Garrett Whitlock has been arguably the steadiest member of the Boston Red Sox bullpen this season, could vie for the closer role and, if you ask Chris Sale, has built a legitimate Rookie of the Year case for himself.
But it's easy to forget that he had been brought up through the New York Yankees system as a starter, and the Red Sox have not fully committed to him as a bullpen arm for the long haul.
Whitlock has been stretched out a little bit this season, regularly throwing two or more innings. And when the offseason rolls around, it's possible the Red Sox put the Rule 5 pick on a program that has him arriving in Ft. Myers next February as a starter.
"We haven't actually stepped back and had that discussion yet, so I don't want to jump to any conclusions because I don't think it's right to do that midstream," Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said Thursday on WEEI. "I would say he has developed over the course of the year, we've seen it, a repertoire that makes you think he could be a really good starter.
"Generally speaking, when somebody has that, they have a complete repertoire, they have that strike-throwing ability, the ability to repeat their delivery, if you can get 150-200-plus innings out of them that's usually the biggest way for them to impact your team. Usually, you want to go down that path if you think you can.
"Every individual situation is different, so I don't know where we're going to go with that, but when we selected him in the Rule 5 we thought he was a starting pitcher prospect and you look at how the repertoire has developed over the course of the year in addition to helping us win ballgames in the here and now, I think he's only made himself look even better in that light too when you look to the future."
So, basically, TBD.
For now, though, Whitlock is giving the Red Sox everything they need from him. The other conversations are for November and beyond.
