Garrett Whitlock is just happy to be here.
Almost two years ago, the pitcher was just a prospect with only Double-A experience and coming off Tommy John surgery. Now, he’s a star rookie with the Red Sox, a Rule 5 pick doing everything asked of him, and excelling at all of it, even impressing his manager with how he carries beer on to the team plane.
He doesn’t care if he’s a starter, which he was before surgery. He’s satisfied with having a shot in the big leagues, and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to stay there.
“I told (bench coach) Will (Venable) when I first showed up, ‘Shoot, I will be the janitor on this team if it means I get to be in the big leagues,’” Whitlock said. “Whatever the job is that I can do to possibly help the team out, that’s what I’m glad to be doing.”
That job right now is coming out of the bullpen, where he’s surpassed expectations. He still hasn’t given up an earned run through his first 13 1/3 innings in the majors, something he laughed about when asked what he’d think if he was told that would happen before the season started.
Whitlock didn’t want to take much credit for his early success, instead heaping praise on his coaches and teammates that have given him the confidence to perform since the beginning.
“(My) biggest moment was when A.C. (Alex Cora) first handed me the ball against Baltimore on my debut and he said, ‘Trust your stuff, go do it,’ and Bogey (Xander Bogaerts) looks right at me and says, ‘You got it, kid,’” Whitlock said. “That inspired confidence in me.
“Like I said, the veterans and the teammates are who deserve all the credit because they’ve given me confidence that like hey, we know you’re a Rule 5 guy but you got the stuff, go do it. And so I can’t thank them enough for that.”
Cora has said that the Red Sox envision Whitlock to be a starter in the future, and they’ve continued to stretch him out and seem to be pitching him on a schedule of once every four or five days. It’s unclear what his role may look like the rest of the year, but with it being his first experience in the majors and first time regularly pitching since surgery in 2019, they’re being cautious with their prized rookie.
Whitlock seems to be just fine with that.
“I don’t care what my role is,” Whitlock said. “Whatever they tell me to do, that’s what I want to do. It’s a team sport. It takes starters, it takes relievers, it takes position players, it takes everyone. Whatever they ask me to do, I’m perfectly comfortable with doing that.”
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May 01, 2021 at 06:17AM
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Red Sox star rookie Garrett Whitlock willing to do it all: ‘I don’t care what my role is’ - Boston Herald
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