In 2021, Garrett Whitlock came to spring training pitching to make the team. The former UAB right-hander earned a spot on the Boston Red Sox staff and kept on delivering throughout his rookie season.

Whitlock posted an 8-4 record with two saves and a 1.96 earned-run average in 46 relief appearances in 2021. In 73.1 innings, he struck out 81 and yielded 64 hits and 17 walks.

That led to plans for Whitlock to join the starting rotation, and he has at times over the past two seasons. But injuries have made it hard for him to stay there.

Whitlock isn’t pitching in spring training to make the team now. But he also isn’t pitching as though he’s trying to make the rotation either.

“The last couple of years, I felt that kind of chip where everyone says, ‘You need to be a starter,’” Whitlock said. “I kind of took a page from (former MLB pitcher) Adam Warren, where he told me once you adapt that mindset of being a Swiss Army knife, where you can be thrown into anything and excel, it frees everything else up. …

“I don’t feel like there’s this chip or this burden like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to be a starter’ or ‘Oh, I’ve got to be a closer.’ It’s like, ‘Dude, you’re on a freaking big-league team. Enjoy that, have fun and freaking compete.’”

Whitlock started on the mound in the Red Sox’s Grapefruit League opener on Saturday. He worked the first two innings of Boston’s 4-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles in Sarasota, Florida. Whitlock gave up one run on one hit – a home run to Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman – and struck out two.

“Last year, I felt like it was really hard for me to get my hip loose and everything going for multiple innings,” Whitlock said. “But now I feel back to normal and feeling good. …

“Felt healthy, so happy about that. Things were good. One changeup that I tried to throw for a strike rather than ripping it, and other than that, I thought it was good.”

The Red Sox haven’t said what role Whitlock might hold on the 2024 pitching staff, although Boston hasn’t ruled out a spot in the rotation for him.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora has said Lucas Giolito, Nick Pivetta and Brayan Bello will open the season as starters and Kutter Crawford has the inside track on landing one of the other rotation spots.

“Overall a good one,” Cora said about Whitlock’s first spring-training outing. “The quality of the pitches were good, so now we move on to the next one.”

After his sterling rookie performance, Whitlock joined the rotation three weeks into the 2022 season. He had made nine starts when an injury sidelined him for five weeks. He returned to a bullpen role and picked up five saves before sitting out the final 18 games of the season.

In 2023, Whitlock pitched only one game in May and one game in July because of injuries after making his first 10 appearances of the season in the rotation.

Over the previous two seasons, Whitlock has a 9-7 record with seven saves and a 4.26 ERA in 53 games, including 19 starts. In 150 innings, he has struck out 154 and yielded 147 hits and 28 walks.

“He looked the part before, and he looks better now,” Cora said. “This offseason, he was healthy. That’s the most important thing. He’s attacking it the right way. We were joking about 2021, the way he went about his business. I don’t think he made one mistake in that camp.”

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.