Garrett Crochet's extension could just be the start of Red Sox locking up their core

New York Times

01-04-2025

When the Boston Red Sox traded for Garrett Crochet at the Winter Meetings in December, they did so knowing he had two years under team control before hitting free agency.
With the asking price for elite starting pitching steadily climbing in recent years, there was added urgency to secure him to a long-term extension before that price skyrocketed and he could entertain offers from other clubs.
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Merely to acquire Crochet marked a major investment for the Red Sox, who had to include their two most recent first-rounders (Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery) in a four-player package. In a short amount of time this spring, he has demonstrated why he was worthy of that investment. As spring training wound down, the Red Sox were prepared to make a significant financial outlay to ensure he stayed in Boston beyond the 2026 season.
On Tuesday, that intention became reality when the Red Sox officially announced a six-year, $170 million deal with Crochet. The contract begins next season and runs through 2030 with an option for 2031.
Here to stay.
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— Red Sox (@redsox.com) April 1, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Speaking with the media after the contract was announced, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow acknowledged the risk-reward balance of the deal. After all, Crochet has pitched just one season in a big-league rotation. Debuting two months after he was drafted in 2020, Crochet pitched out of the White Sox bullpen in 2020 and 2021 before missing all of 2022 and most of 2023 recovering from Tommy John surgery. Despite 32 starts in 2024, he was on a strict pitch limit in the second half, never throwing more than four innings in a start after July 1.
'There's always risk associated with these types of contracts, I think we recognize that,' Breslow said. 'At the same time, we're talking about an elite starting pitcher who's 25 years old, and someone we believe will continue to develop and whose best days are ahead of him. Depending on the perspective, he could have only 146 starting innings pitched under his belt. We're looking not just at what he has done, but what we believe he's going to be able to do.'
Crochet was one of the best starters in baseball through the first half of last season, earning his first All-Star appearance. And even with the innings restriction in the second half, he finished as one of the best pitchers in baseball. Among pitchers with at least 30 starts, he ranked first in strikeout rate (35.1 percent) and strikeouts per nine innings (12.88) while ranking second in FIP (2.69) and third in strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.33).
All of this came on a historically bad White Sox team. Had he pitched similarly for even a mediocre club, those numbers might have been even better.
For context, albeit in about 50 fewer innings, Crochet's numbers were in line with those of 2024 Cy Young winners Tarik Skubal and Chris Sale. Skubal posted a 30.3 percent strikeout rate and 2.49 FIP in 192 innings. Sale posted a 32.1 percent strikeout rate and 2.09 FIP in 177 2/3 innings.
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Crochet's numbers at such a young age made locking him up long-term a no-brainer for the Red Sox.
'Certainly, when we acquired the talent, it was very easy to dream about having that type of talent in a Red Sox uniform deep into the future,' Breslow said. 'But it really wasn't until we got to know Garrett, and we got to know (his wife) Rachel, and we saw the way that he interacted with our staff, with the pitching group, with his teammates, the strength and conditioning group and medical group — there's the talent piece of this, and then there's also the commitment that you want to make in the person. And Garrett checked both of those boxes.'
Although there wasn't a deal in place when Crochet's Opening Day negotiating deadline passed, Breslow remained engaged with Crochet's agents, knowing the importance of getting to an agreement.
'I think there is urgency to get a deal done when you recognize that this is the type of person that you want to make a commitment to,' Breslow said. 'I don't think it's wise to make a deal out of fear that the price might go up. If a demand goes up, if a price goes up, it's typically because a player is performing, and that's a good thing too, but we recognize that Garrett's in a unique position given his service time, given how quickly he made it to the major leagues and this was an opportunity for us to find common ground, and we're really excited about that.'
In Crochet, the Red Sox have a top-of-the-rotation starter for the next six years, a bulldog to lead a staff that featured three homegrown starters last season. Crochet's presence atop the rotation takes the pressure off Brayan Bello and allows him to take the next step in reaching his full potential. It gives Tanner Houck room to build off a breakout 2024 season.
Crochet's extension is not only the largest in MLB history for a player with four years of service time, but it's the second-largest deal for a starting pitcher in Red Sox history behind David Price's seven-year, $217 million deal ahead of the 2016 season.
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After years of reduced spending, the Red Sox payroll sits around $250 million, above the $241 million luxury tax threshold. The team plans to stay above that mark. Crochet's extension won't kick in until next season, but it marks the kind of commitment to spending the Red Sox have started to show once again, starting with Alex Bregman's deal at the start of spring training. But the team will need to continue to spend to keep its emerging young core together.
With Bello and Crochet under team control through at least 2029, the Red Sox must secure their young position player talent. That could mean extensions for players like Wilyer Abreu, Jarren Duran or Triston Casas, but it's just as likely the Red Sox will pursue extensions for their prospect core in Kristian Campbell, Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony. Last season, they extended Ceddanne Rafaela on an eight-year, $50 million deal just weeks into his major-league career.
Over the weekend, Campbell confirmed the Red Sox have been in talks with his agents about an extension.
'I'm not sure how close or not close it is, but we got some communications on that for sure,' Campbell said.
And while Anthony and Mayer have yet to debut, it wouldn't be without precedent for an MLB club to extend a top position player prospect before his big-league service time begins. The Tigers (Colt Keith), Brewers (Jackson Chourio) and White Sox (Luis Robert Jr., Eloy Jimenez) have all done so in recent years.
'My hope is that this is another step in charting the course for sustainable organizational health, vying for division titles, for World Series championships year over year,' Breslow said of Crochet's deal.
Breslow's aggressiveness in getting Crochet's deal done bodes well for future extensions on the Red Sox to-do list.