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.
For what it’s worth… RB 2.0zero’s2 k’s …. His biggest problem, doesn’t like tomatoes on Chicago Dog…
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.
Relievers can get ready in 2-3 weeks of game action, starters take longer.
He hasn’t thrown to batters yet, let alone had game action.
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.
Lord – In a perfect well, yes.
However there are two things that could jeopardize that plan.
1) He is in a contract year, typically only relievers who are closers get good money
2) He has a well known reputation for being quite vocal
It’s just one of many current situations that need to be handled well by the Red Sox …. certainly handled better than the third base situation, which couldn’t have been any worse.
Absolutely. But if he’s bad he’s getting DFA’ed, he won’t stick around to be a problem in the clubhouse if he’s not pulling his weight.
Dirty – Typically in his situation, with him not having pitched in so long, they will stick with the pitcher for most of the season as he tries to work his way back to form.
He would have to be Rich Hill bad for them to cut him loose before September.
True, but for having not pitched in so long I am bracing for the possibility that he may be Rich Hill bad depending on how deep the rust has set in. I really hope it’s not, but I’m trying to set my expectations at a level that leave me ample room to be positively surprised instead of disappointed.
Why is Campbell even with the team? That guy should be released.
let – The Red Sox are trying to salvage the Bradley “Don’t Call Me Mookie” Blalock trade.
I believe when they signed him it came with a kind of handshake agreement that he’d get first crack at the closer role upon his return.
Agreed I have no idea if he’ll be ready to rock in three weeks but am totally rooting for him. One thing that helps me feel better about it is that if he falters, I do believe between Whitlock, Chapman, Slaten, and Winck someone will step up and hold it down at the back end. My money is on Whitlock, unless they want him to be the high leverage specialist instead of traditional closer. I’d be okay with that result too.
Dirty – My money is on Chapman. Dude has a ton of past success as closer and still brings the heat. As long as you don’t bring him into a game with the bases loaded or something, he should be fine.
Let Whitlock do the multi-inning setup role again. Heck, let him pitch after every Crochet start …. they could promote it as “Garrett Day”.
Think of the possibilities ;o)
Wow, sold on Garrett day. You don’t happen to work in the marketing department do you? Could have a bright future there if not.
Could be a great way to preserve both of their arms. Have Crochet go 4-6 depending how efficient he is that day, and depending on how big a bite he takes off the apple have Whit go 2 or sometimes even 3.
Dirty – For Garrett Day I’m always working on having Brad Garrett throw out the first pitch and Leif Garrett sing the anthem.
Fever, if the bases aren’t loaded he might load them. I think he walks too many people to be the closer…..
AK – Sure he might walk one or two, but with his strikeout abilities it’s not an issue. Very similar to Eovaldi.
That’s why I’d have Chapman close games by starting an inning, I wouldn’t bring him into a game with the bases loaded or even with just two runners on base.
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.
GaSox – Well Hulk Hogan lifted Andre the Giant over his head, so I’m gonna go with The Hulkster.
Given that Crochet was already stretched out last year, he should be good for a full season this year.
Chapman (if he were younger and calmer) or Guerrero (with a bit more experience) could do well in that role, but they definitely should have gotten some closer, either through free agency or a trade.
I get why you feel that way and don’t entirely disagree. But I think the mix we have is good enough on paper to carry us into the summer and see how everyone fits together while leaving room to go find that missing piece at the trade deadline.
Dirty – Exactly! I wrote the same thing in another post, if nobody steps up in the first half then trade for Helsley.
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
Many are putting too much on Chapman who still has an amazing arm. Unfortunately, he sometimes loses command and in my view is no better than Jansen who more times than not made me nervous. I too wanted a lights out closer.
Begin the season with Chapman closing in the right situations only. Then use him in the game wherever he is best suited. I don’t think we’ll know for sure who closes until around June. That’s OK, remember Koji wasn’t closing right away. And he was about the best ever for that one magical year.
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.
Umm, no, people are responsible for their actions. You can’t blame others for your actions unless maybe you are a minor or mentally impaired. The whole organization went along with the plan which would have been discussed throughout the organization. The Red Sox are an organization, not a dictatorship under Cora. BTW, can anyone actually show here that the idea for the plan was solely Cora’s?
Suit – a well run organization, *any* organization, puts its faith in lower levels of management to properly exercise judgment and doesn’t micromanage.
You may be right. *OR* it may be that John henry was never asked ‘hey John, were going to hold our pitching back from starting ST for a few, weeks, you on board with that?’
I’ve had several full careers. When I worked to pay my parents bills instead of gpong to college, back in the days when you didn’t need a paper degree for everything, I was in retail. I worked up to oversee every store in the new england region for a mall based retailer. Not *once* did I ever tell or ask the CEO/COO/CFO/etc when we would have dinner a couple nights a week in FT Lee NJ about how I hired/trained/retrained new managers, or, when I was opening new stores. They deferred to *my* judgment and just waited to see the results.
Could you argue they were responsible for everything I did because of that endorsement/delegation? I suppose so.
But reality is, you hire people based on faith in their abilities and judgment, then you let them sink or swim as they exercise it. Put your fingers in every pie or sign off on every decision is a paralyzing agent in any organization, things would slow to a crawl.
In short, I think Cora was left to run things as he saw fit and it backfired. I don’t think upper management was involved in delaying ST appearances.
(Man I don’t miss that job. Money/expense acct/company H1 to drive in the late 1990s and living in hotel suites on the company dime were cool. Meeting having drinks with snoop was cool. 120 hr work weeks were not. So once they didn’t need my money, I quit to putmyself through college.)
GA: Whatever actually happened, the coaching staff and players bought into the plan and carried it out. They aren’t robots without the ability to resist.
Suit, that would be a different argument if you’re now shifting to Cora and below endorsing it.
As a subordinate coach, maybe a guy said to Cora ‘hey, we shouldn’t be waiting and was overruled. We don’t know that either. Except, from what my gut feeling on coras personality and other situations in his tenure, you *dont* push back hard with him unless you expect a metaphorical knife in your back later.
And players aren’t going to rock the boat – they get told, this is our plan for you, this is when I’m putting you in the game. They’re not doing to ‘resist’ and say, no, I demand to start today blah blah blah.
I don’t think Cora was ordered to delay ST appearances by anyone higher up, and, I dont think those beneath him had much to say against it. But his quotes *do* make me think he strongly endorsed it, and, the idea 99% likely started with him.
I’m not shifting. I said above “The whole organization went along with the plan…”. I also say below “The whole organization went along with the plan in 2019 from Dombrowski down to the players.” Players care about their career. If players think the plan for preparing for their season is bad, they will likely speak up. They better speak up or they may be out of baseball after a horrible season. It is completely unbelievable that one person is completely to blame for the results of an entire season of results.
Allin – Agreed. The Red Sox starting pitchers were delayed in spring training 2019, because of the extra month of pitching in the 2018 playoffs and World Series. Not only did they log innings as starters, but also pitched a lot of relief innings. The idea was to give them extra rest to hopefully avoid injury in 2019. This did not work in hindsight, as Price, Eovaldi, Porcello, and Sale all ended up missing time.
I believe the 2019 Red Sox started the year 3-10 on their West Coast road trip to start the season, and never really recovered (whereas in 2018 they started 17-2)!
Great memory. The team never seemed to get going well which made no sense. It was like they had a hangover that lasted the whole season.
Allin – Agreed. The 2018 team was propelled by a great spring training, and it had a very favorable start in 2018. They never looked back as the winning velocity kept increasing leading to a 108-54 record. It was an eye popping 54 games over .500…!
Convincingly, in 2019 injuries were a problem, and the Red Sox never hit a stride of a sustained winning streak. Management concluded that with Betts most likely leaving after 2020, they would start the rebuild near the end of 2019 by firing DD, which lead to the decision as to how to unwind the big contracts on the books. In hindsight the unwind took 5 years…
Conversely*
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$$.
His job isn’t to talk, so I could care less.
There are a decent amount of pitchers out there with -0- innings expected to be ready for opening day. Just from my fantasy teams-DeGrom, Bautista (O’s closer), Clase, etc., and I don’t think any of my RPs have more than 1-2 IPs right now.
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.
Aww. Alex Cora hurt you .
I could see Whitlock in the closer’s role
Agreed. I think he has the mentality to be a closer.
Well your self adoration of Whitlock s closer aside……the Sox have got two guys who have closed games in the past in Hendrix and Chappy, and you want to make a guy coming off a modified TJ, a guy who’s 18 innings beyond a 5.ERA as the closer because you think he has the “mentality”?….how about ability….how about being able to go out back to back games in a three game set, how about getting that 1 hit an inning down before you anoint him as a closer…….easing him into his bullpen role would be the smart play and let his capabilities both physically and mentally determine how he fits into Cora’s plans…..maybe he should be used as the “stopper” regardless of inning when the opposing team is mounting a rally to protect a lead, or to limit damage so the Sox can come back…..thats what I’d do with a guy coming back from a major injury such as he had…….
Rocky: Nobody said Whitlock should be the closer now. We said we could see it at some point.
Gotta agree to easing him. If he could be the 2-inning high-leverage RP he was a few years ago, that would be a huge win.
I think he has closer talent, but that’s 2026 at best, imo.
I don’t trust either. Whitlock has potential to be a top closer. Chappy throws too hard
We haven’t seen Whit this spring training yet but there appears to be a ton of solid bullpen arms vying for positions on this team.
Hendricks
Chapman
Slaten
Whitlock
Weissert
Wilson I guess
That leaves three spots if we assume a 5 man rotation I mean if Guerrero keeps looking the way he has how do you not keep him that leaves a ton of guys left vying for spots on the roster.
Ottavino
Barnes
Kelly
Wink
Bernadino
Fulmer
Campbell
Moore
The starters look set barring any further setbacks:
Crochet
Houck
Buehler
Bello
Gio
With legit depth options of
Fitts
Priester
Criswell
Dobbins
Drohan
Credit has to be given to Breslow’s pitching lab in the off-season these guys look like they took giant leaps this off-season especially Fitts, Priester, and Drohan. They have all increased their velocity significantly. The pitching looks better than it has in years and the depth looks real. It’s very exciting to see how Breslow is transforming the pitching and building depth. They will still need healthy seasons from Crochet and Buehler to really compete but they are building the pitching and based on others on the way Sandlin, Early, Paez, Monegro, Valera and many more the future looks bright in Beantown.
Bruin – I never heard of Barnes, how did they acquire him? I know you’re not talking about Matt. LOL!
Austin Adams sorry about that mind fart.
Bruin – LOL …. no worries, happens to me too ;O)
Sad – Sorry to inform you that you never had a chance, because you’re not returning from major surgery.
Go get TJS and then try again next spring :O)
Cora said you need to ditch your whirlybird delivery and stop trying to bean every other batter.
The six man rotation can still be using five starters at a time. You just give each guy a rest break or two during the season if they start to struggle. Last year 4 pitchers started about 120 games. That could have worn them out. If you take it down to 25 to 27 starts instead of 29 to 32, the mission is accomplished.
Nasty