On Wednesday, Tanner Houck was placed on Injured Reserve for the Boston Red Sox with a flexor pronator strain, with Cooper Criswell taking his spot on the active roster. In simple terms, he has been diagnosed with an elbow strain. For several weeks, Houck has not appeared quite right, with a decreased velocity very recently and some sub-par pitch movement and location to the naked eye. It has led to a disastrous start for the right-hander, who has struggled to get anything going.
At one point, it was bad enough for fans and even coaches to start discussing whether Houck was tipping his pitches. There was never much discussed in the end on that front, but with him headed to the IL, perhaps there was a different element to his struggles that was not visible to the typical fan. The injury could be a phantom one, of course, used to get Houck into a better headspace.
In either scenario, the goal is to get Houck back to the way he was pitching in the first half of last year. Given his struggles to close out the season, one has to wonder if there is something more going on than just a simple injury, but time will tell as the team executes his rehab stint at some point in the future.
Whether due to injury or something else, Tanner Houck has put up absolutely horrible numbers in 2025 thus far. His 8.04 ERA is terrible for any pitcher, let alone one who has made nine starts on the season. His advanced metrics indicate it has not been much bad luck either, with a 6.12 FIP and a 5.83 xERA. The K% to BB% ratio is also by far the worst in his career, and he simply has not been missing bats. His career low strikeout rate actually follows a yearly trend, something that is also concerning.
Not every element of Houck’s stats has been rock bottom, though. While he is getting hit slightly harder this year and the batted ball metrics are the worst of his career, they are not dramatically worse than usual. This is largely the reason why his xFIP and SIERA (4.60 for both), while bad, are not as abysmal as the rest of his statistics. Still, that is a small cancellation when the actual results on the field are as poor as they were.
Given that Houck is now on the IL, it is certainly possible this is all a result of an injury. If this is the case, though, the team needs to look at what elements need to be fixed for him to be ready to return. His velocity is averaging career norms, although it did appear to dip a little in his last start.
In terms of pitch selection, though, there is a slight change for Houck. He developed a cutter in 2023 that he used throughout the season, but used it more sparingly in 2024. The cutter appeared to at least in part act as a substitute for his four-seamed fastball, which he threw only three times at all in 2024. In 2025, though, the cutter has been completely abandoned, with the sinker and 4-seam fastball making up the difference.
Is this a good change for Houck? The results are mixed. His 4-seam is getting absolutely lit up so far, but that actually is not even his worst pitch. That award belongs to his split finger, which was his best pitch just one season ago. All his pitches have been negative, which is no surprise given the results, but his sinker has at least been near break-even, which explains the uptick in usage.
Ironically, the spin rates on all four of Houck’s pitches have been up, not down, despite what has appeared to be flatter movement. Therefore, the reality is that the main culprit of his struggles is his command. With issues nailing his spots on offspeed pitches, he is being hit, and hit often. His time on the IL needs to be spent working on his ability to locate, especially his splitter, which was such an asset during his All-Star campaign last year.
Tanner Houck absolutely has to be better when he comes back to the Red Sox. Given his performance, it would be hard to be much worse. The Red Sox roster is built around relying on Houck as the number 2 pitcher behind Garrett Grochet, and instead, he has looked like he does not even belong on the roster.
Given the struggles of the bullpen, many people have suggested converting Houck to the bullpen. Right now, though, the focus should be on getting the pitcher back they saw in the first half of 2025. The bullpen is struggling in part because of pressure from the rotation, and in high-leverage spots. Better and deeper performances from the rotation will help, and it would open the door for the back-end to shift to the bullpen instead. Starting pitching is essential, and the Red Sox need the best version of Houck to show up to make a playoff push.
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