The Red Sox may be inching toward a late-season boost, but if Garrett Crochet comes back in time for October, it won’t be in the role most people expected.
Boston’s ace, sidelined since April with a lat injury, is on pace to return late in the regular season or during the wild-card series. And when he does, the plan is for him to work out of the bullpen.
That’s not a role Crochet sees as some impossible leap. The left-hander, who hasn’t pitched in relief in three years, told Tim Healey of the Boston Globe that the idea doesn’t intimidate him.
"Someone brought it up the other day. They were like, 'Isn't that crazy?'
I'm like, 'Not really,'" the southpaw told Tim Healey of the Boston Globe. "I mean, not (to be all) me, me, me, me, but I've done crazy things before.
I'm not Joe Schmo. I've done impressive things.
I think that that would be a big ask for some people, but I don't think it's a crazy ask for me."
There’s a familiar feel to the whole thing for Crochet. His first big-league arrival came in September 2020, not long after the Chicago White Sox drafted him, when he debuted as a reliever after barely pitching during a year wiped out by the canceled NCAA and minor-league seasons. He was sharp right away, tossing five scoreless regular-season appearances and adding one playoff outing for Chicago.
Now he’s working back toward a similar finish. Crochet threw his first bullpen since May on Friday and is scheduled for another Tuesday in Boston. According to Healey, his fastball was sitting in the upper 80s in that first session, which Crochet said is exactly where it should be for now.
"There's going to be a time where I need to step on it," Crochet said. "First bullpen, not the time."
The timeline is tight. The 27-year-old said he won’t be ready for a minor-league rehab assignment before the farm seasons wrap up in mid-September, so his entire ramp-up will happen with the Red Sox. His current target is a simulated game in the final week of the regular season, with a possible return from the injured list for the last weekend.
If Boston gets him back, it would only strengthen a bullpen that has already been dominant. Led by closer Aroldis Chapman, the Red Sox relief group has held hitters to a .222 average, owns the majors’ lowest WHIP at 1.17, and ranks second in ERA at 3.14.
That matters because Boston is sitting in the second AL wild-card spot, which would send it into a best-of-three series against the Yankees in New York. In that setting, Crochet could be exactly the kind of high-leverage arm interim manager Chad Tracy wants to have against one of the game’s toughest lineups.
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