When the Red Sox handed Garrett Crochet a six-year, $170 million extension earlier this week, Boston was banking on the lefty’s potential — rather his tangible results.
Even with the solid returns he submitted on a dreadful White Sox team in 2024 (6-12, 3.58 ERA, 209 strikeouts in 146 innings), Crochet’s sample size as a big-league pitcher is still slim — entering Wednesday’s outing against the Orioles with just 151 innings of work as a starter between Chicago and Boston.
But for all of the concerns over Crochet’s limited workload at this stage of his career, his filthy arsenal of pitches painted the picture of an elite ace — one that Boston was comfortable handing a long-term deal moving forward.