Garrett Whitlock at Red Sox Winter Weekend: ‘I think I was the worst guy on the team last year’
Garrett Whitlock was pretty open about his 2023 performance while being interviewed by reporters at Red Sox Winter Weekend.
“I’ll be the first to say, I think I was the worst guy on the team last year,” Whitlock said at Red Sox Winter Weekend on Saturday. “So I think I need to pick it up a lot. I think AC (Alex Cora) would tell you that. I think anyone who saw me last year would tell you that. I’ve put a lot on myself to try and really step it up.”
Whitlock spent 27 games on the injured list with right elbow ulnar neuritis and 32 games on the IL with an elbow bone bruise. The righty started the season in the Red Sox rotation, posting a 5.23 ERA in 10 starts. Boston moved Whitlock to the bullpen following his second IL stint and he had a 4.95 ERA in 12 outings, 20 innings.
“This is the first offseason I’ve been healthy in a while,” Whitlock said. “So I took advantage of it. I took one week off at the end of the season and I went straight back and got to work in the gym. I just basically wanted to do that: Build strength and build it the right way. Just kind of focus on rebuilding the right muscles, the right strength and everything like that to kind of be as healthy as I can be.”
Whitlock opened the season on the IL recovering fro hip surgery that he had at the end of the 2022 season. He missed the first 10 games of the 2023 season.
“Basically making sure my shoulder is strong enough to be able to withstand everything, whatever workload comes my way,” Whitlock said. “Obviously it all starts from the ground up. So really building my legs and core and everything like that to just kind of be able to handle the full 162.”
The plan for Whitlock right now is to open the season as a starter. In order to be able to handle that workload, the Georgia native wanted to focus on getting “genuinely needs to be stronger.”
“I was barely walking in November last year,” he said. “So that was a little different. So I definitely lost some strength and everything. So it’s just getting back to that point of being healthy and being strong.
“Health is a big thing and then just going deep into the game every single time,” Whitlock added.
NBC Sports Boston’s John Tomase said that Whitlock physically looks like former Red Sox southpaw Jon Lester. Whitlock told reporters that he’s 222 pounds, “but it’s a rock-solid 222.”
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