugo was nice comp for Mookie.
Dalbec is getting some valuable time to show what he’s got.
Devers, Xander, Vasquez have become more accomplished.
JDM has had an awful season. Unless the Sox can get some good prospects , he will be back.
Brasier, Barnes–we could have a worse set-up and closer.
Weber has shown nice talent in middle inning relief.
Perez, Eovaldi have been the only reliable starters.
JBJ will probably test FA..
Benintendi or Duran will be in CF
That’s 16 players toward the 25 roster in 2021 Lots of pitchers needed.
That’s a nice roster….for the NL Central. But you KNOW the Spanks will go heavily into Free Agency (JT’s a lock, IMHO) , the Blue Jays are coming strong, and, oh, the Rays are pretty good. The O’s may not be as good as they’ve looked, but the improvement is obvious.
Bloom’s going to have to do more than add some names Sox fans recognize.
why would they sign JT when they have Sanchez already and their most blatant need is SP?
Gary Sanchez is awful. That’s why.
agreed, Bloom deserves a ton of credit for this year, especially with the former two. he did his job in limiting payroll and picking up cheap talent and the Red Sox should be able to jump back into the FA fray this offseason.
No question that they will DFA Matt Hall. While the season has been atrocious, Bloom has set the team up for some easy cuts to make in order to protect Houck and the future Rule 5 class coming (Hall, Triggs, Kickham, Lin, Peraza to name a few). With Dalbec’s success and Casas on the way, they could very well look to trade Chavis in the offseason for a pitcher provided they have a suitable second baseman to fill in. Would love to see Jeter Downs get a shot next year but he might need one more year before he’s ready.
Dalbec has to learn to make more contact. His start is similar to Chavis from last year and once pitching coaches figure him out, his contact rate will further decline if that’s possible unless he learns how to actually hit.
IMVHO, Dalbec is swinging and missing pitches that he should be swinging at. Chavis swings and misses on pitches he cannot hit, and occasionally, cannot reach.
That’s a huge difference. Dalbec might occasionally make huge contact with a chest-high FB, while Chavis will never do anything with an outside curve 2 inches off the plate. Dalbec can also go the other way, unlike Chavis. The pitchers’ margin of error is a lot higher with someone like Chavis trying to pull an outside curve.
And since the Red Sox will need to put Mata & Groome on the 40 man in December, they ought to take a look at both in the majors too before the season ends. Would do no harm to them or the team.
At this point, one or two starts won’t mean much.
2o21 is the last year of the CBA so I can’t see the Sox taking on long term FA SP contracts. However , they could compete by trading for over priced SP’s in the last yr of a high $$ deal. They could even go over the lux tax for one yr and only pay 20% now that they have reset as long as most of the high $$ deals expire in 2021.
Wish they’d call up Duran. Sounds like he’s been crushing it in Pawtucket