After breakthrough '24, Houck looking to take another step

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- After years of swinging back and forth between roles and dealing with some injuries along the way, Tanner Houck pushed all that aside and took the leap in 2024, going from bubble rotation candidate in Spring Training to All-Star by July.

¡°Yeah, I mean, it's a great first step,¡± said Houck. ¡°The job's not done by any means.¡±

Houck was scheduled to make his first Grapefruit League start against the Yankees on Monday, but the game was canceled due to rain. Instead, the righty did his throwing indoors.

As nice as last year was for Houck, his expectation is to take another leap forward in ¡¯25, one in which he ideally finishes the season as strongly as he starts it.

This would include avoiding the shoulder fatigue that led to a velocity dip down the stretch.

It would also include diversification of pitch mix, now that opponents have a full scouting report to study.

Though he has goals for what is ahead, Houck does appreciate what he did last season, as well he should. His 30 starts and 178 innings were easily career highs. It is a building block for a 28-year-old who has electric stuff when he is on his game.

¡°I know that last year was a great step forward in terms of my growth as a player, new career highs [in most categories] and everything, and I hope to do that again this year,¡± said Houck. ¡°Ended on a little bit of a sour note, which I could have finished stronger, but to say that I had a good year last year, finished all the way through, got the 30 starts was a great feat.¡±

The first 16 starts of last season provided a look at what Houck¡¯s ceiling can be. Over 103 1/3 innings, he posted a 2.18 ERA, while walking 18, striking out 101, allowing only two homers and holding opponents to a .211 average.

But starting with a Sunday afternoon performance against the Padres on June 29 -- in which he gave up nine hits and seven earned runs over 4 1/3 innings -- the rest of the season turned into a grind. That 14-start sample included 75 1/3 innings, a 4.42 ERA, 30 walks, 53 strikeouts, nine homers and a .260 opponents batting average.

The dip seemed like a classic case of a pitcher losing steam while increasing his workload significantly. And there was a two-week stretch from Sept. 5-17 when Houck didn¡¯t pitch due to shoulder fatigue.

¡°I think velocity went down a little bit throughout the year,¡± Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. ¡°If you don't create that separation on pitches, people can make adjustments. And you can kind of like, sit soft, and it happened throughout the season, but he had a great season. He did an outstanding job.¡±

Cora expects that a tweak here or there will get Houck back to what he was when last season started.

¡°Keeping him healthy throughout is important,¡± Cora said. ¡°He had that little hiccup towards the end, and we took care of him, but overall, I think just keep the delivery [intact]. Be consistent with it. And I know they're working on a few pitches.

¡°The four-seamer might come into play at one point in camp, which is important to create space for the other stuff. He looks great. He's in a good frame of mind.¡±

So heavily did the Red Sox count on Houck last season that perhaps it was no coincidence that when he started struggling, the team did as well. This season, he no longer carries that burden. Boston has added a blossoming ace in Garrett Crochet, a two-time World Series winner in Walker Buehler and another veteran with a track record in Lucas Giolito, who actually joined the club a year ago but didn¡¯t pitch after undergoing a repair on his right UCL.

¡°I've been talking to them the whole time,¡± said Houck. ¡°Kind of talking through pitching, and pitching viewpoints, kind of how they go about things. So I'll pick their brain now and throughout the whole season.¡±

While Houck has been known for the nasty sink on his pitches ever since his initial call-up in 2020, mixing in more elevated fastballs could make him more difficult to hit.

¡°Kind of like, change eye level,¡± said Cora. ¡°But it has to be with purpose. It's not just to go up just to go up.¡±

Houck, however, fully believes his stock will again go up in the season ahead.