The Red Sox have yet to go “full throttle” this winter as promised, leaving fans frustrated and even some of the team’s players wondering if Boston is serious about contending in 2024. But for right-hander Garrett Whitlock, at least on a personal level, the team’s offseason has been pretty satisfactory.
By acquiring pitching prospect Richard Fitts from the Yankees in the Alex Verdugo deal and signing swingman Cooper Criswell, the Red Sox have added two close friends — and offseason throwing partners — of Whitlock’s. All three pitchers spend their winters training at Tinsley Performance in Pelham, Alabama. The running joke in recent weeks is that the group has become the “Tinsley Performance Red Sox.”
Whitlock’s relationship with both pitchers dates back years. He has known Fitts since the righty’s days pitching at Auburn because Whitlock’s close friend, Astros reliever Kendall Graveman, played with Fitts’ older brother, Trevor, at Mississippi State. Once Fitts was drafted by the Yankees in 2021, he began training at Tinsley, too. Whitlock’s introduction to Criswell was much more random. One day a couple years ago, Whitlock was walking his dog at the local dog park when he spotted a 6-foot-6, athletic looking guy wearing team-issued Angels gear and asked if he played professionally. The pair got to talking and realized that without knowing it, the two minor league pitchers lived just a couple streets apart. They began playing catch at the park together during the winter before Whitlock eventually recruited Criswell to join the Tinsley crew.
Whitlock said he did not talk to chief baseball officer Craig Breslow about either Fitts or Criswell before the Red Sox added them. Regardless, he’s excited to have both friends in the same organization and believes both can impact the Red Sox’ staff.
Fitts, 24, has the highest upside of the three right-handers Breslow obtained in the Verdugo trade and is now ranked by MLB Pipeline as the 10th-best prospect in the organization. He’s expected to be part of Worcester’s rotation after a great year at Double-A Trenton. Whitlock, who similarly joined the Yankees from the Red Sox as a Rule 5 pick three years ago, is high on Fitts’ upside.
“I’ve been playing catch with him pretty much every day this offseason,” Whitlock said. “He’s got a lot of carry on his fastball. He’s got a good, hard, sharp slider. He’s really been working to develop a changeup this offseason. We’ve been working around with it. I think it’s starting to really come around. He’s gonna bring that for sure. He’s a big old dude. He’s my height but he’s got about 15 pounds on me.
“He’s such a good guy. He’s a big goofball and everything like that so he’s really light-hearted. Just a really just a good guy and loves to joke around, loves to have fun. He’s got personality and I really like the kid.”
“I can’t say enough good things about Coop, too,” Whitlock said. “He’s just a big old guy. He’s taller than me actually. But he’s just a fun, easygoing guy. Really relaxed, really laid back, works his tail off and man, he can paint the zone.”
The news that Fitts was traded to the Red Sox broke during Tinsley Performance’s group Christmas party, so Whitlock was with Fitts and Criswell, who was not yet signed, when things started to go down. The group had been talking for weeks about Fitts’ potential involvement in the blockbuster trade that sent Juan Soto from the Padres to the Yankees and was on high alert for Hot Stove news. It was not a surprise to see Fitts get up from the table during the party to take a phone call. What he revealed once returning caught everyone off guard.
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“He starts tapping on the glass and pointing at me,” Whitlock said. “And I was like, ‘Alright, did I call it, he went to the Padres? Why’s he pointing at me?’ Then he hangs up the phone, walks back inside, and he’s just like, ‘Hey, you got a new teammate.’
“It was pretty fun timing that we just happened to be together when it happened.”
As fun as it has been to watch a couple of close friends join him with the Red Sox, Whitlock has his sights set on more important personal priorities this winter. Two years removed from a stellar rookie season as one of the game’s elite relievers, Whitlock had a bit of a lost year in 2023, spending three stints on the injured list and posting a subpar 5.15 ERA in 71 ⅔ innings while healthy. He once again bounced between the rotation and bullpen while dealing with arm troubles; Whitlock missed almost all of May with ulnar neuritis then 32 more games in July and early August with elbow inflammation. The focus this winter is on health after finishing the season with no medical issues.
“My focus is honestly making my body bulletproof,” Whitlock said. “We’ve really focused on getting the right areas of my body strong and cutting everything down to, ‘Hey, what can we do to really focus on building strength in areas that will decrease tension on your elbow and decrease tension on your hip and everything like that? That way I can make it a full 162 (games) and say, ‘You know what, I can handle whatever workload you throw at me. That’s really what I’m focusing on, moving a lot of weight around the right way.”
Part of Whitlock’s re-designed offseason program is based on individualizing his workouts and not trying too hard to emulate how teammates train. Part of the learning curve last season, Whitlock said, was the fact that every pitcher needs to train differently — and not overdo it.
“I learned a lot about myself,” he said. “I love Evo (Nate Eovaldi) to death, but when I tried to work out like Evo, it didn’t work out because I just pushed myself too hard and I broke. I love Sale to death, but if I work out like Sale, I’m not as limber at him and it just doesn’t work. I love Pax (James Paxton) to death, but when I try and work out like Pax, it just didn’t work. I learned how to like, be me. So even though I really look up to these guys and I really value everything they teach me, I can’t do exactly what they do.
“I had to find a way and I feel like this offseason with the help of all these people that are now in my corner, I found a way to be like, ‘This is how I need to do things.’ This is how I need to do things to best optimize what I do.”
For the third straight spring training, Whitlock will enter camp built up as a starter in hopes of landing a rotation spot. With Boston’s rotation mix very unsettled, he may have a chance to claim one.
“Obviously, my answer is always whatever keeps me in the big leagues is what I’m wanting to do,” he said. “But honestly it’s just go in fully built up and prove, ‘Hey, I’m healthy, I’ve had a full healthy offseason, here’s what I look like healthy.’
“I feel like all of last year, everyone saw me trying to play catch-up. They saw the work I was doing, but I was never like fully healthy to try and actually show up what I look like healthy. Now it’s like, ‘Alright, you’ve had a full offseason, let’s see what I can show how I look different.’”
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The NESN broadcast booth has undergone a significant amount of change in recent years with Jerry Remy’s death in Oct. 2021 and Dennis Eckersley’s retirement at the end of 2022. In 2024, however, it’s expected to look very similar to how it did throughout the 2023 season.
The broadcast crew is expected to change little next season with the rotating cast of color commentators taking on similar workloads to what they had in 2023, according to multiple industry sources with knowledge of NESN’s plans. There will be only a few minor changes to the network’s approach.
Play-by-play man Dave O’Brien will return for his ninth year in the NESN booth. Alongside him once again will be former players Kevin Youkilis, Lou Merloni, Will Middlebrooks and Kevin Millar in a rotating cast. Youkilis is expected to once again be the primary color analyst after doing 75 games last season while Merloni, Middlebrooks and Millar will cover the rest of the schedule. The exact breakdown of games isn’t known but will be in line with last year, when Merloni did about 40, Middlebrooks had about 30 and Millar mixed in occasionally, sometimes remotely. Three-man booths throughout the year aren’t out of the question.
Merloni impressed NESN colleagues and viewers with his booth performance last year and could be in line for a heavier TV workload down the road. He’ll also return to the radio side with WEEI where he’s expected to have a major presence in a booth that will once again include newly crowned Hall of Famer Joe Castiglione and Will Flemming. It’s also possible, according to sources, that former Red Sox lefty Rich Hill could get some run in the WEEI booth if he retires or sits out the first half of the season before signing with a club. He’s close with Castiglione and might embark on a media career when his playing days conclude.
It’s unknown if there will be additions to the NESN studio crew alongside Tom Caron, though there will be a large void after the passing of Tim Wakefield, who worked pregame and postgame (and called occasional games) for the network since 2012. Another question is the NESN future of Mike Monaco, who has filled in for O’Brien in recent years but is a known candidate to replace Jason Benetti as the White Sox’ primary play-by-play man.
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The status of Alex Cora’s future in Boston will be a major storyline throughout the season and is starting to gain steam in baseball circles. The recent USA Today report that “several teams” have expressed strong interest in Cora came as no shock; Craig Counsell’s trip through free agency and subsequent $40 million deal with the Cubs changed the game for managers and how they approach their contracts.
Cora is no dummy and knows a massive payday could be in store this fall. With that in mind, it seems unlikely, at this point, that he’ll reach an extension with the Red Sox. Cora pays keen attention to other clubs throughout the league and has tons of friends in the game. He’ll know full well the opportunities that will be available to him on the open market and it’s expected he’ll explore them.
Two big-market possibilities could be in play for Cora. The superteam Dodgers will be under a lot of pressure to win in Year 1 of the Shohei Ohtani-Yoshinobu Yamamoto era and one would have to think Dave Roberts could be under some heat with another failed run at a World Series title. If that’s the case, Cora — a former Dodger who holds the organization in extremely high regard — could be the replacement. There is, however, some concern that corners of the fan base would have an issue with that potential hire considering Cora’s role in the Astros’ sign-stealing scheme.
The most chaotic scenario would involve a move to the Yankees. Yes… the Yankees. Cora’s friend, Aaron Boone, is on the hot seat and may be out of a job if the Yankees fail to reach the postseason again. Imagine he gets fired and Hal Steinbrenner, looking to make a run during the primes of Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole, decides he wants to pay up for a World Series-winning manager with experience in both a big market and the division. It can’t be ruled out, especially considering Cora’s close personal relationship with Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. The large Puerto Rican population in the Bronx may be an intriguing factor for Cora as well.
EXTRA INNINGS
1) What was expected to be a busy Hot Stove week after Yoshinobu Yamamoto agreed to sign with the Dodgers late last week has been a bit of a dud. Since Christmas, only one player (Kevin Kiermaier) signed a deal worth more than $10 million. The pitching market remains stagnant, and one agent pointed out that may be because Scott Boras, who likes to take things slowly in the winter, controls the market as the representative for both Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery. Another agent had this warning Thursday night: “Jan. 1, floodgates start to open around baseball.”
2) The Red Sox’ roster for player appearances at next month’s Winter Weekend event at MGM Springfield is quite underwhelming. Cue the jokes about that being a reflection of the roster itself. But really, it’s strange that five of the team’s most well-known players — Brayan Bello, Rafael Devers, Chris Sale, Kenley Jansen and Masataka Yoshida — are not scheduled to attend. Yes, travel is a factor. But this is a major priority for the Red Sox annually.
Fans coming to Springfield will meet a player cast that’s headlined, for now, by Triston Casas, Trevor Story, Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock.
3) By my count, just seven of the 25 former Red Sox who are free agents this winter have already signed with teams. Joe Kelly (Dodgers), Craig Kimbrel (Orioles), Wade Miley (Brewers), Martín Pérez (Pirates), Eduardo Rodriguez (Diamondbacks), Michael Wacha and Hunter Renfroe (Royals) are off the board. Still available? All six of Boston’s major league free agents from 2023 (Justin Turner, Adam Duvall, Adalberto Mondesí, James Paxton, Corey Kluber and Joely Rodríguez) and a long list of others that includes Matt Barnes, Ryan Brasier, Rich Hill, Kiké Hernández and J.D. Martinez.
