The Red Sox may not need Garrett Crochet to come back as a starter to get real value out of him this season.
Boston interim manager Chad Tracy raised the possibility of using Crochet out of the bullpen if the left-hander is able to return from his shoulder injury before the year is over. Tracy didn’t sound hesitant about the idea, either.
"If he's healthy and right, and he looks like Garrett Crochet, I think we'd be foolish not to consider that," Tracy said about possibly using Crochet as a reliever after his return.
Tracy also said it is "probably not feasible" for Crochet to build all the way back up to six innings by the end of September, according to Tim Healey of The Boston Globe.
That lines up with where the Red Sox are right now. They have enough momentum in the standings to think bigger than just getting Crochet back on the mound in any form. Boston is 64-56 and sits 4.5 games ahead of the Texas Rangers for the second AL Wild Card spot with less than two months left in the regular season.
If Crochet is healthy enough to help by the start of the playoffs, even in a shorter role, that could matter a lot for a club trying to push deeper into October.
There’s also a practical side to this. The Red Sox would not be asking Crochet to jump straight back into a starter’s workload after being sidelined since Apr.
- That kind of move would carry plenty of pressure, especially when he was struggling even before the injury, going 3-3 with a 6.30 ERA in 30 innings pitched.
Boston’s bullpen could use the help, too. The group is wearing down, and Garrett Whitlock was just placed on the 15-day injured list.
For now, the cleanest path may be the simplest one: if Crochet comes back in time, let him attack shorter stints out of the pen. Starting a playoff game this year would be a much tougher ask. Using him in relief, though, could give the Red Sox exactly the lift they need when October arrives.
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