TODAY: The Red Sox officially placed Houck on the 15-day injured list today, and called up right-hander Kaleb Ort.
JUNE 17: Red Sox starter Tanner Houck exited last night’s game against the Yankees in the fifth inning following a frightening incident that saw the right-hander struck in the face by a line drive off the bat of Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka. After walking off the field on his own power, Houck was checked out and received stitches at a local hospital last night. More information on Houck’s situation was revealed this evening, as the club announced on Twitter that the young right-hander had suffered a facial fracture and was currently resting at home, with follow-up appointments scheduled for next week that would determine a treatment plan and next steps for the pitcher.
While the news that Houck is safely home and avoided more catastrophic injury is certainly heartening, the news is nonetheless a major blow for both Houck and Boston. Just weeks shy of his 27th birthday, Houck was getting his first extended look as a member of the club’s starting rotation this season, and had performed solidly despite his 5.05 ERA in 13 starts leaving something to be desired. Much of Houck’s struggles in the run prevention department have been thanks to an unusually low strand rate of just 64.5%, as indicated by his stronger expected stats: in 2023, Houck sports a 3.86 xERA, a 4.22 FIP, and a 3.78 xFIP, all strong numbers bolstered by solid strikeout and walk rates of 22.5% and 8.1%, respectively.
Now, of course, Houck figures to head to the injured list in the coming days as he recovers from yesterday’s injury. That leaves the Red Sox in a bit of a bind regarding their rotation with Chris Sale also on the injured list while both Corey Kluber and Nick Pivetta have been recently demoted to the bullpen. Pivetta has taken well to his new role, with a 2.70 ERA across 13 1/3 innings in nine relief appearances. Both he and right-hander Josh Winckowski could be considered too vital to the club’s bullpen as things stand to step into the rotation, though Kluber’s 6.75 ERA in 52 innings between the rotation and bullpen are hardly an enticing option either.
The club has Bryan Mata, Chris Murphy, and Brandon Walter all starting at the Triple-A level while already on the 40-man roster, though each comes with checkered marks at the level. That being said, Murphy did pitch 3 1/3 scoreless relief innings for Boston earlier in an appearance earlier this season, leaving him as perhaps the most likely option of the trio should the club look to dip into the minor leagues to cover Houck’s next start, which had been scheduled for Wednesday in Minnesota.
Hopefully Drohan gets his chance
He will. Just not now
Poor kid. Great arm. I definitely wish him a speedy recovery. I was just hoping he was going to be alright, after seeing the incident. I was glad to see him walk off the field on his own strength.
Best wishes to Houck on a speedy recovery. Lets hope there are no lasting issues with this incident. Boston needs Houck to continue to develop so the future pitching staff can be as good as it looks right now or better. He’s a key player for Boston’s future after Bloom and Cora are gone.
Paxton, Bello, Whitlock, Crawford and rain?
Don’t mind that idea… rain is undefeated
Redsoxx – Boston lost 14 games when it was Rainey.
Players love playing for Cora that’ll really help morale in the clubhouse getting rid of him and for who?
ivd2340 – Let’s take a big step up from Cora ….. A hotdog vendor?
Well, you got your rain tonight!
Waiting to find out from the usual crowd how this is all Bloom’s fault.
Obsession: an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind
It is call Bloom Derangement Syndrome. It Bloom’s fault Sale has a bad shoulder (even though Dombrowski re-signed him), Houck got hit, Story’s elbow, Duvall’s broken wrist, Chang’s broken hand,…. all stuff that Bloom should have seen in his crystal ball….!!!
No, Bloom isn’t to blame for Houck’s injury. Just for everything else.
As a fan: Why would anyone defend Chaim Bloom is the real question? I mean, you can go above his head and question John Henry, but his tenure has been unsatisfactory and divisive for the red sox fan base, with some real heart breaking moves and a sheer overflow of headscratchers. Meanwhile it doesn’t seem like he’s succeeded in either cutting the payroll or enriching the prospect stock enough to call out “successful rebuild.” The guy is not a genius with a secret plan on a five year mission to sustainable prolonged success like the Dodgers, Astros or Rays. That’s what his small base of apologists think.
You expected a “successful rebuild” of one of the worst farm systems in baseball in only 3 drafts?
AITSTYW – Don’t start with the lies about the farm system I’m tired of proving you wrong time after time. Just shut up and let the facts stand. The farm system WAS NEVER an issue.AND it’s worse now than before Bloom showed up. I’m so tired of explaining this to you and showing you all the facts that contradict your ridiculous viewpoint.
The farm system has always been an issue. NYY/BOS prospects are routinely over evaluated by design to encourage media hype around the organizations.
The farm system hasn’t been good since mookie was in the minors.
KD17: “The farm system WAS NEVER an issue.AND it’s worse now than before Bloom showed up.”
Farm system rankings say the opposite from before Bloom arrived until now. I will trust them more than a so-called Red Sox fan with a Babe Ruth picture.
Too – Agree with all that except one thing, Bloom has definitely succeeded in cutting payroll.
Fever – red sox are around a total payroll figure of $220+ million listed at fangraphs last I checked. I haven’t looked lately, but, that’s not much of a decrease from the DD days, just a LOT less winning and watchable product on the field.
fangraphs.com/roster-resource/payroll/red-sox
They are now, but they don’t have much longterm salary on the books,
Lack of longer term talent being locked in, and thus money on the books, is not necessarily a good thing.
Free agents are less willing to ink a long term (or any) deal when they don’t see a locked in competitive window or know what kind of team they’ll play with.
Given the history of these past 4 years, they’re likely to spurn offers (as we’ve seen recently) or cost a premium well above what they get elsewhere (which we’ve also seen some of – yoshi, relief corps, player options with hefty buyouts on short pacts)
A good example of long term salary commitments that have, mostly, gone well is Atlanta. If you’re a good negotiator and a good evaluator of talent, long term money is good, and, much better than dumpster diving Every. Single. Offseason.
I am not saying it;’s a good thing, just saying he has been clearing the books of salary.. Devers, Story, Yoshida, and Whitlock. Those are the on;ly long-term contracts on the team, and only Devers is making big money.
Sale also, but that isn’t his signing.
Then again, just refusing to sign talented players, and, being unable to get your own talent to buy-in on your vision and sign extensions….
Well, anyone can do that, no particular skill required. You could take the least talented guy in this board and he could make that happen.
GASoxFan: Who are all the players that “spurned” offers from the Red Sox? You should post a quote from each player rejecting the Red Sox if you are making this claim. Otherwise, this is BS.
Sycophant: Thanks for pointing this out. I think the Sox are avoiding long, expensive deals with older players while they build a core from the farm system. After the core is in place, they can sign the good players and add free agents as needed.
Just the past off season I’m thinking of eflin, Heaney, and maybe Kahnle. Probably others that aren’t coming to mind, and of course you’ve got a host of opt outs to leave the team rather than believe.
If you go to prior offseasons there’s more to be had.
GA: You have nothing to support your spurning BS. Just this year the Red Sox attracted veterans Chris Martin, Justin Turner, Kenley Jansen and Masataka Yoshida from Japan. It looks like Eflin wanted to play in the state he lives in. You need to show some quotes from players if you want people to believe this.
GASox – I go by team ranking which is much more indicative of spending.
In 2019 the Sox led MLB in payroll.
This year they are 15th.
GASox – Jose Abreu was Bloom’s top free agent target.
Fever – the thing is, he at least took noticeably larger deal, like Bogey, in money/years.
To be fair, I limit my cases to where players elected to leave the sinking ship via opt outs, and/or, took less money to play elsewhere, maybe even never wanting boston due to the bloom-show and trying to use the desperation as leverage with other clubs.
Which is why Bloom won’t be fired IMO.
It seems to me he is doing exactly what ownership wants.
Syco – Ownership wants a contender that generates revenue. Not happening this season or last.
FPG – Please check your living room. Apparently your mind has wondered off or you are doing an impression of JB.
The payroll hasn’t been cut!!!! It’s as high as ever!!! What got cut was expensive players who provided the most value to the team. I sure hope that’s what you mean!!!!
sycophant – You need to comprehend good payroll clearing and disastrous payroll clearing.
What Bloom did was disastrous!! He removed the foundation payroll.
Foundation payroll is paid to the all-star level players who make up the foundation of your organization. That’s Mookie, Benny, JD, Eovaldi, Sale, Bogey, Price and even Schwarber and Renfroe. It’s players like them that create the core for the future.
What Bloom should have done was replace every expensive player he cut with a more productive comparably priced player. Could he do that with Mookie? Nope. Bogey? Not likely. JD? He tried with JT but he needed to find a comparable bat that actually played a position and could field. Benny? He got Renfroe and Schwarber and they did well so he dumped them.
He’s ripped out the foundation of the payroll where all the talent existed and replaced it with bad, cheap players. That’s irrational payroll reduction and it should have gotten him fired not applauded by fans who are clueless in their understanding of how payroll works.
Sycophant – When did ownership say they wanted a red hot poker shoved into places unknown? That’s what they have right now. They are a joke and their only redeeming quality is some of the pitchers from prior to Bloom being hired are rising from the Great FARM SYSTEM DD left and those guys will be the players on the books when the new GM shows up.
The new GM will need to deal with a DH making $31MM a year who when allowed to field makes 50 misplays a season. I’d rather start with Sale’s contract than Devers’ contract. The new GM will need to erase the offense except he’s stuck with $18MM a year to Yoshida which may or may not be a productive contract going forward and Devers’ albatross contract. The rest is penny anti contracts for bleow league average players..
In 2024 Bloom has screwed up 1/3 of the payroll already. Let’s hope that’s all he gets a chance to ruin before he is kicked to the curb like he did to so many home-grown star players. He deserves worse but I’m sure with his friendship with Freidman he’ll land in some cheap location and will continue his dumpster diving ways. That new team will never win with Bloom because they won’t have the money that he is wasting in Boston.
Why did you think I was saying what Bloom is doing is “good”?
I never even insinuated that.
What I am doing is blaming the owners and not their lackey
statista.com/statistics/196639/revenue-of-the-bost….
They made 513 Million in revenue in 2022. Third most ever.
Another link says they made around 480M frontofficesports.com/fsg-reinforces-commitment-to…
Henry only paid 380M for the team.
KD – Salaries in MLB go up basically every year.
Let’s say total MLB payroll went up 20% from 2019 to 2023, but Bloom’s payroll went up just 10%, that’s a reduction no matter how you slice it.
Syco – I agree, John Lackey shouldn’t be blamed. He was a huge part of the 2013 championship.
Syco – Last year’s revenue was lower than each of the two most recent pre-Covid years! Look back to 2000 and there was only one other time when revenue decreased.
Yeah anybody who bought a professional sports team more than 20 years ago will make a fortune when they finally sell. Look at how much Jordan will profit when he sells the Hornets.
Poor Houck gets hit in the face with a line drive which you use to attack other fans…real classy.
Always scary when a pitcher gets hit by a line drive. Hopefully he gets well quickly and suffers no lasting effect. The fear is one day something truly catastrophic happens, but not sure there’s a way to prevent pitchers from getting hit.
As someone who’s been through it, the rest of the year might have some residual effect but I think he will be fine longer term. He’s a pretty tough customer. And he did get a fortunate outcome compared to Bryce Florie. We’ll see.
It’s a long year…
Yankees injury bug, is now being passed on to the Red Sox
They won’t do it for fear of looking funny and sissies and all of that but don’t other pitchers at different levels such as college women Etc wear face masks of some type?
good idea in my view
Great idea.
The ball’s coming off the bat at 110+ mph in a lot of instances and with the hurler momentum only 60 ft away, he’s an unprotected target.
Wish Houck a quick and full recovery!
I remember some pitchers started wearing padded caps a few years back but I haven’t any pitchers use it recently.
Love Tanner Houck. I think he is going to be a good one. One of my favourites and I’m a Jays fan.
Seamus – I agree. IMO, Whitlock, Bello, and Houck will be effective MLB starters. The Red Sox are starting to develop some of their own starting pitchers.
Freak injury, could have been worse. Thankfully Houck is ok. At this point the great depth the Sox had is dissipating quickly. If not Mata than it may be time to put Pivetta or Kluber back in the rotation
Whelp, looks like Higashioka has to be suspended as long as Houck is out.
Hopefully this won’t affect Houck on the mound as it did with, say, Matt Clement. It’s easy for a pitcher to get the yips after being struck by a ball. They subliminally go into defense mode when they deliver the pitch and it affects their performance, arm, shoulder, etc. See also Herb Score.
Hoping Justin Turner can provide some much-needed advice and counsel here.
Time for a right handed opener (Winckowski) for 2 innings, followed by Murphy for about 4 innings for the Sunday day part of the doubleheader.
Ort the ‘opener’ and then Murphy will be the ‘bulk’ guy before being returned to Worcester ‘again’…
Interesting. I made almost the identical suggestion earlier today on another thread. Let the other team load its lineup with lefties, then bring in Murphy.
Ort is going to vaporize the Yankees while the World Stands Still. Laatu told me so.
But have you asked Jobu?
Isn’t Kaleb Ort the designer of the ‘Angels and Archways’ clothing line?
Multi-talented man.
As it turns out, Caleb Went is the designer of the ‘Angels and Archways’ clothing line. Apologies, my mistake!
No one knows where Caleb Went but Kaleb Ort to be back soon.