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New Boston Red Sox Pitcher Garrett Crochet Made Baseball History in 2024

The Red Sox got the top-of-the-rotation ace that they were looking for in a massive trade on Wednesday.
Brady Farkas|
American League pitcher Garrett Crochet of the Chicago White Sox (45) pitches during the fourth inning during the 2024 MLB All-Star game at Globe Life Field on July 16.
American League pitcher Garrett Crochet of the Chicago White Sox (45) pitches during the fourth inning during the 2024 MLB All-Star game at Globe Life Field on July 16. | Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

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Boston Red Sox

On Wednesday, the final day of the winter meetings, the Boston Red Sox swung a massive trade for Chicago White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet.

Crochet, who is just 25 years old, comes with two more years of team control, making him perhaps the most sought-after piece on the trade market this year. The Red Sox gave up a lot to get him, including four of their top 14 prospects in the deal.

In getting Crochet, the Red Sox are getting the top-of-the-rotation ace that they haven't had since they last had a healthy Chris Sale in 2019. An All-Star this past season, Crochet made baseball history despite a diminished second-half workload.

Per @JayHayKid of Underdog Fantasy on social media:

Pitchers with 200+ K in Fewer than 150 IP
Single Season - All Time

Garrett Crochet (2024)
Spencer Strider (2022)
Chris Sale (2019)

That's certainly elite company for Crochet to be in and shows that he has some of the best swing-and-miss stuff in the entire sport. Complete with an upper-90s fastball and a wipeout slider, Crochet could be in contention for a Cy Young award in short order.

In his first full season as a starter, Crochet went 6-12 with a 3.58 ERA. While the losses are a product of the White Sox' historically poor team, his stuff incredible. As evidenced by the stat above, he struck out 209 batters in just 146.0 innings. Crochet had been a bullpen arm since making his major league debut in 2020, but he only made 13 appearances in all of 2022 and 2023 because of his recovery from Tommy John surgery.

He was named the American League Comeback Player of the Year this season.

With the Red Sox, he'll likely join Tanner Houck, Lucas Giolito, Kutter Crawford and Bryan Bello in the rotation.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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