Red Sox's Alex Cora Alludes To Tanner Houck Moving Back To Bullpen

Boston might not have the starting depth for the transition

The Boston Red Sox will be nearing the return of one of their key pitchers, when the second half kicks off but his role is largely undefined.  

After a comebacker struck Tanner Houck a few weeks ago, we have a positive update on his return to the diamond. 

"Houck had a successful follow-up appointment with a doctor Thursday and has been cleared to resume throwing starting Tuesday (July 11), manager Alex Cora said," MassLive's Chris Cotillo wrote. "Houck had facial surgery to install two small metal plates (officially an open reduction and internal fixation of a right orbito-zygomatico-maxillary complex (OZMC) fracture) on June 27."

Houck has a 5.05 ERA, 64-to-23 strikeout-to-walk ratio, .243 batting average against, and a 1.26 WHIP in 67 2/3 innings across 13 games this season. 

All of Houck's 13 games were as a starter, however, Cora floated around the idea of dabbling with the righty as a reliever to ease him back into the mix.

“There’s a lot of scenarios that we can go through, like short reliever, long reliever, starter or whatever," Cora told Cotillo. "We’ll get there when we get there. The good thing is he’s going to be able to start doing his baseball stuff soon and we can get him sooner rather than later.”

It sounds as if Houck's move to the bullpen would only be temporary, as Cora followed up by saying “We like him as a starter but let’s see how we get there.

There isn't yet a definitive date of when Houck will return, but being cleared to start throwing again on Tuesday is a step in the right direction.

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