What Garrett Crochet said about signing a contract extension with the Red Sox
"Part of me wants to see what I could do in a full season before, I suppose, locking myself into a certain bracket of player."
The Red Sox acquired their sought-after No. 1 starter earlier this offseason when they traded for White Sox southpaw Garrett Crochet.
But will the 25-year-old ace be a long-term fixture at Fenway Park?
Crochet is not expected to hit free agency until the end of the 2026 season — giving Boston a top talent for the next two seasons at a seemingly affordable price tag.
But with Craig Breslow and Boston’s top brass giving up a pair of top-100 prospects in the deal to acquire Crochet, the writing has been on the wall for months that the Red Sox would like to lock in the lefty on a long-term deal sooner rather than later.
“Obviously when you have someone as uniquely talented as Garrett is, and someone at this age and we feel like is going to help our team in the short term and potentially can help our team in the long term, it’s something that we have to be open to,” Breslow said on NESN’s “310 to Left” podcast about a Crochet extension last month. “But they also have to be open to it as well.
“And I think Garrett and I are still getting to know each other and by all accounts, his introduction to Boston, to the Red Sox and to our fans has been spectacular. So I think those are conversations that will pick up.”
Speaking to the media on Wednesday at Fort Myers, Crochet did not disclose whether or not those contract talks has commenced.
“My understanding of it is Mission One was getting to camp and then talks would happen or not happen after that,” Crochet told reporters. “As far as that side of things, I like to leave it to my agent. I just like to come out here and focus on playing ball.”
Crochet has seemingly made an extension a priority moving forward, given that the lefty reportedly stressed that he was not open to pitching in the postseason in October (if traded by Chicago) unless he first received a long-term extension.
Putting pen to paper on a new deal would give Crochet some much-needed stability moving forward with the Red Sox.
But Crochet also offered up an interesting response on Wednesday when asked of any urgency with signing a deal with Boston.
“There’s always pros and cons to everything,” Crochet said. “I think that the long-term security is definitely something attractive. As players, we like to look out for our family first. But with last year being my first taste of starting, part of me also wants to see what I could do with the full season of innings workload.
“(I) was on a short leash. Part of me wants to see what I could do in a full season before, I suppose, locking myself into a certain bracket of player.”
Even though Crochet’s talent is evident, there are some question marks about his workload and whether or not his track record warrants a hefty new deal.
There’s no knocking Crochet’s stuff on the mound, as he went 6-12 with a 3.58 ERA, 1.068 WHIP, and 209 strikeouts over 146 innings pitched with Chicago last season.
But Crochet doesn’t exactly have an extended resume when it comes to years of dominance on the mound.
Initially a power arm out of the bullpen, Crochet missed the entire 2022 season and a hefty portion of the 2023 campaign after undergoing elbow surgery. Crochet dominated last year after being made into a starter in Chicago, but his workload (and results) waned down the stretch.
He logged six innings or more 11 times over his first 18 starts of the 2024 season, sporting a 6-6 record with a 3.02 ERA and 141 strikeouts in just 101.1 innings of work before July 1.
But the White Sox limited his reps in the second half in order to preserve his arm, with Crochet not throwing for more than four innings in a start after June. His ERA also spiked to 4.84 over those final 14 appearances, which equated to 44.2 innings of work.
While the Red Sox are also operating with some risk in terms of gauging what his market value could be, Crochet is also operating with some uncertainty — potentially relinquishing tens of millions of dollars if he signs a new deal before he potentially submits a breakout season in 2025 as Boston’s ace.
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