The Boston Red Sox acquired left-handed starter Garrett Crochet in a four-player trade with the Chicago White Sox earlier this month wth the hopes that he’d significantly improve the team’s rotation.
However, with Crochet’s limited experience as a starter, there are questions about his durability.
The 25-year-old became a starter in 2024 after three seasons (and one full year missed due to injury) as a reliever. Last year, he posted a 3.58 ERA in 146 innings over 32 starts, as he was limited to four innings in each of his final 14 starts.
Crochet has already stated that he doesn’t believe he’ll have limitations next season, and Red Sox pitching coach Andrew Bailey is sharing a similar sentiment.
“We’re going to treat him just like we do the rest of our starters,” Bailey said on the “Fenway Rundown” podcast. “We want them to be the best versions of themselves every single time they take the mound, whether that’s on their fifth day, sixth day…whatever that looks like. Communication is huge. If we need to skip starts or if we need to push a guy back, we really want to meet them where they’re at. From an innings limit standpoint, as long as he’s healthy and there’s no signs of fatigue and he’s bouncing back OK, he’s going to be in the bucket with everybody else.
“So there’s no reason, in my mind, he can’t go out and make all his starts, throw however many innings he can total up and bounce back. We know there’s some undulations throughout the course of the season with fatigue and ability to recover…We’ll have those conversations. But yeah, going in, I would expect a fully healthy workload for the season.”
If Crochet is healthy and pitches a full season in Boston in 2025, he’ll be a significant upgrade over Nick Pivetta, who is still on the market after spending the last five seasons with the club.
Boston will likely have two players in this boat, as Tanner Houck recently transitioned to a full-time starter and made more than 21 starts for the first time in his career in 2024.
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