Garrett Crochet took another step forward on Friday, and the Boston Red Sox got a clearer picture of where their left-handed ace stands as they head into their weekend series against the Kansas City Royals.
Crochet, who has been out since April 25 because of left shoulder inflammation and a lat strain, threw a bullpen session and mixed in his sweeper for the first time since he started throwing. He told Gabrielle Starr of the Boston Herald that the pitch felt good, along with everything else in his arsenal.
Garrett Crochet said he included his sweeper in his mix today for the first time, and felt good with all his pitches.
He threw 24 or 25 pitches, and said it was about 80-90% the intensity he would have when pitching in a real game, and was happy with the bullpen overall.
- Gabrielle Starr (@gfstarr1) September 11, 2026
That’s a meaningful checkpoint for a pitcher who has spent 139 days away from a big league mound and has missed 120 of Boston’s games. The rehab has stretched deep into the final stretch of the regular season, but the Red Sox have kept moving without him. Boston sits at 80-67, third in the American League East and in solid position in the second Wild Card spot.
The season got away from the Red Sox early. Before their late June series at Fenway Park against the New York Yankees, they were 32-46 and had the worst record in the American League. Since then, they’ve done the damage without Crochet.
His brief 2026 run before the injury was uneven. In six starts covering 30 innings, he went 3-3 with a 6.30 ERA, 37 strikeouts and 11 walks.
The roughest outing came on April 13 against the Minnesota Twins, when he gave up 10 earned runs in 1 ⅔ innings. His velocity was down in that start compared to earlier appearances.
Even with that shaky stretch, the talent hasn’t disappeared. Crochet was runner-up in AL Cy Young voting last season after posting a 2.59 ERA and a 31.3% strikeout rate over 205 ⅓ innings.
For now, Boston has another encouraging sign that a return is getting closer, even if his role will remain limited to the bullpen when he comes back. Crochet has said he could still go multiple innings in the postseason if needed.
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