Boston Red Sox

Boston Red Sox

Boston Red Sox

After Alex Cora and Craig Breslow hinted at the idea last month, Garrett Whitlock officially confirmed to reporters at Fenway Fest that he was going back to the bullpen in 2025. For a majority of the last 3 seasons, the Red Sox have attempted to make Whitlock a starter at the big league level. That experiment took a harsh turn last spring after he suffered another significant injury to his UCL, which cost him almost all of 2024. Now, he’s turning the clock back to 2021, when he was one of the best multi-inning relief arms in all of baseball.

“Let’s go back to the bullpen, baby,” Whitlock told the media. When asked for the reasoning, he explained that “it was just kind of a little bit of everything. It’s one of those things where, obviously, I still have the repertoire and everything to start, and if they need me to do that, I’ll do that, but just talking to [manager Alex Cora] and everything, it’s comfortable down there, and, it’s where I’ve had success and everything. So it’s what we think is going to help give the team the best chance to win. So we’re going to do that.”

To be fair, the Red Sox and Whitlock are in much different spots than they were 3 years ago. While the pitching pipeline still needs work, the organization has produced 3 homegrown starting rotation options, dealt for a young ace, and collected a trio of young arms in Richard Fitts, Quinn Priester, and Hunter Dobbins at Triple-A. That’s before factoring in Luis Perales, who was on Baseball America’s Top 100 prospect list until his UCL blew out during the summer. After 2021, the Red Sox were desperate for any arm that could possibly profile as a cheap rotation option moving forward, but now that need isn’t so bad that it’s worth risking Whitlock’s health again and again.

Don’t get it wrong, it’s not that Whitlock didn’t have the stuff to stick in the rotation. Just looking at his first 4 starts of 2024, he registered a 1.96 ERA/3.33 FIP, which included a revamped arsenal after working with Andrew Bailey. Availability is the most important skill for any arm player though and after not reaching the 80 inning benchmark once as a starter, it became clear that a return to the bullpen was the best way to get him back on track.

  • Looking back at Whitlock’s 2021, there was no other way to describe him besides being nails. He posted a sharp 1.96 ERA/2.84 FIP with a 9.9 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 in 73.1 IP. That included finishing in the 91st percentile for xERA, 86th percentile for Fastball Velo, 95th percentile for Barrel%, with 99th percentile extension.

    By the end of Whitlock’s rookie season, he was clearly the glue to a weak bullpen and Cora’s most trusted relief option. It felt poetic to watch him finish off the Yankees in the Wild Card round, especially since he was fresh off the IL with a right pectoral strain. That outing was only the 16th time all season that he recorded 3 or fewer outs, which was dwarfed by the 35 appearances he made of 4 or more outs.

    This paved the way for Whitlock to sign his extension in early April of 2022, which included a bunch of escalators that hinted at him transitioning into a starter again at some point. It wasn’t only Chaim Bloom and the front office pushing this idea on the former Yankees’ draftee either, as he had hoped to follow in the footsteps of his idol Rick Porcello and had planned on returning to the rotation as well. Truth is, not much has gone right since the ink dried on that extension, but I think there’s still a chance for it to be a significant win for both sides.

    Heading into 2025, Liam Hendriks, Justin Slaten, Aroldis Chapman, and Whitlock profile as the team’s high-leverage arms. It’s clear the front office is still looking to add to that group and there’s no excuse not to with Kirby Yates, David Robertson, Carlos Esteves, and Tommy Kahnle still on the market. You can envision Chapman, Slaten, and Hendriks pitching the 7th, 8th, and 9th, but imagine having one guy who can cover all of those innings once or twice a week? That’s where Whitlock comes in.

    Whenever the Red Sox bullpen needs a reset, I’d be looking right at Whitlock. He’s the rare relief arm that you can feel comfortable pairing with a starter and hoping that’s all you need for a single game. I’m curious to see if they follow a similar resting pattern in 2025 as they did in 2021, where he essentially got a day off for every inning he pitched, but even in a role like that he should be able to have a serious impact multiple times a week.

    Tyler Milliken on X (formerly Twitter): "I'm happy Garrett Whitlock is still going to be used as a multi-inning arm.Having a guy who can eat 1-3 high-leverage innings is rare. 6 innings from the starter and everyone gets a night off.He recorded more than 3 outs in 31/46 of his appearances in 2021. pic.twitter.com/HGFm7Vq7g1 / X"

    I'm happy Garrett Whitlock is still going to be used as a multi-inning arm.Having a guy who can eat 1-3 high-leverage innings is rare. 6 innings from the starter and everyone gets a night off.He recorded more than 3 outs in 31/46 of his appearances in 2021. pic.twitter.com/HGFm7Vq7g1

  • Tyler Holton recently filled a similar role for the Tigers and it led to him finishing 15th in AL MVP voting. He did everything from being an opener to closing depending on what the pitching staff needed, finishing 2024 with a 2.19 ERA/3.17 FIP in 91.4 IP. It was the definition of a Swiss Army Knife role, which seems like the perfect opportunity for a guy like Whitlock, who has always made it clear he just wants to help the team win.

    Bailey didn’t shy away from hyping up how much of an impact Whitlock will have in 2025. “He’s a guy that you can hand the ball off to and have him go a couple of innings late in the game and give the back end guys a rest. He’s a multi-inning force back there. Gives us another way to finish games. Not only your typical multi-inning guy cleaning up some down games or some big games, he’s a guy that can throw multiple innings in close games as well which gives AC a different way to finish ballgames, which is really valuable for us.”

    Since Whitlock will be working in shorter stints, his stuff should tick up as well. His sinker topped out at 95.9 MPH in 2021 and has been on a steady decline since. That’s no surprise because he was working deeper into games, but there is a sizable drop off down to his 93.4 mark in 2025. We’ve also never seen the righty work in this role with his revamped arsenal, so there might be another level to bullpen Whitlock that we haven’t seen yet.

    It’s been frustrating to see how much Whitlock has missed out on the last few seasons, but he’s still under contract for at least 2025-2026, with the possibility of adding on two more years. He has team options valued at $8.25 MM and $10.5 MM for 2027 and 2028, which should be a bargain if he returns to his 2021 form. Hopefully 2025 is the start of improved health for Whitlock, because there’s a path for him to still dominate in Boston for the rest of this decade.

    Tyler Milliken on X (formerly Twitter): "Garrett Whitlock confirms he's officially returning to the bullpen. 2021 Whitlock is back. pic.twitter.com/qrYnM7kQKf / X"

    Garrett Whitlock confirms he's officially returning to the bullpen. 2021 Whitlock is back. pic.twitter.com/qrYnM7kQKf

  • If Whitlock is right, he could be the glue for the Red Sox bullpen once again. It doesn’t matter how good your backend options are if they run out of gas or go down with injuries. Whitlock can fill those roles and offer proper rest for those guys at the same time, which will be crucial for someone like Liam Hendriks, who is coming off Tommy John surgery.

    I haven’t forgotten the torture of watching the Red Sox bullpen in the second half of 2024, where they posted the worst ERA and FIP of any group in the sport. Volatile arms like Zack Kelly, Luis Garcia, and Lucas Simms were melting down on a nightly basis, as they tried to fill the steady shoes of Chris Martin and Slaten. It made one thing clear and it was that the organization didn’t have the proper pitching depth to get through a 162-game season, so that’s where Whitlock should hopefully be able to contribute in 2025.

    Whitlock has made it clear how much sitting on the sidelines has bothered him over the years, even calling himself the worst player on the team in 2023. Yet, returning to this multi-inning role feels like a shot at redemption for the Georgia native. Not only will he be finishing off important wins and offering flexibility to his manager, but he’ll be picking his teammates up in the process, which seems like a fitting path for a guy who’s been willing to be a janitor to stick in the big leagues.

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