Copyright MassLive
In January, Red Sox right-hander Garrett Whitlock declared that 2025 was his “year of health.” It turned out to be much more than that. Whitlock, who had been limited by injuries to just 168 ⅓ innings from 2022-2024 and pitched in just four games in 2024 before requiring season-ending elbow surgery, was a major bright spot for the 2025 Red Sox. He was not only healthy, but also dominant, stabilizing a new-look bullpen as Aroldis Chapman’s setup man. Four years after breaking onto the scene with a stellar rookie year as a Rule 5 pick, Whitlock looked every bit the part of a bullpen staple. He turned in a 2.25 ERA in 72 innings over 62 games — and in his final 30 innings of the season (from July 6 on), allowed just one run (0.30 ERA) and 21 hits while recording a 40-to-5 strikeout-to-walk ratio. “It’s incredible,” said Tanner Houck, Whitlock’s best friend on the team. “It was unfortunate last year, missing out on him for the whole year, but he came back and he worked his tail off the entire year to get to this moment. To watch him go out there in the role he’s done, in big situations, it has been really impressive to watch.” After years of yo-yoing between the rotation and bullpen and missing significant time due to injuries to his hip, elbow and oblique, he had two priorities as he finished his rehab late last year. One, he wanted to be a reliever instead of a rotation experiment once again. And most importantly, he desperately wanted to go wire-to-wire and prove his body could hold up over 162 games. Whitlock avoided the injured list for the first time in five years — in large part due to how he prepared his body in a different way. Before the season, Whitlock decided to prioritize healthy eating based on his bloodwork results. In addition to adding supplements to his diet and monitoring certain levels, he hired a chef company, Elevated Eats, to cook for him and his wife, Jordan, throughout the season. Desperate for any underlying fixes to his injury woes, Whitlock committed to building a better foundation. “Coming into the year, I had tried a bunch of different things to try to stay healthy and the one thing I had never done was a strict diet,” he said. “I got with them and they did a bunch of stuff on me to check and see what I needed. I’ve worked with them all year. I’ve had some cheat days, but for the most part, I’ve tried to stay really diligent on their diet. “There’s no correlative way to tell me it’s the reason, but I think it’s definitely a huge part that has helped for sure.” A leaner Whitlock also benefited from a slight change in his role midway through the season. Manager Alex Cora started the year often relying on Whitlock for multi-inning bullpen stints, something he did 13 times in his first 29 appearances, with mixed results. From June 29 on, until a postseason appearance that went awry as Whitlock tired while throwing a season-high 47 pitches, he was limited to one inning at a time. He held hitters to a .202 average and .520 OPS in his first 25 pitches of outings. Once he went past that threshold, hitters hit .250 with a .750 OPS. The Red Sox thought limiting Whitlock to one inning at a time would help him stay healthy and he did, pushing through a calf issue that had him hobbled at the end of the season. He posted a career high in appearances (62). “It has been a breath of fresh air to be able to contribute and be on the field every day,” Whitlock said. As Whitlock surged, Houck — his close friend and locker mate — experienced a disastrous 2025 after posting the best season of his career in 2024. A year after Houck surged to his first All-Star appearance as Whitlock underwent surgery, Whitlock’s renaissance came as Houck struggled mightily early in the season, then blew out his elbow and had Tommy John surgery in August. The sequence of events continued a pattern of Whitlock and Houck, two righties ever-linked by talent, role questions, age and their relationship, not contributing to the Red Sox at the same time. Both pitchers were bright spots in 2021. Since then, though, it has seemed like one of them has always been rehabbing. “I didn’t even think about that, but yeah, besides at the end of ‘22 when he had his back (surgery) and I had my hip, I guess it’s been alternating,” Whitlock said. As Whitlock enjoyed his successes this season, he did so with a bittersweet taste in his mouth as Houck took a big step back. Houck entered the year as Boston’s No. 2 starter behind Garrett Crochet, but logged an 8.04 ERA in his first nine starts before his season suffered a premature ending in May. That he didn’t have surgery until mid-August will put the entirety of 2026 squarely in jeopardy. Houck has never undergone a major arm surgery before but Whitlock, who had the fully Tommy John procedure in July 2019 and then a less invasive internal bracing surgery last summer, knows what it’s like. In Whitlock, Houck knows he has a 24/7 resource — and support system — on the long road back. “I haven’t been around much,” Houck said in late September as he began strength-building and range-of-motion exercises while anticipating a 12-to-14 month recovery. “But I know he’s a phone call away, to reach out if I need anything. To come back from something like this, it’s gonna be a long process and it’s gonna be hard mentally and physically at different times. “He has been through this journey twice now, so if I have any questions, I’ll immediately pick up the phone or go over to his locker to start talking to him about it.” In the early days of Houck’s rehab, Whitlock gave him some simple advice, borne out of experience, on how to shower while wearing an arm sleeve. He expects to continue answering questions until Houck finally returns to the mound. “That’s what friends are for,” said Whitlock. “When you first get TJ, throwing seven months from now, you’re thinking, ‘My God, that feels like an eternity.’ You’re doing the exact same thing every single day and it can get so monotonous and so boring. Just set little goals. Be like, ‘Hey. I get to move (my arm) from 90 degrees to 100 degrees). Check. Then look forward to the next check mark. Make little goals so the end result doesn’t seem that far away.” A year ago, it was Houck enjoying the successes of a breakout season while Whitlock rehabbed. Now, the roles are flipped. The Red Sox expect Whitlock, after proving health, to be a bullpen force again for them in 2026. Houck hopes he can return as a major contributor, too. “It’s not uncharted territory, by any means, for pitchers,” Houck said. “For me, it’s my first one and I’m planning on it being the last one. “It’s unfortunate that I went down this year with this, but ultimately, we’ll both be out there pitching together one day soon.”
