Red Sox’ Tanner Houck to undergo Tommy John surgery

Tanner Houck’s difficult 2025 season has officially reached its conclusion.

The Red Sox right-hander will undergo Tommy John surgery, manager Alex Cora announced Saturday afternoon.

The procedure, which repairs the elbow’s ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) carries a recovery timetable of 12-18 months, meaning Houck could miss all of next season as well.

This season has been a heartbreaking turn of events for the righty, who debuted in September 2020, and is now the organization’s longest-tenured player, following the Rafael Devers trade in June.

Houck was a first-time All-Star last year, and pitched to career-best marks in ERA (3.12), starts (30), innings pitched (178.2) and strikeouts (154).

Through just nine starts totaling 43.2 innings this season, Houck posted a 8.04 ERA with 32 strikeouts. It became apparent early on that he was struggling. Last year, he struck out 20.7% of batters, walked just 6.5%, and allowed home runs at a sterling 1.5% rate, nearly half the league average (3.1%). This year – though a smaller sample size – the strikeout rate plummeted to 15.8%, he issued walks at an 8.4% clip, and the home runs skyrocketed to 4.9%.

 

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