The Red Sox may have their closer in Tanner Houck
Close games, blown leads, blowout wins, and crushing defeats. That just about sums up this past five-game series with the Orioles where the Red Sox dropped three at home to Baltimore and have seemingly lost momentum. It may be too soon to fully say that but losing in the fashion they did yesterday doesn’t help. The bullpen continues to be a headache for Boston as it feels like we can’t even trust those that have been reliable as of late. Enter, Tanner Houck.
Houck has been in the bullpen since the Red Sox ventured up north to face the Blue Jays and it appears as if that’ll be his role going forward. He swapped spots with Garrett Whitlock, which has been a topic of many discussions. Whitlock is the team’s best reliever and is one of the better bullpen arms in the league, while he’s proven to be a quality starter, it’s nothing to the level of his relief work.
Tanner, on the other hand, has shown to be a good starter and has been so-so out of the bullpen since the swap, but he’s finding his groove in a big way as of late. His last four appearances out of the pen have been pretty solid and he is surpassing the original gameplan of piggybacking off of Rich Hill or guys who don’t last long in their starts.
In those four outings, he’s tossed 12.0 innings with a 0.75 ERA while giving up just seven hits and one earned, per FanGraphs. His walk/strikeout mix isn’t the greatest at 4/9, but I’ll gladly take that so as long as he keeps runners from crossing home plate. He last pitched on Sunday and needed just 14 pitches to make it through his two innings of work, phenomenal stuff from the righty.
What we’ve seen from him as of late is a big reason why I think the Red Sox should give him the opportunity to be the new closer. They clearly won’t be moving Whitlock back to the bullpen anytime soon and with both Chris Sale and James Paxton soon to return, Tanner won’t be back in the rotation either. I can see Sale being a starter, while Paxton returns to the bullpen and Hill gets bumped as well.
Having those two veterans mixed with the relievers could allow for a semblance of balance and could even lead to more consistency when the ball gets turned over. Again, it’s clear the Red Sox want Garrett to remain as a starter and you sure as hell aren’t putting Sale in the bullpen, so that’s how I see the rotation shaping up in the near future. But this is all about The Houckster and where he fits into the equation.
I’ve been a big backer of his and was ecstatic when he finally earned that rotation job out of spring training. Unfortunately, his vaccination status caused the roster shuffle and with more games in Canada on the horizon, I don’t see Alex Cora and Chaim Bloom putting him back in the rotation. So, if he’s not going to be a starter, why not just complete the swap and give him the role Whitlock had?
Have him be your final guy in the bullpen, and if the game calls for it, he can go longer than just a single inning, but he’s that last nail in the coffin. Cora already doesn’t let him go long when he does start so this would suit both needs. Houck won’t see too much of the lineup and now Boston will have a quality pitcher as their closer. No more closer by committee and we can finally get defined roles for the relievers.
I haven’t been the biggest proponent of Houck being in the bullpen with Whitlock in the rotation but as I’ve mentioned above, that seems to be the plan going forward. So, no more complaining, time to look at things through a different lens. If this is the structure the Red Sox are going to run with then they need to fully commit.
Don’t just have Tanner pitching every few days, give him the structure and workload of a set reliever. Using him just to piggyback is a waste of his abilities. We have plenty of guys who can do that, Houck is better and he should be treated as such. Make him the closer and see what he can do when he has to come in with the game on the line. I believe he has the ability to get the job done, he just needs to be given the chance.