Alex Cora Raising Bar For Select Red Sox Pitchers Heading Into 2024

The Red Sox have plenty of areas to reform to put back-to-back last-place finishes behind them ahead of 2024, perhaps most notably within Boston’s pitching department.

With that being said, the bar is raised. Boston’s young arms added yet another year of big league experience to their respective resumes, therefore, Red Sox manager Alex Cora expects more from them moving forward.

“Garrett (Whitlock) has to be better, Tanner (Houck) has to be better, (Brayan) Bello has to be better, Kutter (Crawford) needs to be better,” Cora told WEEI’s Rob Bradford on Audacy’s “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast. “Our guys have to improve. And we’ve been talking about these kids for two or three years. They’re not kids anymore. They got two full seasons at the big league level. … They’re getting to that point that, ‘Hey, we have to start performing.’ It’s not about upside or projections, whatever. We have to perform.”

Cora added: “I do believe we will take that step and then obviously whatever we end up doing the offseason will help us out.”

Last season, pitching reliability hit an all-time low, costing the Red Sox their already slim postseason chances throughout the second half.

Both Houck and Whitlock sat on the injured list for considerable periods respectively, while Bello did everything to hold down the fort as Boston’s unofficial ace — collecting 12 wins while pitching a team-high 157 innings. And to make up for the void left by an injury-riddled rotation, Cora was left with no choice but to call upon relievers as openers.

That wasn’t able to keep the ship afloat, sinking the Red Sox to their third last-place finish in the American League East in the past four years.

The roster is far from finalized with multiple months of offseason still left, but even so, Cora’s point still stands. In order for the Red Sox to return to playing October baseball, the youngsters will need to shatter their ceilings. They’ll need to be reliant and stabilize the rotation which obviously could look different come the start of spring training.