The Red Sox have made their first big move of the offseason. According to multiple reports, Boston is finalizing a trade with the Chicago White Sox to acquire left-handed starter Garrett Crochet.
The Boston Globe's Julian McWilliams was the first to report the trade. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that the Red Sox are sending Chicago four prospects, including one of their "big four" in catcher Kyle Teel. In addition to Teel, they are also trading outfielder Braden Montgomery, infielder Chase Meidroth and right-hander Wikelman Gonzalez.
After missing out on Max Fried, who signed with the New York Yankees on Tuesday, the trade for Crochet gives the Red Sox the front-of-the-rotation lefty that they coveted.
Crochet, 25, pitched 146 innings in 32 starts in his first full major-league season as a starter in 2024, going 6-12 on a bad White Sox team with a 3.58 ERA, 2.69 FIP, 209 strikeouts, and 6.33 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
As a reliever in his first three seasons, Crochet had a 2.71 ERA in 72 appearances (73 innings). He missed the entire 2022 season and part of the 2023 season due to Tommy John surgery.
Crochet is under team control for two more years, which, combined with his age, is what made him so valuable in a trade.
SoxProspects.com had Teel ranked as the Red Sox' No. 4 prospect, Montgomery fifth, Meidroth eighth, and Gonzalez 18th. Obviously, that is a steep price to pay, but Boston did not have to give up any of its top three prospects (Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell, Marcelo Mayer).
WEEI's Jones and Keefe reacted to the trade as the news broke.
"Red Sox hang onto Mayer. They hang onto Roman Anthony. They hang onto Kristian Campbell," Adam Jones said. "They land Garrett Crochet from the White Sox. I would give that a standing ovation."
"That's excellent," Rich Keefe agreed. "That's a real guy. That's a guy who's better than anybody else you have. Now the questions with Crochet, you remember last year at the trade deadline, it was, 'I'm only gonna go somewhere if I get a new contract, and I won't pitch out of the bullpen. I won't even pitch for you if I don't get a contract.' So there was a lot of stuff going on last year, because he was one of the big names out there. The White Sox were obviously terrible. He had a really good year."