Richard Fitts’ Role With Red Sox Hinges On Health Of Key Starter

BOSTON — Red Sox pitching prospect Richard Fitts turned in a solid outing in his MLB debut Sunday.

But that doesn’t meant the 24-year-old right-hander will get another start in the big leagues this season.

Fitts still has a locker in the Red Sox clubhouse, but he’s in limbo at the moment with it unknown if he will stay in the rotation or head back to Triple-A Worcester for more seasoning. Determining what Fitts’ role will be essentially comes down to the health of Tanner Houck, who had his next start pushed back to Friday.

“Tanner, obviously that, and where we’re at today,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said about Fitts’ status prior to Tuesday’s matchup with the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park. “So, we’ll see. We’ll see where we’re at.”

Houck was lined up to pitch in the series against the Orioles but after dealing with an ailment, he is now slated to pitch the second game of a four-game set against the New York Yankees. Cora said Houck is “feeling better” and is basically dealing with dead arm, but the Red Sox skipper isn’t concerned over it.

“Just the shoulder, like not bouncing back,” Cora said. “Nothing to be alert, but be smart about it.”

Houck pitched a career-high 169 2/3 innings already this season — the most he had pitched in a single campaign coming into this year was 106 innings — and that workload looks like it took its toll over the second half of the season. Houck is winless with an 0-4 record in nine starts since appearing in his first All-Star Game and has posted a bloated 4.78 ERA and has lacked control he showed at the start of the season with a 1.462 WHIP.

The additional rest could be beneficial to Houck, who hasn’t pitched since last Wednesday against the New York Mets. And if he can bounce back, Fitts will be out on the outside of the rotation looking in with the Red Sox also utilizing Houck along with Kutter Crawford, Nick Pivetta, Brayan Bello and Cooper Criswell over the final games of the regular season.