Whether it comes to free agent signings, trades or extensions, this feels like one of the most consequential offseasons the Red Sox have had in a very long time.

After advancing to the postseason for the first time since 2021, Boston was bounced in their three-game wild card series with the Yankees at Yankee Stadium - especially disappointing given they were the first team to lose a Wild Card Round since the format change in 2022 after leading the series 1-0.

They ran out of starting pitching. They stopped hitting across the board. The team was completely out of gas.

Even with the air coming out of the balloon, this team showed they have a strong foundation to build on moving forward:- Young outfielders winning Gold Gloves- A generational hitter at the top of their order- A Cy Young-level talent at the top of their rotation- A young catcher who profiles as one of the best offensive players at his position

Add in a fringe Hall of Fame closer coming off the best statistical season of his career, and you can understand why the Red Sox have the seventh-best odds to win the World Series in 2026.

With that said, they have important decisions to make at both ends of the spectrum. They need to decide how they’ll go about addressing their needs at starting pitching and power hitting, and they need to decide which players on the fringes of the roster are going to be a part of the future of this team.

Among the more complicated decisions involves Tanner Houck. The right-hander underwent Tommy John surgery this summer and isn’t expected to pitch much, if at all, during the 2026 season. That reality sparked speculation that the club might move on from him as part of its upcoming roster reshuffling. But according to new reporting, that scenario is no longer on the table.

MassLive’s Chris Cotillo said Monday that “Boston is unlikely to non-tender injured righty Tanner Houck,” despite a looming 40-man roster crunch. The assumption in some corners of the league was that Houck’s injury status made him a logical candidate to cut loose.

Cotillo added more context: because the 2027 season may be in jeopardy due to labor tensions - and because Houck is scheduled to hit free agency afterward - the Red Sox did have a plausible financial reason to consider a non-tender. Letting him walk could have saved money knowing he won’t be contributing for most of 2026. But sources told Cotillo the team, instead, plans to tender him a contract.

Houck’s 2024 season was the breakout the Red Sox had waited for, and the underlying numbers back up just how effective he was.

He posted a 3.12 ERA across 178.2 innings, by far his largest workload as a major league starter, while striking out 154 batters and limiting hard contact at one of the best rates in the American League.

Houck also delivered one of MLB’s best individual performances of the year when he spun a complete-game shutout on just 94 pitches in April, showcasing elite command and the dominance of his slider-splitter mix. More importantly, he sustained that level of pitching over 30 starts, giving Boston consistent length and reliability every fifth day. For a rotation that desperately needed stability, Houck transformed from an inconsistent arm into a dependable, above-average starter with frontline stretches.The 2025 season swung in the complete opposite direction, with Houck struggling so severely that his performance became one of the biggest early-season letdowns in baseball.

Through 9 starts, he carried an 8.04 ERA, allowing 39 earned runs and 57 hits in just 43.2 innings, with multiple outings derailed by poor command and diminished sharpness on his secondaries.

His low point came in mid-April, when he was tagged for 12 runs (11 earned) in 2.1 innings - one of the worst starts in modern Red Sox history.

The consistency and poise he showcased a year earlier evaporated, replaced by hard contact, elevated walk rates, and an inability to put hitters away. By the time an IL stint paused his season, Houck’s regression was so stark that it threw the Red Sox rotation into disarray, highlighting just how sharply he had fallen from his 2024 form.

What version of Houck the Sox get post-rehab remains up in the air. With that said, Boston is giving themselves a chance to see if they can re-capture that 2024 magic.

Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a senior digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.