Garrett Whitlock underwent an internal brace procedure last May 30, which ended the right-hander’s season and seemingly ensured that he would miss some time at the start of the 2025 campaign. However, Red Sox manager Alex Cora indicated that Whitlock is on pace to rather handily beat the initial recovery timeline, as Cora told MLB.com’s Ian Browne and other reporters that Whitlock is “100 percent” going to be part of Boston’s roster on Opening Day.
Cora’s statement comes before Whitlock has even pitched to live batters this spring, though Whitlock is scheduled to throw a live batting practice session tomorrow. The reliever has thrown multiple bullpen sessions already, in line with the deloading rehab strategy the Red Sox have used with Whitlock this offseason. As detailed by The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey last week, the plan saw Whitlock alternate between “weeks of heavy throwing” and “weeks of recovery.” This portion of Whitlock’s rehab is now over, and he is expected to have a normal ramp-up for the rest of Spring Training.
The work seems to be paying off, if Whitlock is already viewed as a lock to break camp. Internal brace procedures are a relatively new variant on the traditional Tommy John surgery, and can be performed in certain cases when the UCL damage isn’t quite as severe. The benefit is that brace surgeries come with a slightly shorter timeline — whereas pitchers who get TJ procedures usually face 13-14 months of recovery, internal brace surgeries have a timeline of roughly 11-12 months.
Because this procedure has only become more common in the last few years, there isn’t yet quite such thing as a “normal” timeline for a brace procedure, or at least the rehab process is more fluid than the more established recovery time associated with Tommy John surgeries. Still, the fact that Whitlock is on pace to return to action just 10 months after his surgery is rather eye-opening, particularly since he has a history of past elbow problems. Whitlock underwent a Tommy John surgery in 2019, and elbow-related issues sent him to the injured list twice during the 2023 season.
It probably helps that Whitlock is being brought back strictly as a relief pitcher, so his arm strength doesn’t have to be built up to handle a starter’s workload. The Red Sox used Whitlock on-and-off as a starting pitcher over the last three seasons, but the right-hander’s greatest success came out of the bullpen in his 2021 rookie season, when he posted a 1.96 ERA over 73 1/3 innings as a multi-inning relief weapon.
His production from 2022-24 was more erratic, with a 4.01 ERA over his 168 1/3 innings during those three seasons. Injuries certainly hampered Whitlock’s performance on the whole, but he still generally pitched better as a reliever than as a starter. This planned return to the bullpen might well help Whitlock stay healthy and return to his old consistent form, which would give Boston’s relief corps a major boost.
Whitlock will slot in behind closer Liam Hendriks, who is making his own return from a lengthy absence after undergoing Tommy John surgery in August 2023. The Red Sox also added Aroldis Chapman and Justin Wilson to reinforce a bullpen that underwhelmed last season.
It’s great to see Whitlock back, we’ve known for at least a month that all is good with him and he’d be ready for Opening Day.
Let’s hope we see continued good health with the rest of the pitching staff.
And when did Hendricks get named the closer? He looked awful today BTW.
Darn auto-correct …. I know it’s spelled Hendriks. LOLOL!!!
Fever: Hopefully Hendriks’ performance today was just a bad outing. I saw him pitch for the White Sox and I know what he can do.
avenger – Agreed. I don’t usually put much stock in pitching during ST because it’s a time when pitchers experiment, trying out new things, as results don’t matter. But he just looked like a deer in headlights. Total understandable considering the years he’s missed, but I just wonder if he will be ready to pitch in high leverage games 3 weeks from now.
Time will tell, everyone is rooting for him though.
I know this isn’t a fantasy baseball site but I am drafting Whitlock a lot because I think he has the better year of the bunch, for sure
Whitlock hasn’t thrown to a batter yet. It takes over a month of games to be ready and the season starts on the 28th. He doesn’t have a month.
Ratios should be good, but don’t depend on him for saves. They will use him in a multi inning role, after Hendriks, Chapman and Slaten will both be in line for saves ahead of Whitlock.
I think it’s been assumed since they signed him he’d be the closer in 2025. They aside, if he’s bad, they’ll replace him.
This bullpen is starting to look strong
Pool – I do agree the pen is deep, but I wish they had gotten a lights-out closer like Williams or Yates or Scott.
if nobody steps up in the first half, Helsley should be their top target.
Hendriks can be that guy, i also believe so could Whitlock. Sox pen looks good and hopefully the nail biting will be kept to a minimum this season
Rsox – I agree Hendriks may be able to become that guy, but him not having pitched since 2022 (not gonna include 5 IP in 2023) leads me to believe he will probably need at least a half season to get into solid closer form again.
I still have my doubts about Whitlock as a closer. It’s sooooo very important to be a strikeout pitcher when you’re a closer, and even in Whit’s one good year (2021) he didn’t do better than a 27% K%.
Chapman has been above 36% every year since 2018 with the exception of 2022.
Hendriks was above 36% in each of his last 4 seasons.
You look at the last few championship years:
KImbrel 39%
Koji 38%
Pap 38%
BTW – William was at 43% last year,
Yates 36%
If Crochet’s innings are drastically reduced again this year, he’d make a great closer.
The problem with the pen is each has huge question marks from injury rehab concerns to age to experience in that load management all season long will be a concern and we’re all relying on Cora…
Fever – sink or swim, Crochet will be starting absent some world series close out situation like Sale pulled duty for.
They overpaid too much in prospect capital to align him into closer for any period of time, innings count issue or not.
Dewey – you really know how to drive fear into a man with those last 5 words don’t you?
Fever: As you know, Crochet was a closer until last season. He showed he was still a strikeout pitcher last year. He’ll go 5-6 innings this season, I’m sure, and will have a high K%. No worries (fingers crossed).
GaSox – I know it’s a very slim chance, but if he tires out after 100 innings wouldn’t he be more valuable as a closer rather than an opener?
Keeping in mind he tired out very early last year.
Not in August.
Not in July.
In June.
avenger – That”s my worry, strikeout pitchers tend to throw a lot of pitches. Unless you’re built like a bull, it’s best to conserve if you want to approach 200 innings.
Should be interesting, time will tell.
Cora has a huge coaching staff and analytics department which are in involved in the decision making process.
Cora being what Cora is, and, Cora doing what Cora does, it wouldn’t surprise me to see a number of 4 2/3 or 5 ip games out of crochet that would lessen that innings count.
Before July crochet had 11 outings of 6 or more IP, and, 3 of those were for 7 in 2024. I think that was also a difference. 4 additional were between 5 – 5.2 ip.
That’s a big workload jump for a guy who wasn’t a starter.
GaSox – It’s really hard to make predictions right now. I do believe Cora in saying they will go to a 6-man rotation at some point. If he is finally telling the truth, I would think each starter would go at least 6 innings every start (maybe except Giolito & Sandoval). There’s no need to have short starts with a 6-man rotation.
Fever – a guy like crochet might benefit from shorter starts considering they overused him last year. He should’ve been on a 130ish IP cap for the year, not ramp him up over the century mark by June, but, it’s what CHW did nonetheless
GA, unfortunately, I try to post honestly. Sometimes the truth hurts…
Guys will have shorter starts when they get clobbered.
All, in in-game decisions, group decision making usually goes out the window although they certainly can continue to text and chat. Cora as the face of the decisions gets the blame just like he would get the glory. Burning out the staff by July is primarily on Cora in my view.
I’d much rather have a six man staff that will allow for deeper into games starts. The bullpen will again be taxed by July if four or more pitchers are needed every game.
Dewey: Cora may be the face of decisions, but I find it hard to believe he would ignore the huge volume of data and advice provided to him including from people like Jason Varitek and Andrew Bailey.
dewey – But it’s a good hurt, kinda like when you bench-press 300 pounds ;o)
fever, it’s closer (not quite) to my bench holding 300 lbs when I’m on it…
Dewey – the question I’m seeing then is who can bench press you pressing on a bench? Exercise for them, free kiddie ride for you, win-win.
dewey – George Foster used to bench press Johnny Bench, that’s how strong Foster was.
Johnny weighed less than 200 though.
too soon to call hendriks the “closer”
at best he is a co-closer with chapman but it might be aroldis who gets the first chances. very deep BP overall.
whitlock + slaten will battle for saves starting next yr
I know I really wanted to be on Boston’s pitching staff this season. Feel like I deserved it too…Guess my job is going to Garrett Whitlock though. Gonna have to settle for young adults softball again this year.
And now I just got word that I didn’t make that team either, so…to the video game console I go, and broken…
Is the recovery speed actually telling us something bigger about how we should handle pitchers after these kinds of injuries?”
It appears to be telling us that the newer technique of “internal brace” is less intrusive than the older method known as “Tommy John Surgery.”
But they were clear the data is not clear yet. The trend in faster healing times isn’t confirmed with a large enough sample size.
bcjd – They were also clear that relievers can return faster because they don’t have to build up the arm strength that starters do.
If Whitlock was still a starter, he wouldn’t be on the OD roster.
Fever – brace procedures are also so much easier (comparatively) than TJ…. look at Brock Purdy in the NFL. Guy came back as a full effort quarterback after his roughly 8-9 month stint. I don’t recall the exact surgery month, but I suspect it was end of Jan or early Feb considering he messed things up in the championship game and he didn’t miss much playing time the following season.
They’ll watch him for sure, but, the concern level just isn’t as high
And 50% for game two..
Its March and he hasn’t thrown a single pitch to batters but he will be ready opening day? Sure. I believe you Cora. Every other pitcher needs 6 weeks to get ready but Whit is a special breed that only needs 3 weeks.
I believe thats the approach he took with the whole staff in 2019….
GA: The organization took that approach. You succeed or fail as an organization.
suit – it was cora’s idea. Period.
GaSox – That year was the worst ST and regular season managing I’ve ever witnessed in my lifetime.
Cora’s words will forever live in infamy, paraphrasing: “Winning isn’t important in April or May, it’s more important to keep the players well rested for a long October run”.
The whole organization went along with the plan in 2019 from Dombrowski down to the players.
Sometimes it just seems like Cora is talking out of his a$$.
Justin Wilson is this year’s Joely Rodriguez. DFA him now! Even Worcester is too good for him.
well, we all know what a straight up honest guy Cora is so this must be fact.
I never trust a word out of that cheater’s mouth.
I could see Whitlock in the closer’s role
Agreed. I think he has the mentality to be a closer.