Red Sox right-hander Garrett Whitlock will undergo surgery and won’t return for the rest of the season, reports Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe (Twitter links). Whitlock is expected to be ready for Spring Training. Chris Cotillo of MassLive reports that the procedure will be arthroscopic hip surgery for a right hip impingement.
Whitlock, 26, went on the injured list due to hip inflammation in June and ended up missing just over a month. The issue never really went away though, with Abraham reporting a few weeks ago on Whitlock’s ongoing struggles to continue. The Red Sox were in the Wild Card race for the first few months of the season but have faded recently and are now 10 games behind the Mariners for the final spot, with three clubs in between. Given that there’s just over two weeks remaining on the schedule, their chances of climbing back into the race have evaporated, making it fairly logical to stop pushing Whitlock and start worrying about next season.
Despite the ongoing injury and unfortunate ending, it’s been another successful season for Whitlock. After being selected from the Yankees in the 2020 Rule 5 draft, he stuck with Boston through all of last year, registering a 1.96 ERA over 73 1/3 innings, along with a 27.2% strikeout rate, 5.7% walk rate and 49.7% ground ball rate.
Just as the 2022 campaign was ramping up in April, he and the Sox agreed to a four-year, $18.75MM extension that also comes with a pair of club options, cementing him as a key piece of the team’s pitching staff. This year, Whitlock eventually earned himself a spot in the rotation, making nine starts. However, since going on the IL with the hip issue, he has only appeared as a reliever. Perhaps Whitlock could be considered for a rotation spot again next year, if the surgery goes well and he’s able to return to full strength. While pitching around the issue for most of the season, he still registered a 3.45 ERA over 78 1/3 innings along with a 26.4% strikeout rate, 4.8% walk rate and 40.8% ground ball rate.