BOSTON – New starter for the Red Sox Garrett Crochet was a 2024 AL All-Star, posting a 3.02 ERA in 20 starts for the White Sox in the first half.
The 25-year-old right-hander, that Boston acquired for four prospects in the winter meetingsthen struggled in July and August with a 5.93 ERA in nine starts.
But he finished the year strong thanks to the addition of a new tone to his repertoire. He started pitching a pen and posted a 3.12 ERA over his last five starts.
Overall, Crochet had some of the best advanced stats among starters in the majors last year. He ranked in the 91st percentile or higher in expected ERA (2.85), average fastball velocity (97.2 mph), slugging percentage (33.5%), whiff percentage (33.1%) , put percentage (35.1%) and extension (7.1). He also finished in the 87th percentile in walk percentage (5.5%) and the 89th percentile in expected batting average (.204).
He said he’s very confident that what he did last year reflects the pitcher he will continue to be.
“Looking at my arsenal and the results that I had from start to start and then once I put the pen in that I had at the end, it just felt like everything was coming together,” Crochet said Saturday at Fenway Feast. “The success I had early in the season in May and June without this field and then the prospect of adding it to the mix, it’s something I think the sky’s the limit. I’m just looking forward to seeing it all come together.”
He threw the pen 50 times. Opponents were 2-for-13 (.154) with no extra-base hits against. He averaged 97.9 mph.
“Brez (baseball manager Craig Breslow) was very aggressive in the winter meetings,” team president Sam Kennedy said. “If you’d told me we’d be walking out of there with Garrett Crochet down, I wouldn’t have believed you. … Getting a real ace, and our recipe for success here in the quarter century now that we’ve been here, you’ve got to have somebody at the top of the rotation who’s a lock, the true No. 1. I think we’ve got that.”
Is Crochet ready for this leadership role?
“I think so,” he said. “I think we’ve got a pitching staff full of guys who could do that. And it’s going to be a competition, hopefully, between each other who’s going to be the best that day or that week. Everybody’s fighting for the same No. 1 job. That’s the that you want as a staff: (one) that has the ability to do it and not just say he’s going to I think that’s any man’s game right now as far as who could start opening day , I’m really looking forward to taking this one on role if that’s what they ask me to do or if that’s how it goes. That was something I was doing with the White Sox last season. So it’s not going to be unfamiliar territory for me.”
crochet, whose agent has held extension talks with the Red Soxsaid he has pitched four bullpens to this point in the offseason.
“Trying to time it so that when spring training comes around, I’m ready to (throw) live hitters,” Crochet said.
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