TODAY: The Red Sox officially announced Hendriks’ reinstatement from the injured list, and Dobbins was indeed optioned to Triple-A.
APRIL 18: Liam Hendriks looks to be in line for his Red Sox debut this weekend. Manager Alex Cora told reporters (including Ian Browne of MLB.com) that there’s a “good chance” the veteran reliever will be activated from the 15-day injured list tomorrow. Chris Cotillo of MassLive observes that righty Hunter Dobbins is preparing to head back to Triple-A Worcester after being recalled this afternoon. It seems he’ll be optioned in the corresponding move.
Hendriks has not pitched in an MLB regular season game since undergoing Tommy John surgery in August 2023. That ended his time with the White Sox, as Chicago bought out a $15MM club option with Hendriks set to miss most or all of the ’24 season. The Red Sox added Hendriks on a backloaded two-year deal with a $10MM guarantee. He made $2MM to finish his rehab last year and is playing on a $6MM salary this season (plus a $2MM buyout on a ’26 mutual option).
The three-time All-Star tried to make it back last September. Hendriks made six minor league rehab appearances, but the Sox backed off his progression when he felt some arm discomfort. He struggled over seven Spring Training outings and landed back on the injured list with elbow inflammation to begin the season. Hendriks was shut down for a few days and received a cortisone shot, but there wasn’t any kind of structural damage. He started a rehab stint last Thursday.
Hendriks has worked three scoreless innings in as many appearances between the top two minor league levels. He has fanned five while issuing two walks. His fastball averaged 94 MPH during his Triple-A work. It’s a nice rebound from the rocky exhibition play, when he allowed seven runs over 6 1/3 frames.
Entering camp, Hendriks seemed the favorite to replace Kenley Jansen as Boston’s closer. Aroldis Chapman had a much better Spring Training to take hold of the ninth inning. Chapman is 4-4 in save opportunities and has only allowed one run over 7 1/3 frames, so he’ll remain the closer. Hendriks will join Justin Slaten and Garrett Whitlock as setup options from the right side.
That food truck surprise he gave them must have been him knowing this was coming up soon.
The long road back is almost complete. Hopefully he gets into tomorrow’s game and pitches well
Shrimp, Barbie
The Sox bullpen is looking like a strength in the early going, after being probably the biggest question mark of the team heading into the season. If Hendriks can come back strong and guys like Bernardino, Weissert, Wilson and Winckowski can somewhat maintain their strong starts, they might end up having one of the better bullpens in baseball this season. Not only has it looked like a strength in the early going, but they also have several guys performing well in AAA (Wyatt Mills, Nick Burdi) who may get a shot at some point. Add in the fact that guys like Dobbins, Newcomb and Criswell can all be shifted to the pen after all of their starters are finally healthy, and the overall depth is very impressive. Breslow has done a really good job building the pitching staff over the past year or two.
Ban – I appreciate your optimism about the bullpen but facts don’t support it. Red Sox are only 18th in bullpen ERA despite playing against weak offenses like the Rangers and ChiSox. Chapman is great, Whit is great but is being handled with kid gloves. And Liam will obviously need time to shake the rust off. So probably best to wait until June before making predictions about the pen.
Fever, additionally while each win counts, the key to me is getting length out of your starters so Cora can’t burn out the pen by July.
Dewey – I totally agree! That message has finally been conveyed to Crochet, who has dialed it back in order to go longer in games.
However leaving in Houck to give up 12 runs was wrong, hopefully it won’t have a lasting impact on him.
Crochet has pitched 26 innings in 4 starts. That is 6.5 innings per start which is pretty good.
I can’t recall Fever, was the bullpen available?
dewey – Yes, everyone except Whit and Chap were available …. and you wouldn’t want to use those two in a blowout anyway.
Take out the guys no longer here and that pen ERA drops from 3.93 to 2.97. When you limit it to only the guys used in higher leverage situations protecting a lead it drops to 2.63. That’s pretty solid.
Bullpen ERA maybe isn’t the best metric, you have to look at their ability to cover key innings effectively. The Red Sox should end up as a top ten bullpen, regardless of how many runs they concede in blowouts. Chapman, Whitlock, Slaten, Weissert are all solid.
Sigh… I shouldn’t have jinxed it.
They can’t send down Zack Kelly instead? Dobbins has done pretty well.
Let – Dobbins wouldn’t be available for the next 4 games. With Bello returning next week, there’s no need for Dobbins unless there’s another injury or Houck gets moved.
Fever, I’d consider a six man staff as I worry long term about Crochet and those coming back from injuries.
Dewey – I was expecting it as well, but looks like Cora doesn’t want to sacrifice a reliever to do it.
You can’t have everything and these last few years have shown the bullpen is spent by July or August. Why not try something different?
dewey – We can only hope! I just don’t see Cora changing his spots, especially now that he just started his new 3-year contract. Which means no 6-man rotation, especially with Whit being on a one appearance every 3 or 4 games schedule. It’s gonna be really hard to time his usage so that it’s only in winnable games.
Once Bello or Giolito is ready, Wink will be the first one they send down. He’s lost all of his confidence and is not pitching well. They will also have to make a hard decision on Newcomb as well, especially once all 3 IL pitchers are ready (Bello, Giolito & Fitts). While the bullpen might need a tweak or two, hats off to Breslow on the pitching depth he has accumulated. Having Dobbins, Fitts & Newcomb on hand to start games has been great and they also have someone like Sandlin who is getting ready as well. Perhaps one or two of these guys end up in the bullpen by later in 2025. Personally, I think Fitts would be nasty coming out of the bullpen once their rotation is back to full health. Or maybe they end up moving Houck to the bullpen if he continues to implode and give his spot to Fitts.
Dotty – Don’t forget Sandoval and Crawford are due back mid-season too.
It’s nice to have so much depth, but it could lead to bad decisions being made.
Fever – Excellent point, I forgot about Crawford! I think Sandoval is more of a 2026 option but maybe he can get some looks in Aug-Sep. it’s good that Fitts, Dobbins, Wink & others can still be optioned, so they can juggle the rotation/bullpen as needed for the most part. I do think Newcomb eventually gets DFA’d but I am pulling for him not to. Local kid done good….
Newcomb might be able to be moved to the bullpen.
Im with suit newcomb has earned a spot on this team pen for lr
Depth is only good if it’s reliable and adequately managed.
I know Crawford will be ok, I like the progress of Fitts and Dobbins.
I’m not sure the rest is going to be good, or, well managed.
I’m really down on Cora.
If Campbell is in CF once more with Hamilton at 2B I’m gonna lose my mind.
Sad – Fact is half the starting lineup has been bad so far (Casas, Rafaela, Devers, Duran, Wong) and if any of those guys continue to fail they are gonna need to make some changes.
Calling up Mayer & Anthony immediately after the Sox get the extra year of team control is a must. But like you said, they are going nowhere if Cora continues to mismanage them.
I still think Fatso will be the first casualty though. Driveline has really messed up this team, you can’t force the same questionable hitting philosophy on every Red Sox hitter. Every player is different, they each need to be allowed to do what works best for them. Hitting should never be a one-size-fits-all approach.
Dotty – Agreed, I am rooting for Newcomb as well.
FPG: “you can’t force the same questionable hitting philosophy on every Red Sox hitter”
=======================
You have no idea what has been done with each hitter.
Campbell should be fine playing two positions. Lots of players play more than one position.
Mayor started off slow in wooster and anthony is reportly is dh only due to a shoulder issue…no sense in. Calling mayor up with story on fire and mayor cold…and anthony must play the field to.get the call thats all they are waiting for…and no i dont think they are lieing about anthonys should
Slide story to second, Mayer to SS. He’s starting to heat up, 7rbi yesterday. Shift Campbell to center and Ceddane can fill in as necessary. Let Roman heal a bit longer.
Dotty…fitts is nasty in the starting five..if he can hold down a rotation spot its probably a waste to put him in the pen unless you clearly have better options…and the way houck is going he needs to be put on the IL with the old phantom injury till he can sort out what is going on hes too good for the pen as well and that might not help him get right
Pool – Houck really seems like he’s unhappy, probably because the team doesn’t see him as being in their longterm plans. It’s kinda like a snowball effect.
In the Netflix doc even though he had a very compelling breakout season and he’s such a unique guy, he was basically non-existent along with Yoshida (they focused so much on Duran, Casas and Bello but ignored the guy who was a superstar in Japan?).
Houck is just very different than Cora and most of his teammates. He’s highly religious, doesn’t enjoy cursing, and is much more a family man. He was disappointed the Sox never approached him about a possible extension despite his strong 2024 season. And the way Cora left him out to hang for 12 runs last Monday, I’m certain that didn’t sit well with him. No way Cora does that with Bello, Crochet or Buehler.
I think there’s a good possibility Houck gets traded this year.
Fpg ..i agree on the run deal he should not have started the 3rd inning..that said it happened very fast in the 3rd so assuming cora intentionally hung him out to dry is a big reach vs him having faith in him to give them so innings after the poor first two…and based on what the netflix directors said they followed the players that were intersted and werent under any instructions from The team on what they did and did not show..now you could call him a liar but i thinks it more you reading too much into it .and for the record they did speak with houck on an ext prior to last year
Pool – Netflix had total access to the clubhouse and all the players. You may have misunderstood what I was saying, Houck was not very vocal and kept to himself …. that’s not a complaint against him or Netflix, I never said Netflix intentionally ignored him.
As for the extension talk, where did you hear that? He was quoted recently (past couple months I believe) that he was never approached about an extension. I don’t think he’d lie about that.
Fpg…i dont want call houck a liar either or you for not researching before you posted but but lets just assume he forgot the contract extention discussions he had with the team per this feb 23 report
Tanner Houck had ‘conversations’ with Red Sox about extension, open to deal – masslive.com
masslive.com/redsox/2023/02/tanner-houck-had-conve…
Pool – Thanks, I feel better now! His quote was likely in response to this past offseason, not ever.
2 years is a long time ago! Lol!
He has just become a human interest story. His talent isn’t why he’s on the team and you know it….
Remember when blackpink called black players “colored”?
Also wearing those pants to shorts zipper jawns.
Yes, the Red Sox signed him because he’s a “human interest story”
Where do these people come from?
Missouri
This team doesn’t have a 40 save closer and that’s ok. Chapman in some situations but used somewhat sparingly to keep him firing missiles. Hendricks has the right mentality and if he can get his stuff up to snuff, he gets a share of the load. Sprinkle in a dash of Slaten and Whitlock and I think they’re set up for closing. Then they need arms for set up innings, the more reliable options the better.
I’ve explained the six man rotation many times before but it’s not really a six man rotation like a five man or four man rotation. It’s having six guys start about 25 – 28 games, but everyone on the four day rest cycle. So it’s still a five man rotation but using a sixth pitcher to insert into the rotation when someone needs a break.
hayzee – With all due respect, why are you always so negative?
Chapman can easily reach 40 saves if managed properly. He just came off a stretch where he pitched in 5 games over a 7 day period!!
Cora just needs to stop bringing him into tie games so often.
Playing the long game, definitely not negative.
Chapman’s the closer and could easily save 40 if given the opportunities. Getting 40 saves is more a product of save chances than anything else.
Sweet. He’ll get a couple games in before he gets hurt again
Cool. Hopefully he’ll stay healthy this time…He also is one of the most outspoken liberals in the game, sort of the anti-Jason Adam, and we appreciate him.
Please stop using the words liberals and conservatives. They have no meaning in today’s world. In fact, many words have been co-opted by the politicians to just rile up their followers: woke, cancelled, CRT, BLM, patriots, neocon, RINO, need I go on?
Sorry Alan53, this wasn’t directed at you, just the state of things today.
Now, back to baseball, go Red Sox.
Nobody gives a crap about his politics or any other baseball players. Nor football/basketball/hockey/tennis etc…
They are not us