Red Sox Rumors

Red Sox Release Vladimir Gutierrez

By Mark Polishuk | May 26, 2024 at 3:35pm CDT

The Red Sox announced that Vladimir Gutierrez has been released. The right-hander had been pitching at Triple-A Worcester since he was acquired from the Brewers last month, though he was designated for assignment and then outrighted off Boston’s 40-man roster earlier this month.

Because Gutierrez has previously been outrighted in his career, he had the option to reject that assignment and opt into free agency. He chose to stick with the Sox at that point but now finds himself on the open market anyway, as the righty simply didn’t seem to be in the team’s plans. Gutierrez didn’t help his case with a 9.00 ERA over eight innings in Worcester, as he allowed more walks (12) than strikeouts (eight) over his five appearances.

Gutierrez could now potentially join his fourth different organization in as many months. He inked a minor league deal with the Marlins during the offseason, and has since been designated for assignment three times — once apiece by Miami, Milwaukee, and Boston. Gutierrez has seen some big league action this season, with a 6.75 ERA in four innings for the Marlins before he was DFA’ed and then claimed off waivers by the Brewers at the start of April.

Those four innings represented Gutierrez’s first time on a Major League mound since 2022, as Tommy John surgery sidelined him for the entirety of the 2023 season apart from 6 1/3 minor league innings in the Reds’ farm system. Formerly a highly-regarded pitching prospect during his time in Cincinnati’s minor league ranks, Gutierrez debuted in the Show in 2021 and finished eighth in NL Rookie of the Year voting after posting a 4.74 ERA in 114 innings. Home runs and control became greater issues for him in 2022, however, as Gutierrez struggled to a 7.61 ERA in 36 2/3 innings before the TJ procedure brought his tough year to an early end.

Red Sox Sign Brad Keller

By Nick Deeds | May 26, 2024 at 11:50am CDT

11:50AM: The Red Sox have officially announced Keller’s signing and optioned Kelly in the corresponding move.

10:12AM: The Red Sox are nearing a deal with right-hander Brad Keller, according to MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. The deal is pending a physical and the club hopes to make it official before today’s game against the Brewers, which is scheduled to begin at 1:35pm local time. Cotillo adds that right-hander Zack Kelly has been optioned to the minors to make room for Keller on the active roster. Boston’s 40-man roster currently stands at 39, so no corresponding 40-man move will be necessary to add Keller.

Keller, 28, signed with the White Sox on a minor league deal back in March and made five appearances with the club, including two starts, before being designated for assignment last week. Keller subsequently elected free agency and returned to the open market with a 4.86 ERA in 16 2/3 innings of work with Chicago under his belt. That performance may be better than what Keller earned, as he struck out just 17.1% of batters faced while walking 7.9% and allowing a whopping 29.4% of his fly balls to leave the yard for home runs. Those iffy peripherals left him with a 6.55 FIP and a 5.16 xERA, although a 4.02 SIERA and 4.09 xFIP both suggest Keller’s ERA was actually higher than what should have been expected based on his underlying performance.

Regardless of the results from Keller’s time with the White Sox, he’ll now get another opportunity to re-establish himself at the big league level in Boston. Keller was once a promising mid-rotation arm with the Royals, as he posted a 3.50 ERA and 3.90 FIP across his first 360 1/3 innings of work in the majors between 2018 and 2020. Since then, however, his results have declined drastically. His final three seasons in Kansas City saw him post a 5.14 ERA with a 4.79 FIP before he was ultimately sidelined partway through the 2023 campaign by a shoulder issue before undergoing surgery to correct Thoracic Outlet Syndrome back in October. TOS is a particularly difficult injury for players to come back from, and players such as Stephen Strasburg and Chris Archer have seen their careers negatively impacted by the issue in recent years.

Keller will hope to buck that trend with the Red Sox, joining a pitching staff that appears poised to lose right-hander Garrett Whitlock to elbow surgery after already losing righty Lucas Giolito to that same procedure earlier in the year. The club is currently relying on a starting rotation of Brayan Bello, Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Cooper Criswell, and Nick Pivetta. While it’s possible that Keller could slot somewhere into that mix, a more likely scenario would be Keller joining veteran righty Chase Anderson as a potential multi-inning relief and spot starter option in the club’s bullpen mix.

Making way for Keller on the club’s active roster is Kelly, who is in his third season as an up-and-down reliever for the Red Sox. The right-hander has generally pitched to solid results when in the majors for the club, with a career 3.18 ERA across 39 2/3 innings of work. Kelly has been particularly effective this season, with a strong 2.16 ERA in 16 2/3 frames despite a 19.4% strikeout rate and a massive 13.9% walk rate that have left him with a lackluster 4.99 FIP. Now back in the minors, Kelly figures to act as optionable depth for the club going forward alongside Josh Winckowski and Naoyuki Uwasawa.

Red Sox Notes: Jansen, O’Neill, Mata

By Nick Deeds | May 26, 2024 at 9:27am CDT

Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen frequently found his name in the rumor mill all throughout the winter as the club reportedly fielded offers on the veteran in the run-up to Spring Training. No deal ultimately materialized, but that doesn’t mean the team has shifted gears. As relayed by Bob Nightengale of USA Today this morning, the Red Sox still “plan” to trade Jansen before the trade deadline with Nightengale adding that the club isn’t interested in bringing him back for the 2025 campaign.

It’s not necessarily a surprise that the Red Sox would still have interest in dealing Jansen given their efforts to shop him this winter. Boston is currently at .500 with a 26-26 record that places them ten games out in the AL East, making the club passing the Yankees and Orioles for a division title appear unlikely at best. The club’s odds at a Wild Card spot are somewhat better, as they sit just 2.5 games back of the Twins for the third spot, but Boston has shown a willingness to deal rental pieces even while on the fringes of playoff contention in recent years such as when they traded away catcher Christian Vazquez at the 2022 trade deadline despite a 52-52 record.

As for Jansen, the 36-year-old has posted a solid season for the Red Sox to this point with a 3.24 ERA and a 2.59 FIP with eight saves in nine chances across 17 appearances. On the other hand, Jansen’s 13.9% walk rate is surely concerning to potential buyers even in spite of the righty offsetting it with a strong 29.2% strikeout rate. Those control issues combined with Jansen’s hefty $16MM salary this season could make the veteran righty a less attractive piece to clubs in need of relief help than other alternatives who would be unlikely to boast Jansen’s track record but could come with better peripherals and less of a financial burden.

Speculatively speaking, outfielder Tyler O’Neill could be another piece the Red Sox make available in the event they sell this summer given his status as a pending free agent. O’Neill got off to a scorching start in April with nine home runs in 21 games but has crashed back to Earth in the month of May, hitting just .151/.244/.301 over his last 82 trips to the plate. O’Neill added some context to his recent struggles following an incident during yesterday’s game where his knee collided with the Green Monster in left field, causing him to leave the game due to soreness.

O’Neill told reporters (including The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey) after the game that his knee had already been bothering him prior to last night’s incident and that it has “probably” affected his swing, although he remains day-to-day and it’s unclear if he’ll require a trip to the injured list. Rob Refsnyder and Garrett Cooper could be among the players to take over O’Neill’s spot in the lineup should he miss time due to the issue.

Also dealing with injury issues is right-hander Bryan Mata, who is out of options but has yet to make his big league debut due to a hamstring string that’s kept him from playing this season. The righty recently began a rehab assignment in the minor leagues, but that assignment hit a snag on Thursday when he began to experience some soreness in his lat. As noted by MassLive’s Christopher Smith, the Red Sox initially believed the soreness to be in his shoulder and his lat but Mata has since clarified that he’s only feeling an issue in his lat.

Smith notes that manager Alex Cora indicated to reporters on Friday that Mata is “likely” to be pulled from his rehab assignment, a move that kick the club’s decision on Mata’s future further down the road. Mata can only be on a rehab assignment for 30 days before the Red Sox must either recall the righty to the big league roster or designate him for assignment, but that clock will reset if he’s pulled from his rehab assignment and begins another one at a later date. Mata has made just twelve appearances across all levels of the minors since the end of the 2022 season but looked excellent across three levels of the minors that year, pitching to a 2.49 ERA in 83 innings of work.

Mets Acquire Pablo Reyes From Red Sox

By Mark Polishuk | May 25, 2024 at 2:12pm CDT

The Mets have acquired utilityman Pablo Reyes from the Red Sox in exchange for cash considerations, as announced via the MLB.com transactions wire. Reyes was designated for assignment at the end of April but cleared waivers and was outrighted to Boston’s Triple-A affiliate.

This marks the second time that Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns has acquired Reyes, as Reyes signed a minor league deal with the Brewers in January 2021 when Stearns was still in charge of Milwaukee’s front office. Reyes played in 58 MLB games for the Brew Crew during the 2021-22 seasons before landing in Boston, with a brief stopover with the A’s sandwiched in between.

Reyes has hit .249/.309/.349 over 572 Major League plate appearances, suiting up in six of the last seven MLB seasons (an 80-game PED suspension kept Reyes off the field entirely in 2020). A career-high 185 of those plate appearances came just last season, as Reyes got into 64 games with the Sox as part of the team’s revolving door at both middle infield positions. Reyes hit .287/.339/.377 in those 185 PA, translating to a 93 wRC+ since Reyes’ lack of power undermined his solid batting average and on-base numbers.

Defensive versatility has been Reyes’ calling card moreso than his bat, as he has gotten at least a bit of action at every position on the diamond except catcher over the course of his Major League career. However, he has exclusively played as an infielder (and occasional mop-up pitcher in blowouts) since the start of the 2022 season. The Mets traded Zack Short to the Red Sox a few weeks ago and just released Joey Wendle earlier this week, so Reyes fills New York’s need for utility infield help. Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil are locked into everyday duty in the middle infield roles while Brett Baty has seen most of the third base work despite struggling at the plate, and Mark Vientos has been hitting well in a bid to stick in the majors and cut into Baty’s playing time.

Since Reyes is out of minor league options, the Mets will have to keep him on the active roster unless they first designate him for assignment before trying to send him to Triple-A. In the event that Reyes clears waivers and is then outrighted off the 40-man, he has the right to elect free agency rather than accept that assignment, since he has been previously outrighted in his career.

AL East Notes: Houck, Kahnle, Santander

By Mark Polishuk | May 19, 2024 at 4:28pm CDT

The Red Sox locked up Brayan Bello and Ceddanne Rafaela to contract extensions this past spring, but no deal developed between the team and Tanner Houck, even though the two sides had some negotiations. Houck confirmed to MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo that some “discussions” took place, “but we’re at where we are now. I put that behind me whenever we shook hands and said, ’Let’s go out and win as many games as we can.’ ” There’s nothing preventing Houck and the Sox from restarting talks, though it would seem that Houck (like most players) prefers to save contractual matters for the offseason to cut down on potential distractions.

The right-hander also doesn’t even reach arbitration eligibility until this coming winter, so since he is already under team control through 2027, Boston might not feel too much urgency to lock Houck up on an extension. Of course, given how Houck has pitched this season, the Sox might’ve missed their window for landing Houck at a relative bargain price. Houck has broken out with a 2.17 ERA over 58 innings and nine starts, and his secondary metrics are highlighted by impressive grounder (55.2%), walk (4.7%) and barrel (3.7%) rates. Even in a season marked by impressive pitching around baseball, Houck has stood out, as his 1.9 fWAR is behind only Tarik Skubal as the highest in the league.

AL East Notes: Mata, Mayo, Gausman

By Nick Deeds | May 19, 2024 at 8:29am CDT

The Red Sox are approaching a crossroads with regards to right-hander Bryan Mata. As noted by Chris Cotillo of MassLive, Mata has begun a rehab assignment as he works his way back from a hamstring strain that he suffered back in February. The 25-year-old was once one of the club’s top pitching prospects but has struggled with injuries and ineffectiveness over the past two seasons, pitching to a combined 6.39 ERA in 31 innings of work across all levels of he minors since the start of the 2023 campaign.

While the rehab assignment for a struggling pitcher who has yet to make his big league debut wouldn’t typically be especially notable, Mata’s rehab assignment is particularly worth noting because the righty is out of options. Given that, the Red Sox will have to make a decision regarding his future in the organization once his rehab clock runs out on June 12. If the club isn’t willing to offer Mata a spot on the active roster, they’ll need to designate him for assignment and risk losing him on waivers to get the chance to outright the young righty to the minor leagues. MassLive’s Sean McAdam reported back in February that the Red Sox expect Mata to be claimed if he’s exposed to waivers, though it’s possible that could change depending on how he looks throughout his rehab assignment.

Losing Mata on waivers would be a frustrating outcome for the Red Sox given the tantalizing talent he flashed prior to injuries sidetracking his career. In his most recent healthy season, the right-hander pitched to a strong 2.49 ERA in 83 innings while advancing through four levels of the minor leagues, including a 1.85 ERA in 10 appearances at the Double-A level and a 3.47 ERA in five starts at Triple-A. That season, Mata struck out a whopping 30.3% of batters faced, albeit with an elevated 13.3% walk rate. If the righty can get anything close to those huge strikeout numbers during his rehab assignment, it could certainly make sense for the club to offer him a role in the bullpen given the number of optionable relief arms they’re currently utilizing.

More from around the AL East…

Orioles fans received some tough news from down on the farm on Friday, when the club announced that top third base prospect Coby Mayo suffered a fractured rib and has been placed on the minor league injured list. The Orioles indicated that Mayo will be out for “several weeks” due to the injury. It’s a frustrating setback for the 22-year-old, who is a consensus top-30 prospect in the sport and has impressed with a .291/.359/.605 slash line in 42 games at the Triple-A level this year. It was certainly plausible that the club could turn to Mayo as a starting option at some point in the near future given his fantastic play and the struggles of fellow top prospect Jackson Holliday, though this injury surely represents a setback for Mayo’s timeline to be called up to the majors. Jorge Mateo is currently rounding out the club’s starting infield mix in the majors alongside youngsters Jordan Westburg and Gunnar Henderson.
Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman has been off to a rough start this season, with a 4.89 ERA through nine starts despite a decent 3.50 FIP. Gausman’s struggles this season are particularly surprising given his utter dominance in recent years; from 2021 to ’23, the right-hander pitched to a 3.10 ERA (132 ERA+) with an even better 2.79 FIP. Gausman spoke to reporters (including MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson) yesterday about his frustrating results this season and described the campaign as an “uphill battle” to this point before suggesting that he “probably should have gone on the IL” at the start of the season. The righty battled shoulder soreness throughout Spring Training but nonetheless opened the season in the club’s rotation amid injuries sidelining much of the club’s starting pitching depth, including Alek Manoah and Yariel Rodriguez.

Red Sox Shut Down Garrett Whitlock Due To Elbow Soreness

By Anthony Franco | May 17, 2024 at 11:01pm CDT

The Red Sox are pausing Garrett Whitlock’s throwing program after the right-hander reported elbow soreness, manager Alex Cora told reporters on Friday (link via Chris Cotillo of MassLive). He’ll head for imaging over the weekend to determine the severity.

Whitlock has spent exactly one month on the injured list, but not for an elbow problem. A left oblique strain knocked him out of action after four starts. He made a rehab appearance at Triple-A Worcester on Wednesday. Whitlock looked good in that outing, tossing 4 2/3 scoreless innings with five strikeouts. Cora indicated he felt fine during the appearance before experiencing the elbow discomfort the following day.

Boston expected that Whitlock would return to the MLB rotation at the start of next week. That’s no longer the case. The test results will determine how long he’s out of action. Whitlock had two elbow-related injured list stints in 2023, the latter of which cost him five weeks between July and August. Back in 2019, he underwent Tommy John surgery while a prospect in the Yankee organization. Ironically, that procedure is likely a big reason Whitlock ever landed in Boston, as it presumably contributed to New York’s mistake of leaving him off their 40-man roster before the 2020 Rule 5 draft.

Whitlock hasn’t had a full season as a starting pitcher since his time in the minors. He was an excellent multi-inning relief weapon for his first two MLB campaigns. Boston gave him 10 starts last year before his July injured list placement. He worked out of the bullpen after returning. The Sox moved him back into the starting staff to open this year. He allowed only four runs in 18 1/3 innings prior to the oblique injury.

Cooper Criswell has stepped into the rotation behind Brayan Bello, Nick Pivetta, Kutter Crawford and Tanner Houck. Signed to a $1MM contract last winter after being non-tendered by the Rays, Criswell has been quietly excellent through his first 29 1/3 frames for the Sox. He owns a 2.76 ERA with a solid 23.3% strikeout percentage and a tidy 5.8% walk rate.

Red Sox Activate Brayan Bello From Injured List

By Nick Deeds | May 12, 2024 at 9:23am CDT

The Red Sox announced this morning that the club has activated right-hander Brayan Bello from the 15-day injured list. Right-hander Josh Winckowski was optioned to Triple-A in the corresponding move. Bello is slated to start this afternoon’s game against the Nationals at Fenway Park.

Bello, who will celebrate his 25th birthday later this week, has been on the shelf since late April due to a bout of lat tightness. Prior to the injury, the young righty had pitched solidly through five starts with the Red Sox this year with a 3.04 ERA and 4.06 FIP in 26 2/3 innings of work. He’s struck out a respectable 23.6% of batters faced and generated groundballs at a 51.3% clip during that time, although a whopping 19% of his fly balls leaving the yard for home runs stands out as a potential red flag in an otherwise impressive early-season performance.

That success on the mound has been par for the course among Red Sox starters this year, as the club’s 2.42 rotation ERA is the best figure in the majors to this point in the season thanks to excellent starts from the likes of Kutter Crawford and Tanner Houck. With righty Nick Pivetta having also been activated from the injured list in recent days, the club’s rotation is once again approaching full strength. While righty Garrett Whitlock remains on the shelf due to an oblique strain, righty Cooper Criswell has performed admirably in his absence with a 2.10 ERA and 3.94 FIP in 25 2/3 innings of work.

Making room for Bello on the active roster is Winckowski, who will turn 26 next month. It’s a somewhat surprising move given his success over the past two seasons. The righty was among the best multi-inning relief arms in all of baseball last year as he posted a 2.88 ERA with a 3.91 FIP in 84 1/3 innings of work across 60 appearances. He hasn’t quite kept that performance up this year, although he’s still enjoyed solid results with a 3.33 ERA and 4.27 FIP in 24 1/3 innings of work.

While that sort of performance would seem to warrant a spot in the club’s bullpen over other optionable arms such as Cam Booser, it’s worth noting that Winckowski’s peripherals have taken a significant turn for the worse this year. The right-hander has struggled to miss bats this year as his strikeout rate has fallen from a respectable 22.3% last year all the way to just 16.8% this season. Meanwhile, his walk rate has ticked up from 8.4% to 9.7% and his groundball rate has dropped more than five points after sitting at a strong 51.2% last season. Those shaky peripheral numbers suggest that regression may have been on the horizon for Winckowski had he remained in the majors, a possibility supported by is elevated 4.53 xFIP and 5.43 xERA.

Going forward, Winckowski will head to the Triple-A level and look to recapture what made him such an effective reliever for the club last season while acting as an optionable depth arm for the club to lean on alongside former NPB starter Naoyuki Uwasawa. Meanwhile, the Red Sox appear poised to lean on right-hander Justin Slaten to fill the sort of high leverage, multi-inning role they turned to Winckowski for last year. Slaten has impressed in 13 contests this year with a 1.74 ERA and 2.34 FIP in 20 2/3 innings of work.

Masataka Yoshida Avoids Surgery On Thumb, Facing Extended Absence

By Nick Deeds | May 11, 2024 at 10:26pm CDT

Red Sox outfielder Masataka Yoshida was placed on the injured list at the start of May due to a sprained left thumb, but after he underwent an MRI it was reported that he would be receiving a second opinion on the injury, with surgery potentially on the table. That ominous signal eventually gave way to a more positive update yesterday after Boston received a third opinion on the injury, with Christopher Smith of MassLive among those to relay that manager Alex Cora told reporters Yoshida’s injury would not require surgery.

While the most worrisome outcome is now off the table for Yoshida, that isn’t saving him from an extended absence. Cora told reporters (including Smith) that the 30-year-old figures to return this season but also noted that the club will “see how he feels in a few weeks.” In the meantime, Cora added, Yoshida won’t be swinging the bat at all. With even the most optimistic reading of that language suggesting the earliest Yoshida could resume full baseball activities is early June, it appears safe to assume that he’ll have missed at least two months with the injury when all is said and done.

The lengthy absence comes at an unfortunate time for both Yoshida and the Red Sox. Now in the second season of his five-year, $90MM pact with Boston, Yoshida got off to a rough start this season with a .229/.302/.271 slash line in his first 53 trips to the plate this season but had begun to heat up in recent weeks, hitting a scorching .344/.417/.563 in his final ten games before being placed on the injured list. If Yoshida was beginning to get into a groove, it would’ve been a relief for a Red Sox offense that had recently lost young slugger Triston Casas to a rib fracture that figures to keep him out of action for the next several weeks, if not longer.

Without Yoshida and Casas in the mix for at-bats, the Red Sox have turned to players outside the organization to add some thump to the lineup. The club acquired first baseman Garrett Cooper from the Cubs and signed Dominic Smith to a one-year deal in recent weeks, though Cooper has hit a paltry .130/.231/.174 in 26 trips to the plate since arriving in Boston while Smith has similarly struggled to a .190/.227/.238 slash line so far in his Red Sox tenure. Both players’ struggles come in microscopic sample sizes and could certainly turn around in the coming weeks, but the tepid starts to their seasons do little to instill confidence in either player as quality options for regular at bats in the middle of the lineup.

Unfortunately, the club’s options in terms of internal help are fairly minimal. Infielders Bobby Dalbec and Enmanuel Valdez are on the 40-man roster at Triple-A, but both players faced even deeper struggles during cameos at the big league level than Cooper and Smith are currently scuffling through. First base prospect Niko Kavadas is hitting well at the Triple-A level this season and could be a potential solution, but the 25-year-old is not yet on the club’s 40-man roster and sports an unsustainable .375 BABIP that’s helped to bolster his numbers.

The Red Sox’ Surprising Rotation Anchors

By Anthony Franco | May 10, 2024 at 12:29pm CDT

The Red Sox are out to a decent start in 2024. Despite dropping five of their last six, they’re above .500 at 19-18. They’re currently in third place in a division where most observers felt they’d finish fourth or fifth. That’s a credit to a pitching staff that leads the majors with a 2.75 earned run average.

Boston’s bullpen looked solid coming into the year, yet the rotation was more of a question mark. It wasn’t that the group was devoid of talent. It was light on pitchers with a proven track record as starters, though, particularly after Lucas Giolito went down for the season in Spring Training. That left the Sox relying on a handful of pitchers who’d been productive as relievers to shoulder important rotation jobs. They’ve delivered thus far, with Tanner Houck and Kutter Crawford out to particularly excellent starts.

Houck and Crawford are the only members of Boston’s season-opening rotation who haven’t spent time on the injured list. Garrett Whitlock, Brayan Bello and Nick Pivetta have all missed time. (Pivetta returned on Wednesday and Bello could be back by the weekend.) Houck wasn’t even a lock for the Opening Day starting five until Giolito’s injury. By all accounts, the Sox rotation should have struggled to this point.

Instead, they easily lead the majors with a 2.33 ERA. That’s at least partially a reflection of their usage. Only the White Sox — whose rotation has been one of the league’s worst — have allowed their starters to face an opposing hitter for a third time in an outing less often. Alex Cora is getting to the bullpen early, which takes some of the higher-pressure at-bats off the rotation. Yet that doesn’t entirely detract from how effective Boston’s starters have been.

Crawford, 28, has appeared in parts of four seasons. He held a rotation spot from June onward last year, turning in solid if unexciting results. Over 23 starts, he worked to a 4.51 ERA with an above-average 26.2% strikeout rate. It was enough for the Sox to guarantee him a rotation spot even when they expected Giolito would be healthy. He went into 2024 with a season-opening starting job for the first time in his career.

The right-hander has doubled down on last year’s success. Through eight starts, he carries a 1.75 ERA that ranks seventh among qualified starters. He has fanned 24.3% of opponents and is generating swinging strikes at a solid 12.3% clip. Crawford has held opponents to two or fewer runs in seven of his appearances.

Crawford probably isn’t an ace. He’s not missing bats at the level associated with the game’s truly elite pitchers. He’s a fly-ball pitcher who’ll surely allow a few more home runs over the course of the year. Crawford looks like a legitimate mid-rotation arm, though. He’s attacking hitters with more offspeed stuff — part of a team-wide philosophical shift under new pitching coach Andrew Bailey — and has done an excellent job staying off barrels. That’s true against left-handed and righty batters alike, making it difficult for opponents to play matchups and allowing him to at least work through the batting order twice in a start.

That has also been true for Houck, at least this season. Concerns about the right-hander’s low arm angle and heavy reliance on a sinker/slider combination have led some evaluators to project him to the bullpen going back to his college days in Missouri. It’s difficult to avoid huge platoon splits with that kind of profile. Left-handed batters can identify the ball early in his delivery. For most of his career, Houck hasn’t had a pitch to keep opposing southpaws at bay.

Houck kicked between starting and relief over his first three-plus seasons. He worked out of the rotation for all 21 of his appearances last year but struggled to a 5.01 ERA. Handling left-handed hitters was indeed an issue. Through the end of the 2023 season, Houck stifled righties to a .214/.282/.283 batting line behind a 27.4% strikeout rate. Lefty batters turned in a much more productive .251/.343/.420 slash while striking out 22% of the time. Lefties drew more walks and hit for much more power against him.

That hasn’t been the case this season. While Houck has still been better against right-handed hitters in 2024, that’s more a reflection of his dominance against everyone than any kind of issue handling southpaws. Houck is holding left-handers to a .227/.279/.258 slash in 104 plate appearances. His 21.2% strikeout rate isn’t great, but he has more than halved his walks and pushed his ground-ball percentage north of 60%. Even if they’re still putting the ball in play at a decent clip, lefty batters aren’t doing any kind of damage. (Houck has completely befuddled right-handed opponents, limiting them to a .203/.234/.284 mark behind a huge 31.2% strikeout rate.)

As is the case with Crawford, Houck has found that new level by moving away from his heater. Houck has essentially doubled the usage of his splitter against left-handed batters while scaling back on his fastball and cutter. The split isn’t a new pitch — he has had it throughout his career — but he’s getting more downward action on it. The uptick in its deployment suggests Houck is far more comfortable with the pitch than he’d been before this year.

Whether Crawford and Houck can maintain an upper mid-rotation pace or better over a full schedule remains to be seen. Neither pitcher has yet reached 130 major league innings in a season. Opposing lineups will adjust to their heavier reliance on offspeed stuff, and league-wide offense generally improves as the weather warms. They’ve each been among the best pitchers in the majors through six weeks, though. These kinds of breakouts are necessary for a team to outperform expectations and stick in the playoff mix against the odds.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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