Garrett Whitlock woke up Thursday morning in a much different spot than one year before. His path over the previous 365 days can be at least hinted at thanks to Red Sox pitcher's Instagram account.
There are poignant pictures of Whitlock with his wife and his Red Sox teammates, and, of course, defining moments in what became a historic rookie season.
But it was No. 16 - the one that is dated "November 18, 2020" - which meant the most ... both for Whitlock and his new team.
It was a video. A collection of videos, to be exact, all filmed by trainer Cal Tinsley. One that started with Whitlock lightly throwing a baseball on Jan. 13, 2020, just about six months after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Then came the throwing session from June 23, 2020. There was another from August 18, 2020, which showed fastballs being clocked at 94 mph.
Finally, there was the punctuation to the process. A September 3, 2020 revealing a pitcher who sure appeared to be ready for whatever team wanted him.
It was all part of a plan spearheaded by Whitlock's agent, Kent Matthes, who was simply trying to make an uncertain situation a little more certain.
Whitlock was a pitcher who hadn't pitched above Double-A before succumbing to Tommy John surgery and now was on the cusp of not landing on the Yankees' 40-man roster, which would immediately make him eligible for the Rule 5 Draft. Simply put, despite a promising start to his professional career, it felt like the righty might be slipping through the cracks.
Instagram to the rescue.
"A big part of our job is creating opportunities for players," Matthes told WEEI.com. "It was a difficult task with COVID and no minor league season. In Garrett’s case, coming off a major injury where he missed half of 2019 and all of 2020. The Yankees were one of those teams that didn’t have an instructional league. For me, seeing first-hand how diligent Garrett was in his rehabilitation process … He had a great team around him.
"We put together an anti-inflammatory nutrition program for him just to decrease the post-op inflammation. He was diligent with all facets of his rehabilitation. Seeing that first-hand, with his Rule 5 coming up … A lot of teams have roster crunches coming up when it comes to their roster deadline, but the Yankees specifically do. They are deep at the big league level every year. They do a good job of developing prospects. I knew it was going to be a little bit of a coin flip. What we did was just start documenting his rehabilitation through video, trying to be in a position to be proactive as it got closer to the deadline.
"There are rules around the Rule 5 Draft that prohibit certain interactions and communications, but one thing I was able to do completely within the rule was to create a video we were able to post publicly on social media for the 29 other teams to see, just in case he was not going to be protected. It very much worked out."
It certainly did, both for Whitlock and the Red Sox.
Two days after the video was posted, the Yankees made their decision - they were prioritizing other prospects over Whitlock.
The Red Sox certainly didn't lean on the social media post alone, with the organization having been intrigued by the University of Alabama-Birmingham product for a few years, starting with reports from scout Bob Hamelin.
But now they were getting their chance at actually securing the services of Whitlock. And seeing those images of Whitlock throwing free and easy only added to the motivation leading up to the Rule 5 Draft.
"The Yankees decided to go in another direction and the were several articles after the fact about the Red Sox staff seeing the videos," Matthes explained. "Again, a video alone wasn’t going to get him selected. But what it did do was allow the teams to be able to do more due diligence behind the scenes of how good Garrett was before the injury, the fact he was throwing 96 (mph) pretty quickly with Tommy John and ask around about his make-up, getting a bigger picture. It gave them comfort having seen those videos to take a chance on him."
As Whitlock has pointed out, there were so many participants in what turned out to be one of the best stories of the Red Sox' 2021 season. The guidance supplied by trainers Kevin Wilks, Tinsley and Matthes were all parts of the puzzle that led to one of the best seasons ever by a Rule 5 Draft pick.
The video? It might have been just one piece, but one that a year later can be looked back on as a pretty important one.
Whitlock's Instagram following has obviously grown, now sitting with more than 11,000 followers. But it's the guy who is just shy of a grand that helped use the platform for the most important social media springboard in Red Sox history.
"(Instagram) is definitely not my forte, but fortunately there are people around him who are very good at that," Matthes said. "Just being able to create a basic highlight video, showing the progression of his rehabilitation … For him, just being able to post that publicly on his account was a great opportunity for teams to see him with a very handcuffed COVID year.
"At the end of the day, Garrett was a fantastic pick for the Red Sox and what he did speaks for itself."
