Competition begins for the final spots in the Red Sox rotation
Garrett Whitlock is vying for a spot in the Red Sox rotation, he tossed two frames against the Orioles during Saturday's 4-3 loss.
With the Red Sox only added starting pitcher Lucas Giolito this offseason and no other starters, the team signaled they were going to rely on the young hurlers in-house.
Camp has been underway for two weeks and the Grapefruit League schedule is now underway, three pitchers are locked into the Red Sox rotation.
Giolito, Nick Pivetta and Brayan Bello have been penciled into the Red Sox rotation with Kutter Crawford leading the rest of the group. If Crawford locks down a spot in the rotation, Boston will have competition for the fifth and final spot.
Josh Winckowski, Tanner Houck, and Garrett Whitlock will compete to lock up a spot.
Whitlock pitched on Saturday against the Orioles. The righty tossed two innings, surrendering one hit, a solo homer to catcher Adley Rutschman and recorded two strikeouts.
Despite the homer, Whitlock didn’t pitch bad in his first spring outing, he did however give up hard contact to the Orioles hitters.
“He fell into some deep counts,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “The 3-1 changeup to Adley. Conditions were conducive to fly balls going out of the ballpark. But overall it was a good outing. The quality of pitches was good. So now we move on to the next one.”
The team believes in Crawford and unless he has a horrendous spring, it’s his spot to lose.
“As of now, if everything stays the same and they’re healthy, Lucas is in the rotation and Nick is in the rotation. Brayan too,” Cora said. “We believe Kutter (Crawford) is a starter but we have to make decisions accordingly but I believe his future is there, he’s proven it before. So we’re going to give him a lot of chances, or let’s say he has the lead in that one. Then after that we’ll see how it goes.”
Overall results really don’t matter during the spring. Cora and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow have mentioned that a bunch since camp opened. Boston will be looking to see how they can improve players weaknesses and how the react against adversity.
“[Whitlock] looked the part before, and he looks better now,” said Cora. “This offseason, he was healthy. That’s the most important thing. He’s attacking in the right way. We’re joking about 2021, the way he went about his business, I don’t think he made one mistake in that camp.”
All of the pitchers getting a long-look this spring have strengths but they also have weaknesses that cause concern.
“We know about all of them and each one of them have their strengths and have shown some weaknesses throughout their career,” Cora said. “Tanner, strike throwing. Kutter, can he maintain his stuff? Whit, can he stay healthy? Winckowski, can he maintain his stuff? That’s something that we’re going to take a look at.”
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Whitlock is treating the spring in a way for him to take the next steps, no matter what role he’s asked to perform on the roster.
“I don’t feel like there’s this chip or this burden like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to be a starter’ or ‘Oh, I’ve got to be a closer,’ ” said Whitlock. “It’s like, ‘Dude, you’re on a freaking big league team. Enjoy that, have fun, and freaking compete.’”
