Before the 2024 season, the Boston Red Sox approached many of their young players about long-term extensions. Brayan Bello and Ceddanne Rafaela took the Sox up on their extension offers, while Triston Casas and Tanner Houck did not.
Houck denied the Red Sox's extension offers early in the 2024 season, when he was in a good position to do so. He made his first All-Star game last year with a 2.54 ERA and 112 strikeouts and 26 walks in 117 innings in the first half of the season, and seemed in a prime position to bet on himself.
Since the second half of 2024, Houck has lost his footing. He clocked a 4.23 ERA with 42 strikeouts and 22 walks in 61.2 innings, and has lost his footing even further since then. Houck has looked like a different pitcher in 2025, with an 8.04 ERA over 43.2 innings.
Houck was billed as Boston's No. 2 starter after it traded for Garrett Crochet. They, Brayan Bello, Walker Buehler and a healthy Lucas Giolito were expected to take the Sox's rotation to the next level. They've all had moments of inconsistency this season, as all pitchers do, but Houck's performance has been so drastically different from last season's work that the Red Sox are concerned, to the point that Alex Cora would not commit to the plan for his next start.
Tanner Houck's regression suggests he should've taken Red Sox extension offer when he had the chance
“We’ll talk about it,” Cora said, via Peter Abraham of The Boston Globe. “There were a lot of pitches in the middle of the zone … We’ll have to take a look at it and see what we do.”
Luckily, the Red Sox have other pitchers to turn to while Houck gets back on track. Buehler is expected to return to the roster from the 15-day injured list during Boston's May 19-21 series against the Mets. Kutter Crawford has been on the sidelines with patellar tendinopathy since spring training and he recently began throwing live batting practice, signaling a debut in the coming weeks. Boston also expects offseason acquisition Patrick Sandoval to be ready to pitch in the second half of the season. Hunter Dobbins has been a reliable depth option in the meantime.
Maybe the Red Sox foresaw Houck's regression. They did not approach him about an extension before the 2025 season, also reported by Abraham. Either way, Boston has to be happy he isn't on the payroll at an ace salary — or even close to it — after his latest struggles.
Houck isn't a free agent until after the 2027 season, so he still has plenty of time to entice the Red Sox into signing him long term. At the rate he's going, though, he may