TODAY: Houck will indeed undergo back surgery next week, Cora confirmed to WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford and other reporters. The current expectation is that the right-hander will be ready for the start of Spring Training.
SEPTEMBER 2, 3:37pm: After meeting with another specialist, Houck will likely undergo back surgery, Cora announced to reporters (Twitter link via MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo).
11:35am: What the Red Sox hoped would be a fairly short-term injury for righty Tanner Houck could actually prove to be a season-ender. Houck, who was placed on the 15-day injured list in early August due to lower back inflammation, has yet to resume baseball activity, and manager Alex Cora tells reporters there’s a “good chance” he could miss the remainder of the year at this point (link via MassLive.com’s Chris Smith). Houck met with a back specialist yesterday, and there will be more information on his outlook in the near future.
Houck was diagnosed with a disc issue in his back not long after being placed on the injured list, and while he was slated to throw a bullpen session earlier in the week, that didn’t happen due to continued discomfort. Cora, Smith notes, said he was not sure whether Houck would require surgery to address the issue.
Prior to his injury, Houck had stepped up as a key late-inning option for the Sox, going 8-for-9 in save opportunities and adding a hold along the way. Since a May 15 shift to the bullpen, Houck has pitched to a pristine 1.49 ERA with a 22.6% strikeout rate, a 7.5% walk rate and a huge 58.2% ground-ball rate in 36 1/3 innings. Houck, John Schreiber, Garrett Whitlock and Matt Strahm have been Boston’s most reliable bullpen arms in 2022, though Whitlock has also spent time in the rotation and Strahm and Houck have now both missed substantial time due to injury.
The 26-year-old Houck has long rated as one of the better prospects in the Red Sox organization, and through parts of three big league seasons, he’s demonstrated the reasoning behind that evaluation. The 2017 first-rounder has tallied 146 big league innings, dating back to 2020, and carries a 3.02 ERA with a strong 27.6% strikeout rate, a roughly average 8.7% walk rate and an above-average 49.3% grounder rate. He’s worked both as a reliever and as a starter, finding success in both roles (3.22 ERA as a starter, 2.66 as a reliever).
While this wouldn’t be the manner in which the Sox hoped to see his first full big league season end, Houck has largely solidified himself as a key piece of the team’s long-term plans — whichever role he ultimately occupies. Houck will finish this season with one year and 100 days of Major League service time, giving him five additional seasons of club control (and another two years before he even reaches arbitration).
The Sox will see Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Wacha and Rich Hill all reach free agency at season’s end — Wacha recently told the Globe’s Peter Abraham that he’d “definitely like to” re-sign in Boston — which could create a potential rotation vacancy for Houck. At the same time, there’s plenty of fluidity in the relief corps, particularly with Strahm also set to reach the market as a free agent. Houck could help stabilize the bullpen as well. That flexibility is a boon for the front office as they look to revamp the staff this winter, broadening the options they can explore both via free agency and trade.
The Red Sox should give Houck an opportunity to be a starter in 2023. He has more up side than Crawford, Winckowski, and several others the Red Sox have tried.
Hopefully the disk problem does not become chronic.
He can’t work a third time through a lineup because he really doesn’t have an effective third pitch. It’s actually rather striking (no pun intended but totally intended) how successfully through the line up he is the first two times compared to the second time. He’s 26 and if he hasn’t figured out a third pitch his best role is as the closer.
It’s a super small sample size. He barely started this year and the last couple years he started he was solid and those weren’t even full time (he had less innings then). With being moved between roles, he hasn’t been as effective in the small sample this year. He absolutely should start or be in a long relief role.
Don’t forget- he’s the right handed Chris Sale.
When discussing his problems getting through the line up a third time and lack of a third pitch I’m including in the minors along with the majors (and not just this year either). His numbers are strikingly atrocious. Right now his best role seems to be as a reliever/closer which I feel he could be a dominant one. The Sox need to stop forcing the issue at this point.
Back problems tend to last a life time. Hoping for the best for the dude. This will be a huge blow to the Sox
The lower back is usually a young man’s disease. 20s. You hopefully learn to manage it and be careful of it and it won’t give problems for the rest of your life. As a Young Man we think we’re indestructible and don’t take care of our lower back. We learn quickly that’s not the case. Im sure he’ll be fine.
I would agree with this if it was the case of muscle fatigue or strain. But they’re talking disc issues. Those rarely go away
Yes you’re right and now they’re talking surgery. Hope for the best for the kid.
If the surgery is just for a herniated disc, Houck will be able to recover 100% with no side effects. I’m hoping that’s what this surgery is. If he has degenerative disc disease then that is a completely separate issue and that will stay with him for his entire career. Let’s hope it is just a herniated disc that they will laser off and he’ll be fine after that….fingers crossed!
He’s still doing his research on how to stay healthy
lol Sounds about right.
Make sure not to do any research. Wouldn’t want to hurt yourself thinking too much
Just keep searching until you find an answer that aligns with your values
Why not? The starters have all gone down and the relievers have almost all been terrible.
So why worry about 2022 any more. Write it off and wait until next year.
Just let Winckowski and all those stud pitching prospects Bloom has acquired (or so I’m told) fill-out the rotation. No problem. Uncle Chaim has it all under control.
Shut him down and call it a year… what’s the point of bringing him back this year!
Haven’t you been reading the propaganda.. I mean p.r.. The Sox are only 57 games out of last place. They will soon lap the rest and be in 1st place again. We still have shot! It’s our year!
“Gonna make a run” -Cora
“Gonna make a rum” -Cora, 2 weeks later.
DBH1969: Please post a link for the propaganda you are talking about. Thanks.
The season is basically over for the Sox, anything outside of running the table and winning every single game the rest of the way this team is not going to the playoffs. Let Houck heal and comeback ready for training camp. Houck/Whitlock/Barnes/Schreiber can be a really good back end of bullpen next year
Can be but will they be? Especially Barnes.
Barnes is pitching better, even though he got into a little trouble in Wednesday’s game he pitched out of it and got the save.
The bigger issue may be needing to address the pitching coach situation. I’ve never been sold on Dave Bush, i remember him being a mediocre-at-best back end starter with the Blue Jays and Brewers and i find it incredibly difficult to imagine the team having mostly horrible bullpen numbers several years in a row without a common denominator
Rsox – Even though pitching and hitting coaches are often used as scapegoats, it’s wrong to blame Bush. He’s not the one who acquired the pitchers, and he’s not the one in charge of bullpen management.
No common denominator? Robles had a 5.57 ERA and 1.448 WHIP from 2020 to 2021. And yet Bloom brought him back at more than $2M too.
Last year Davis had a 5.13 ERA and 1.367 WHIP last year. And yet Bloom brought him back.
Need I mention the decision to bring back Brasier?
Cora and Bloom both need to go.
So the big story in Boston is that Cora does not get along with Bloom. Cora wants to win now and he doesn’t agree with Bloom’s approach to building this team. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of Cora’s choices this year were directly pointed at Bloom, like bringing in Brasier, Sawamura etc..into close games and watching them blow it. He’s basically saying if this is what you’re giving me then here are the results you can expect.
Cora is on record saying that he wants to get out of coaching and move into a GM role. Some media personnel believe Cora is going to approach John Henry and give him a “it’s either him or me” ultimatum. They are comparing it to the Brad Stevens/Danny Ainge situation with the Celtics. The real question is, would the Red Sox really consider firing Bloom and replacing him with an inexperienced GM/POBO in Cora? John Henry loves Cora. Only time will tell, but it certainly sounds like Cora’s time as the Red Sox manager is coming to an end soon, one way or another. Even with the Houston debacle on his resume, a lot of owners respect Cora as a manager so if he decides to stick with coaching, he may choose to do so elsewhere with a team that is committed to winning now.
If Cora wants to get his feet wet in the front office he would be better doing it anywhere but with any of the big east teams where it can blow up on him spectacularly.
The problem with those types of ultimatums is you better prepared to live with consequences is if it doesn’t go the way you think it’s going to go
Rsox – Is Cora really dumb enough to not realize Henry influences Bloom’s decision-making?
Bloom doesn’t decide the team’s payroll budget each year, Henry does.
I don’t know that Cora is dumb enough not to realize who calls the shots i would just hope he is smart enough to realize that forcing Henry to choose between him and Bloom could (and probably would) backfire.
It has to be frustrating for everybody involved the way things have gone this season. It was mostly the same team at the start of this season that they finished last season with so last years team definitely overachieved whereas this years team is unfortunately probably in line with where they should have been last year
Rsox – I agree, Henry would choose Bloom over Cora as managers are more replaceable than CBO’s.
The notion that last year’s team overachieved is a fallacy predicated by the horrific 2020 season. Truth is 2020 was an aberration, not a harbinger of things to come.
Look at the 2021 numbers of these players as compared to the prior normal season of 2019:
JD’s OPS dropped from .939 to .867
Devers OPS dropped from .916 to .890
Xander’s OPS dropped from .939 to .863
Vazquez’s OPS dropped from .798 to .659
ERod went from a 3.81 ERA to a 4.74 ERA
Barnes ERA stayed the same
The only players that performed better than expected were Eovaldi, Hernandez and Renfroe … thats’ basically it.
Dorothy: Who is reporting that Cora and Bloom don’t get along? Please explain. I couldn’t find anything about it, but I did find this:
nesn.com/2021/10/alex-cora-explains-really-good-re…
I saw it on NBC Sports Boston last night. They did an entire segment on it led by Michael Felger. It may have been on 98.5 the Sports Hub radio too.
They’ll probably post in online in another day or so…stay tuned. They said Cora has young children (including twins) and he wants to be able to spend more time with them, so he wants a front office job that will allow him to spend more time with his family, but he may continue to manage so long as the team he manages has a legitimate chance to win.
Dorothy: Got it. Thanks.
Dotty – That is so typical of Cora. Give him a boatload of talented highly paid stars like the 2018 team, and he’ll “settle” for managing them.
Otherwise he doesn’t want his reputation to suffer by managing a merely “good” team that exposes him for what he is, an average-at-best manager.
His arrogance is astonishing, but not surprising considering his role in the cheating scandals.
Where are you getting this info from? Links?
pwndroia – I highly recommend you listen to WEEI online, they have the stories that Henry-owned media entities don’t.
ESPN MLB reporter Tim Kurkjian also reported the rift between Bloom and Cora, saying he wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of them doesn’t return next season.
As someone who has suffered back problems since 1975, I wish Tanner the best. Back surgery is serious stuff.
“Dr. Said I need a backiotomy”
All joking aside, hope he has a full and swift recovery.
Backs are different from joint, muscle, or tendon issues. Blown out backs tend to be problems for the rest of your life. That is the one part of your body you don’t want problems with. I’m hoping the best for Tanner, back injuries is not something everybody comes back from and is effective though. If I’m Bloom I’m planning for the worst and hoping for the best.
bum – Devers has had back issues, all the more reason why he should be at least tried out at 1B.
JD has had back issues too.
They don’t pitch though….it’s a little bit different for a pitcher…..plus I didn’t say he couldn’t come back, I’m saying more than likely he will have back problems forever
Also Martinez has had a significant power drop he is not the player he once was……