Tanner Houck setback a reminder Red Sox need rotation help entering trade deadline

New York Times

20-07-2025

CHICAGO — With the trade deadline looming a week from Thursday, the Boston Red Sox have shown their potential as a playoff contender but just as often have shown their flaws.
How — or perhaps with whom — chief baseball officer Craig Breslow remedies the club's situation over the next 10 days is the obvious question as baseball's many contending teams jockey for the best available players.
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Boston's offense has looked lethargic coming out of the break, as evidenced by one run scored through its first two games in the second half, but Breslow has said fortifying the rotation will be a priority, and Saturday offered more reason toward that end.
Before a 6-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs, manager Alex Cora revealed that Tanner Houck suffered a setback at the end of his rehab assignment from a flexor pronator strain, an injury that has kept him out since May 14.
'We pulled him off the rehab assignment, and we're going to keep him on the IL,' Cora said. 'The trainers are working on him in Boston, and we'll have more information in the upcoming days.'
Houck had begun a rehab assignment but gave up 10 earned runs in 15 2/3 innings, though just one earned run in his most recent 9 1/3 innings over two starts.
Though he hadn't been part of the rotation mix for the past two months, his return would have offered more depth to the team's rapidly thinning rotation ranks.
Nine of the 10 starters in the rotation mix to start the year have seen time on the injured list. Garrett Crochet, the lone healthy starter this season, is 17 1/3 innings away from a career high in innings pitched. Crochet will start Sunday against the Cubs, with a few built-in days off following the break, after a complete-game shutout during his final start of the first half eight days ago.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox lost Hunter Dobbins for the season with an ACL tear just before the break and Kutter Crawford to wrist surgery a couple of weeks prior.
Patrick Sandoval, who signed with the Red Sox in the offseason as he rehabbed from Tommy John surgery, was expected to be ready at some point in the second half but still hasn't begun a rehab assignment.
In Triple-A Worcester, Cooper Criswell and Kyle Harrison, acquired in the Rafael Devers trade, remain options.
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Behind Crochet, Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito have become the de facto Nos. 2 and 3 starters. Saturday, the Cubs pounded Bello early with back-to-back homers in the first inning and added a sacrifice fly in the third, making it 3-0, before Bello settled into a rhythm and made his eighth straight quality start of the season.
Bello entered the break with a 2.69 ERA over his previous 10 starts after starting the year on the IL with shoulder inflammation and struggling through the first month.
'I told him today, the bad (starts) are those — six innings, three runs — (and he still) gave us a chance to win the game,' Cora said.
And yet, the Red Sox know they need more pitching.
Internally, the Red Sox are seeking a No. 2 starter, but balancing their desires with what they're willing to give up in a seller's market will be challenging.
There is too much parity in the AL for the Red Sox to pass on improving their roster, but that also means the buyers outweigh the sellers and the cost for pitching will be high.
The Minnesota Twins' Joe Ryan has been the pie-in-the-sky name floated as a target for many teams. The 29-year-old right-hander has posted a 2.72 ERA through 18 starts and is under control through 2027. But the Twins likely won't part with him easily. The Pittsburgh Pirates' Mitch Keller, who has a 3.48 ERA through 20 starts and is under control through 2028, offers the same issue of cost. Other controllable starters, such as the Miami Marlins' Edward Cabrera and Sandy Alcantara, haven't been as dominant but would still come with a high price tag.
Controllable starters are almost always the preference, but as Breslow holds on to a 'future is now' mindset, adding rental starters might end up being the move.
As it is, the Red Sox have their own cache of controllable starters, with Crochet signed through 2031 and Bello through 2029. Dobbins and Richard Fitts are in their first full year of service time. Harrison will eventually be in Boston's rotation mix and won't be a free agent until after the 2029 season.
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That makes targeting starters who will enter free agency this winter more palatable and perhaps less expensive (trade package-wise) than those under control, like Ryan and Keller.
Meanwhile, the Arizona Diamondbacks' Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen are two pending free agents who could fit the Red Sox. Gallen was a Cy Young finalist and All-Star two years ago, though he is having a tough season with a 5.40 ERA. Kelly is amid one of his better seasons with a 3.34 ERA through 20 starts. Both pitchers have postseason experience from the 2023 World Series run.
The Kansas City Royals are expected to trade veteran starter Seth Lugo, a free agent this offseason, who has a 2.94 ERA in 18 starts. He pitched well for the Royals in the postseason last year and has been tied to the Red Sox previously.
There are other free-agent starters, like Andrew Heaney, Michael Soroka and Nick Martinez, but none fit the No. 2 starter profile to slide in ahead of Bello and Giolito. It's possible the Red Sox will pursue bolstering the rotation with any starter, but the asking price will be, as usual, the determining factor.
With moves likely to pick up over the next week or so, the pitching picture figures to gain more clarity soon as the deadline approaches.