Tanner Houck ‘Jealous’ To Not Be With Red Sox After Injury

Boston Red Sox pitcher Tanner Houck has been spending a lot of time watching his teammates on TV while recovering from successful surgery since being hit in the face with a comebacker on June 16.

“I’m getting real jealous that I can’t be out there,” Houck told reporters, as seen on NESN’s pregame coverage before the Red Sox took the field against the Oakland Athletics on Saturday. “I’m ready to get back. I’m ready to get going but I know we’re going to check all the boxes and get cleared.”

The 27-year-old right-handed pitcher had a plate inserted to repair an internal fixation of a right orbito-zygomatico-maxillary complex (OZMC) fracture.

“It’s definitely the weirdest injury I think I’ve ever had,” Houck explained. “The rest of my body feels great. I feel like I could be out there tomorrow.”

Unfortunately for Houck, tomorrow is a bit farther away than he would like since he hasn’t been able to resume any baseball activities yet but there is light at the end of the tunnel — he will begin throwing on Tuesday.

“Luckily it’s nothing to do with the arm or anything like that,” Houck said. “Mainly right now I can’t bite down and put too much pressure there, but it’ll be a quick ramp up.”

Houck added he needed to get back into baseball shape and doesn’t have a timeline for when he can return.

“I think it’ll be two weeks, at least, of just normal throwing before I can touch the mound,” Houck said. “All things considered, I got very lucky.”

As far as his role with the Red Sox when he does return, Houck didn’t have the answer.

“Haven’t gotten that far yet,” Houck said. “Get throwing on Tuesday first and then kinda start having those conversations as we get a little bit closer.”