Lou Merloni on Garrett Crochet trade: ‘They got the guy that I wanted’
The Boston Red Sox made their first big splash of the offseason on Wednesday, acquiring 25-year-old ace lefthander Garrett Crochet from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for prospects Kyle Teel, Braden Montgomery, Chase Meidroth and Wikelman Gonzalez.
Count WEEI and NESN Red Sox analyst Lou Merloni as a big fan of the trade.
“They got the guy that I wanted,” Merloni said Wednesday on WEEI Afternoons with Christian Arcand and Andy Hart. “Garrett Crochet, as I said before, is a pig. He is filthy. He is young. And I think he's about to take off.”
Crochet pitched 146 innings in 32 starts in 2024 in his first full major-league season as a starter, 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.
Merloni believes the sky is the limit for Crochet in Boston.
“Cy Young candidate. I mean, that’s his ceiling, whether he gets there or not,” Merloni said. “I mean, he's got to stay healthy. I'm not saying this guy is an absolute lock, you know what I mean? There's risk with everybody. Not one pitcher doesn't have injury risk. But as far as ceiling goes, it's Blake Snell. It's Tarik Skubal. … Sometimes you gotta just watch the guy throw, look at his stuff, look at some of the numbers, the swing and miss, and it's absolutely elite.”
Asked if the Red Sox may have given up too much (all four prospects were ranked in the top 20 in the Red Sox system, and three of them were ranked in the top 10), Merloni said he was OK with the cost, especially since Boston hung onto its top three prospects (Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer).
“I've already forgotten who they've given up, because I only give a rat’s a** who plays in April of this year, not in April of 2027,” Merloni said. “I mean, you’ve got enough of this. Start cashing them in. And they did it I think for the right guy. We'll see. They gave up a lot. You're supposed to give up a lot because of the ceiling [Crochet] has.
“Whatever, I don't care. I really don't. You kept your top three guys. You kept [Wilyer] Abreu. You kept [Triston] Casas. You kept [Kutter] Crawford. Like, you're trying to win right now, and those three guys that I mentioned, those prospects, can help you this year.”
