2025 Fantasy Baseball: Tanner Houck Profile, Preview, Predictions

Boston Red Sox Starting Pitcher Tanner Houck | John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

Tanner Houck may not check the sexy strikeout box at this point of his career, but his arm is improving with an underlying workhorse profile.

The Tanner Houck Game!

9 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K
94 pitches, 69 strikes
29 batters faced
1 hour, 49 minutes pic.twitter.com/T5PrGVH9Qe

— Boston Strong (@BostonStrong_34) April 18, 2024

SP – Tanner Houck, BOS (ADP – 217.4)

2025 Tanner Houck PItching Stats Profile | Shawn Childs

Over his first three seasons with the Red Sox, Houck has a 3.02 ERA with 164 strikeouts over 146 innings.

Houck made the Red Sox starting rotation out of spring training in 2023 but never had an ERA under 4.25 on the year. His season began with 13 poor starts (5.05 ERA over 67.2 innings with 64 strikeouts). In mid-June, Houck took him a line drive to the face, leading to a couple of months on the injured list. He didn’t fire over his final eight games (4.93 ERA, 1.565 WHIP, and .271 BAA over 38.1 innings).

When the lights came on for the 2024 season, Houck was ready to rock and roll. He went 7-5 over his first 16 starts with a 2.18 ERA, 0.968 WHIP, and 101 strikeouts over 103.1 innings. The Padres batters drilled him in his final start in June (seven runs, 13 baserunners, and three home runs over 4.1 innings with four strikeouts), followed by a regression in his arm (3.80 ERA, 1.324 WHIP, and 49 strikeouts over 71.0 innings).

His arsenal isn’t quite there against right-handed batters (.249 BAA). Houck continues to have a plus slider (.229 BAA with a 41.8% usage and 87 strikeouts – .187 in his career). The development of his arm came from a new changeup (.197 BAA) and minimal use of his cutter (.250 BAA). Batters hit .265 against his sinker, with 55.9% of his balls in play being groundballs.

Fantasy Outlook: Houck won’t fit the profile of many fantasy drafters due to his fading strikeout rate (7.8), but he throws strikes and tends to keep the ball down and in the ballpark. Houck has the feel of a pitcher with a workhorse arm with untapped potential in strikeout. I see a poor man’s Roy Halladay with a lower ceiling in innings pitched and a different pitch mix. He is an intriguing backend fantasy starter, as he should pitch deep in games and take the ball every fifth day.

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