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.
What about the stud prospects DD left us? Oh yeah, Houck is all they have, everyone else was traded away. It should be DD’s draft picks and prospects helping out, not Blooms. Thats why DD was fired, he left a black hole in the Red Sox farm system, thats been felt for 3 years.
2018
I’m afraid I’ll never truly understand the Chaim distaste some fans seem to have. I don’t know if it’s a coping mechanism that, regardless of what the man does, people want his moves to fail so that they can complain about his moves and complain about where the Sox are in the standings.
I, personally, prefer to have a touch of optimism sprinkled in amongst my critical review of his moves. Seems like that’s a nice middle ground but I digress. To each their own.
Optimism is fool’s gold. Dombrowski? The same GM of the World Series winning team? Yeah, that was awful.
Then why you crying about the farm system 3 years after he left. Do you understand Cause and Effect?
It’s the misleading way the Sox are presenting their “plan.” The big league club is a mess, I don’t see the wealth of prospects which fans endlessly use to defend Bloom’s consistent mistakes – as a lifelong Sox fan I resent the misleading nature of the message in defence of a franchise with no discernible plan.
Dombrowski won a World Series.
you don’t see the prospects because most of them are in the lower minors. Also just because you aren’t paying attention to them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.. It was going to take a minimum of several years to undo what Dombrowski did to the Red Sox farm system and the big league club post WS. thank goodness the sox actually won a world series because what we are seeing now is the results of what a DD run team is: lots of veterans entering the twilight of their careers who got contracts longer than they deserved (Eovalid, Sale, Martinez etc.)
Not being a member of Red Sox Nation, I have to ask you, acell10, as someone who is, how did Dombrowski ruin Boston’s farm system? Was it a matter of his trading away great talent, or was it a failure to add to the system with judicious drafting?
I hit the search engine and came up with this MassLive article, and I see some decent players, but I don’t see a lot of world-beaters among the players he dealt away before 2018:
masslive.com/redsox/2018/01/dave_dombrowskis_bosto….
I don’t see much in 2018 and 2019 either:
espn.com/mlb/team/transactions/_/name/bos/season/2…
Was it primarily bad drafting then?
You know that farm system rankings are not a precise science, anyway, so is it possible that he didn’t do as much damage as you think?
Condescending tone aside regarding the inexact science of farm rankings I will say that I generally go by what the people at BA say because they are the experts and on his watch the system was one of the worst. Also it’s not just the players he traded out it’s those he traded for. I was never a fan of the Kimbrel trade nor him acquiring an injured Pomeranz. while thankfully the guys traded out didn’t pan out for the most part that was still a terrible use of resources at the time. Hindsight is always 20/20 but for what those prospects were at the time the return should have been much better than an up and down closer and a number 5 starter. Also trading Espinal who made the all star team this year for Pearce hurt although thankfully he got hot during the World Series and won the MVP. I could kind of get justification for that move (although resigning that offseason was another mistake). His drafting was pretty pedestrian at best. Aside from Casas who has yet to hit the big leagues he pretty much whiffed on all his drafts and international signings outside Bello who hopefully will turn into something.
There was no condescension in that remark. To the contrary, I credited you with knowing the inexactitude of farm rating systems. The very fact that so few of those prospects turned out to be anything special is a testament to that inexactitude.
I’d apologize for hurting your feelings if I had intended to, but, sorry, your decision to find offense where none was intended is entirely on you.
Here endeth the discussion.
my feeling were hardly hurt but I’m not afraid to point out when someone appears to use snark in their interactions. Regardless I stand by assessment of Dombrowski as a FO executive. More often then not places like BA generally get it right when it comes to rankings especially at the time they come out. the inexact nature as you call it has often has more to do with injuries and non linear player development.
Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech, Stephen Nogosek, Jalen Beeks, Manuel Margot. Plus several still in minors — Those players would certainly be a boost to the Red Sox team.
Zero prospects were obtained that remain with the team.
Of DD’s draft picks –Kutter Crawford, Tanner Houlk, Bobby Dalbec are the only players who made the majors.
—————————————-
Its a combination of trading away quality players, obtaining none, while drafting badly.
Fink you’re good. I see no problem with your end of the discussion. Legitimate questions. Good stuff.
You didn’t ask but here’s my quick take. The priority is always 100% the major league roster and success, over the minor league system. 100% always.
But it’s like money. You need money to get through today but you don’t spend all of it !! You save some for tomorrow and for next year and for retirement. But you don’t sacrifice today. You don’t postpone a vacation to Europe today so you can save for a vacation 10 years from now. You might not be alive 10 years from now. That’s how I see it. Live for today but keep an eye on tomorrow.
Gary:
You give a good analogy. So here it is putting it to practice: During the DD years, Red Sox went to “Europe” and spent lavishly while doing it. What would you do, the next few years after you returned? Is it plan another trip to Europe right away, or save for few years, until you can do it again comfortably? Red Sox have taken the latter approach.
I understand the want to win the WS, but Im not understanding why people don’t understand that it came with a cost. And that cost is currently being paid.
Croagnut DD was in Charge when Triston Casas was drafted I believe he was also in charge when Bello was signed there are still prospects coming from the DD years. It’s still far to early to judge how Blooms drafts have gone. A fun exercise is to go back and look at how few drafted players become big leaguers at all very few do especially if your draft pick is in the back half of the draft.
This is how the thread started:
30 Parks: “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.”
Casas isnt on the ML roster, he wouldn’t be helping right now. And I missed Bello, because he was an International Signing. So add Bello to the list, not Casas.
The guys drafted in 2016, and 2017 should be the prospects “fill-out” the roster. Those players were drafted 6 and 7 years ago.
Here are DD’s drafts from those years:
2016————————————–2017
Groome——————————-Houck (good pick)
Chatham (traded by DD)—–Brannen
Anderson (traded by DD)—-Netzer
Dalbec———————————Thompson
Schawaryn—————————Schreff
Nogesek (traded by DD)——Schellenger
That is a whole bunch of nothing for 2 drafts. During those years, you have Houck, Bello and lots of junk. Those are the “prospects” not helping out the Red Sox.
Honestly I’m in the middle with Bloom. He’s made some good choices, yes,but he’s left us scratching heads on others.
When Bloom or any team acquires a prospect, he is prospect who could succeed or fail. He is not immediately a can’t-miss stud. He has a chance to succeed. Most fail, and if you get enough of them, the odds are that some will succeed.
I understand, Suit. But, at the expense of the big league club? Sox have no plan. Sox have an identity crisis. Great public relations, though.
My mom was from Belmont, MA. She was 3 when they won in 1918 and she died in 2002. This is nothing.
I’m from Belmont too and I’m sorry your mom had to live there hahaha
you say “at the expense of the big league club” as if they aren’t a luxury tax team. Yes this year has sucked but I’d challenge any team to successfully weather the storms of injuries the Sox did and remain remotely competitive. Yes Bloom has made mistakes but the most glaring underperforming/injured players have come from Dombrowski signings. This is a big offseason for Bloom as many of those contracts are expiring so he has a chance to remake the rotation and lineup.
30 Parks: I hope they have a plan. So far, it appears to be getting players from the farm system as opposed to free agency. Maybe that will change with all the money coming off the books this year. I tend to like fielding a team through the farm system more than free agency because there is more room for error. If low cost players fail, no big deal. On the other hand, if you sign two or three Chris Sales, your team is handcuffed financially for years.
I hear you, Suit. I simply don’t agree with the direction of the franchise right now. It’s frustrating and I don’t see a clear cut plan or supposed results. Like most things, the answer lies between extremes – I feel the Sox have lost their way with this Tampa-style model. Dombrowki and Bloom exemplify those extremes – there’s got to be a better way.
The present Dodgers model is the one I hope they end up following. An abundance of homegrown talent contributing at the major league level AND smart free agent signings
“I don’t see a clear cut plan”
Step 1 Get Below Salary Threshold
Step 2 Develop a Farm System
Step 3 Bring in Free Agents to supplement team
It seems clear cut, but they can’t announce it publicly. Imagine telling all your fans “We will need 3 to 4 years to develop a Farm System before we can truly compete, but the good news we should be real strong for years after that”. Good luck selling tickets during those years.
Dodgers are at 265M to the Salary Threshold. So they are spending more money than anyone—Not a sustainable model for Red Sox.
Also, I don’t agree that all of their FA signings are smart. Sure they’re working out now, but give it 3 or 4 years. They dont have anyone at the latter stage of a 6 or 7 year contract yet. When that happens, they be fighting bad contracts while bringing in new long-term contracts, while being hindered on the drafting/international signings due to Threshold penalties. It will catch up to them.
Very true. And to be fair the guys Bloom brought in haven’t been terrible. Verdugo seems like a much better hitter this season than the groundball out machine he was a year ago. Story has been streaky but when he gets hot he can (and did) carry the offense for a month. Plawecki and McGuire have been better than anyone thought. Pham has done nothing but hit since joining the team. Arroyo has been a nice surprise. Even Refsnyder has come off the scrap heap and come up big.
That said this is a huge offseason for Bloom to actually shape the roster in his vision. You don’t need to sign big money mega deals but he can’t nickel and dime either
acell10, she lived there a hundred years ago! It makes me feel really old to say that, but I’m guessing it’s changed a lot.
30 Parks: Well said. I agree the answer lies between the two extremes.
@acell10 – I agree with most of what you have to say, but I’m not sure Bloom has a chance to remake the rotation and lineup this offseason. They have a ton of holes to fill on the major league roster and this year’s free agent pool is not that good outside of the shortstop position and 1 or 2 starting pitchers like Rodon. (Rodon comes with a big injury risk too). What Bloom should do is stick to the plan for this team to be truly competitive in 2024 & 2025. If they want to try and stay relevant between now and then, they can sign some short term deals with veterans like Mitch Haniger, Trey Mancini, Michael Wacha, etc..but the real shot for this team to become true contenders lies with their prospect development. It’s a risky plan and one that could cost Bloom his job before it comes to fruition, but at this point they don’t have many options unless they want to sell off their high-end prospects like DD did in order to piece together a winning ball club. I’d prefer to see them ride this out and see if Bello, Mata, Casas, Rafaela, Bleis, Mayer, Yorke, Paulino, Murphy, Jordan, Lugo and others can inject enough talent into this team to become perennial contenders for a 4-5 year stretch. That has always been the long term goal since they hired Bloom, it is just taking longer than expected because most of his high draft picks were high school kids and their IFA additions were all 16-17 years old. Regardless of which way they decide to go, they need to re-sign Devers to show the fans they are committed to keeping their top talent.
@whyhayzee – Belmont is a beautiful place to live now. Hard to find a decent home there for under $900K, so it has changed quite a bit for the better!
meh. I grew in Belmont too and have family that still live there. it’s “nice” in principle but like every suburb there’s a lot beneath surface, I’ll leave it at that.
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……