Red Sox Insider: Garrett Crochet Similar To Ex-Boston Ace, Champion
The Boston Red Sox made their big offseason splash by trading for left-handed pitcher Garrett Crochet in a swap that surrendered four prospects to the Chicago White Sox.
Crochet, at 25 years old and just four seasons into his big-league career, is already drawing big comparisons from experts. There was the obvious Chris Sale comparison, but that more so spawned from Boston’s 2016 trade — also with the White Sox — that delivered the 2024 National League Cy Young recipient to Boston. Instead, one Red Sox insider explained the similarities between Crochet and 2007 World Series champion Josh Beckett.
“This is more a guy like Beckett, who has more runway because Beckett, the criticism when the Red Sox traded for him in 2005 was, ‘He’s never thrown 200 innings,'” Alex Speier of the Boston Globe told NESN’s “310 To Left” podcast. “He had injuries. There had been this tantalizing, extraordinary potential that had been demonstrated in a couple of ways but never the complete totality of what people thought he could accomplish. That’s Crochet to me. With even less of a track record in some ways than Beckett, but a guy who over the course of 150 innings was mind-blowingly good.”
Beckett lasted seven seasons with the Red Sox and went 89-58 with a 4.17 ERA and 1,108 strikeouts throughout those 194 appearances. Time after time, Beckett proved to be the ultimate competitor such as in Game 5 of the 2007 American League Championship Series when he struck out 11 Cleveland batters through eight innings. Moments as such helped cement Beckett’s legacy as a champion before departing in 2012.
Crochet is joining the Red Sox will expectations weighing on his shoulders. Coming off his first All-Star season, Crochet will join Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello, Lucas Gilito and Kutter Crawford as Boston’s only southpaw arm in the rotation — pending any further offseason roster additions before Opening Day.
Watch the full episode of NESN’s “310 To Left” here: