Garrett Crochet is talking past, present and future
There are some things worth paying for. Garrett Crochet has proven to be one of them.
There are no certainties when it comes to allocating an uncomfortable amount of resources to a single player. That's baseball. Blake Snell has pitched in just two games for the Dodgers. And Corbin Burnes was taken out Sunday while telling Arizona his elbow was done.
These are just a couple recent examples of how uncomfortable a team's chase for an ace can be. The Red Sox lived that life. They outbid everyone else by $40 million to secure David Price before giving up four prospects to offer some certainty with Chris Sale the next year.
You just never know. But the season's third month starts unfolding, the Red Sox should feel really good about the player they went all in on, Garrett Crochet.
Chase Meidroth, Braden Montgomery, Kyle Teel and Wikelman Gonzalez? Worth it. A $170 million contract extension? Seems like money well spent.
"He's the ace and he acts like it," Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story told reporters after his team's 3-1 win over the Braves. "He wants that. And that's what the big boys do. You can see that across the game with some of the best pitchers in the game. They want the ball and they want it late. He's always had that attitude."
The most recent image portrayed by Crochet was everything the Red Sox could have asked for when landing on the pitcher's 13th start of the season. Not only did he allow just one run over seven innings, striking out 12. But he punctuated the appearance by making it abundantly clear to his manager - and everyone else in the organization - the training wheels were being taken off.
He threw a career-high 112 pitches. He struck out the side in the seventh inning. And he sent the kind of message struggling teams move mountains for.
"He told me, ‘Let's keep going.’ And I was fired up," Crochet told reporters. "I was just hoping it wasn't for [the first batter] only. It’s like, 'If you're gonna send me back out, let me go to work.' And he did. And a lot of props to AC for having trust in me there."
The Red Sox had hoped this would happen. But, the words of Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemption, "Hope is a dangerous thing." Yet, here he is. After his first 13 starts in his second full season as a starting pitcher Crochet has a 1.98 ERA, striking out 101 and walking 28 while pitching the most innings of any pitcher in the big leagues (82). Opponents are hitting just .203 against him, with a minuscule .569 OPS.
The plan for Crochet to come close to how he managed his first go-round as a starter last season with the White Sox. He has been better. Comparing this to his initial 13 outings in 2024, the dominance has remarkably been taken up a notch. More innings (69 2/3 last season). Better ERA (3.49). One year more mature living this life as a no-doubt-about-it ace.
There are subtle changes beyond just a different uniform. Slightly different pitches. Minor alteration in approaches from start to start. Still the overall package is the same and for the Red Sox that has been a gift that has kept on giving.
"Nothing has really changed in me as a player," Crochet recently told WEEI.com. "Right now I’m having good results. Even last year at this time, I was very confident in my stuff. Obviously, I’m throwing the sinker now. My changeup might be a little bit different. My sweeper usage is a little bit more refined. But for the most part, I’m primarily fastball and cutter even though last year I had just learned the cutter I was still throwing it a pretty high clip.
"I’m the same guy I was last year. I will be the same guy at this time next year. Refining the results is the only thing I hope to change. I hope that mechanically and usage, I remain the same for a while. I think I have built my arsenal and kind of shaped it to be something that is timeless and this is a way I can throw the rest of my career."