SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – On Friday night, Alex Cora issued a challenge to his quartet of young arms.

“At the end of the day, the Whitlocks, the Crawfords, the Houcks, the Bellos, they have to take a step forward,” the Red Sox manager declared. “Regardless of if you sign the best pitcher in the world, they need to take a step forward.”

Tanner Houck is ready to rise to that challenge.

“Some people probably shy away from it,” he told the Herald on Saturday, in response to hearing what his manager said. “But I love it. That’s the competitor in me. I want to win.”

“The past few years have, I mean, I’ll just say they sucked,” the 27-year-old right-hander admitted. It’s a fair assessment of 2022, when he needed season-ending back surgery, and 2023, when a promising campaign came to a stunning halt in the form of a line-drive comebacker to the face in June. He was “lucky” the 89.7 mph line drive only caused a facial fracture, Cora said.

Houck was able to come back in late August. He finished the year on a high note, shutting out the Baltimore Orioles for six innings on the last day of the season. Overall, he made a career-high 21 starts and threw 106 innings, blowing past his previous high, 69 frames in 2021.

He’s not remotely satisfied with any of that.

“I hate losing,” he said emphatically. “I hate being mediocre. And I feel like, from my standpoint, I’ve been very average. I know that my potential is a lot higher. I know I can do better… I’ve talked the talk and I have to do the walk now.”

Step one will be earning a spot in the starting rotation. Houck will come into spring training building up to be a starter, but said he’ll be competing for the job.

“I want to start, I love starting,” he said. “I know last year was up and down a little bit for me, but at the same point, I feel really confident this year, with the offseason I had.” He added to his pitch mix last year, but is now focused on improving, rather than expanding his repertoire. “It’s just refining and refining down to the smallest detail, and going out there with a great mindset, great attitude each and every day, and just pushing forward.”

Helping him in that endeavor will be Andrew Bailey, Boston’s former reliever and new pitching coach.

“Bailey has been great to work with so far,” Houck said. “We’ve had great conversations so far, many, many texts being sent back and forth, video of my bullpens, and just having great, productive conversations about coming into camp, what I need to work on.”

The righty is also looking forward to learning from Craig Breslow, who had a 13-year pitching career of his own – primarily with Boston – before getting on the executive track and returning to the Red Sox as chief baseball officer back in November.

“As a pitcher, he knows what it takes,” Houck said. “I think his knowledge will be great, to be able to pass down to us.”

Houck also has a strong support system in the form of Garrett Whitlock, who’s also striving for a bounce-back season. The two have developed an incredibly close friendship since first becoming teammates during the ‘21 season, when they initially bonded as locker-mates under the social-distancing COVID-19 setup.

“We called it the Gulag,” Houck said with a chuckle.

Houck and Whitlock have supported one another through injuries and surgeries, and the tragic death of Whitlock’s brother last season.

“On a team, you spend more time with them than your family during the season, so you build these connections,” Houck said. “We’re both very simple: we want to go out there and win and compete. And I think we both sensed that from very early on. We just want to win and give it our all.”

The righty believes he and Whitlock are ready to step up in another way as well. With Chris Sale traded to the Braves, Houck and Nick Pivetta are the longest-tenured members of the Red Sox rotation. Both arrived during the ‘20 season – Houck making his Major League debut, Pivetta via trade from the Phillies – but the latter will be a free agent after the upcoming season. (Houck is still under club control through ‘28.)

“I will definitely step up and do my best to try and be the leader that the young guys need, or the people that haven’t been here for a while,” Houck said. “I love it. I love that AC called upon us to do that.”

“I think it’d be great for me and Garrett to step up and fill that role,” he added, mentioning Whitlock, who’s become his closest friend on the team. “The past few years, we had Sale, and Nick has been a great leader as well in the clubhouse, but it’s time for us to kind of step up and fill that role, and I think it’s just passing the torch off.”

That Houck feels ready to take these steps forward speaks to the environment in which he began his career. In particular, the example set for him by Sale.

“I think with Sale, it was never what he said, but what he did,” Houck recalled. “He was definitely a more lead-by-example person, and personally, I love that. I think that’s the way leaders are. I don’t think to be a leader, you need to be the loudest in the locker room… but I think to be a leader is just to do the little things right, to take that one-percent each day, and just keep moving forward, keep pushing, and I think that’s what Sale did probably the best out of anyone.

“I hope we, me and Garrett, kind of lead in that way and people see it that way.”