It’s an uncomfortable thing, being the player brought up to replace a teammate who’s just suffered a season-ending injury.
It’s certainly not how Red Sox right-hander Richard Fitts wanted to get back to Boston.
“It sucked to see (Hunter) Dobbins go down last night,” Fitts told the Herald on Saturday, moments after Dobbins fielded questions about his right ACL tear. “It’s not how I want to be back, by any means.”
Fitts picked up his long-awaited first MLB win Monday night, only to be optioned the following day. The Red Sox wanted to add reliever Isaiah Campbell to the bullpen before the next turn in the rotation came up. On Friday, they optioned Campbell and activated Dobbins from the injured list. Hours later, he exited his start after just 1.2 innings.
On Saturday, Fitts was back.
“I’m excited to be back. It does suck, for the circumstances, but that’s what being a rookie in this league is like, too,” he said. “The options are a part of it, and I’m trying to maximize the time up here.”
Fitts, who made four starts for the Red Sox in a memorable late-season debut last fall, owns a 4.28 ERA through eight big-league starts this season (he missed over a month with a right pectoral strain in mid-May). Yet with the exception of a five-earned run blip on June 2, he’s allowed no more than three earned runs in any outing. Over his last three starts, he’s yielded a combined five earned runs in 12.2 innings.
“I think I’m in a good spot,” the righty said. “I’m disappointed in a sense of where I thought that I was going to be at the beginning of the season, just because of my injury, but in a sense of pure stuff and how my body feels right now, I feel like I’m in a good spot.”
After being a self-professed “three-pitch guy” last year, Fitts arrived at spring training with one of the most expansive pitch mixes on the staff.
“It feels like I have six weapons that I can use: four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, changeup, gyro slider, sweeper, and curveball,” he told the Herald during spring training.
Now more than halfway through the season slate, his changeup use has “tapered off a little bit,” even though he said the pitch felt good when he began throwing it after his injury.
“The curveball, sweeper and slider have been great for me, the sinker’s been great,” he assessed. “(With the changeup), just in a sense of, why throw another pitch when the slider’s working well? Why throw what would be considered one of my not-as-good pitches if I have a better option? So at the end of the game, it’s like ‘Oh crap, I didn’t even throw a single changeup!’
“I still think it’s a good pitch, but just need some practice with it. I just want to help the team. I want to do everything that I can, and I think I’m in a good spot, development-wise and health-wise, too.”
Presently, that means moving to the bullpen, something Fitts “did a little bit in college.” That’s a very short-term plan, though, as only two games stand between the Red Sox and the All-Star break.
“We’ll set up the rotation after the break, probably with him in mind,” said manager Alex Cora.
What about Tanner Houck?
Cora and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow have been cagey about Tanner Houck’s path forward. The ‘24 All-Star has been on the 15-day injured list with a right flexor pronator strain for nearly two months (May 15, retroactive to May 14). His 30-day rehab allowance expires Thursday, the day before the Red Sox and Cubs open the second half in Chicago.
Houck’s season has been a stunner. He was the ace of Boston’s rotation last year, posting a 3.12 ERA over a career-high 30 starts, including a complete-game shutout. Through nine starts this year his ERA sits at a towering 8.04, with 39 earned runs, including 10 homers, in just 43.2 innings. He only exceeded five innings of work in four outings, and allowed multiple earned runs seven times, including a pair of 11-run blowouts in Tampa (April 14) and Detroit (May 12).
“He’s in the equation,” said Cora, who noted that Kyle Harrison, the lefty from the Rafael Devers trade, is also on the table. “But like I said, I think Fitts is the one that will jump into the rotation.”
The Red Sox have discussed moving Houck to the bullpen. He also has options remaining, so they could opt to have him work in Triple-A.
“We’re trying to understand what part of the performance was driven by health,” Breslow told the Herald. “(Houck) is obviously a really important piece of this team, he was an All-Star last year, and he is trying as hard as anybody to get back on track.”
Another idea Breslow floated would be using an opener for Houck.
“Using an opener, coming out of the ‘pen, might just change the environment enough that it just gives him a different mentality,” the executive, a former Red Sox reliever, explained. “I think there’s something about pitching out of the ‘pen where you kind of feel like your job is now to attack the strike zone, throw your best stuff, go right after hitters. And seeing if just that different type of mentality helps the performance and then assuming that it does, we can then figure out where the best place is for him.
“I still think, obviously, he’s been a really good starting pitcher in the big leagues and that’s in there, but we’ll balance what’s best for Tanner with what’s best for our team in the short-term.”
