Red Sox Ace Gets Wildly Disrespectful Ranking From MLB Analysts

It's highly doubtful Boston Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet needed any more motivation headed into his first career postseason start (assuming the Red Sox clinch their spot in October this weekend).

However, it's sitting right there for him now if he needs it.

On Thursday, MLB.com released their "starting pitcher power rankings" among postseason contenders. That meant superstars like Paul Skenes and Jacob deGrom were out of the picture, so Crochet would theoretically be even closer to the top of the list than he has been all season.

Crochet earns brutal ranking from MLB.com

Sep 24, 2025; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Garrett Crochet (35) delivers a pitch against the Toronto Blue Jays in the first inning at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images | Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images

However, the site's "data team," which ranks these pitchers based on a formula that "which weighs recent performance the most heavily," evidently does not respect the way Crochet has finished out his season.

As MLB.com writer David Adler reported to the masses, these experts and their formula see Crochet as the sixth-best pitcher on a playoff-contending roster. Yes, he even ranks behind fellow lefty Max Fried of the New York Yankees, who the computers had third.

"Crochet is in line to win the MLB strikeout title, with 255 K's following his dominant start against the Blue Jays on Wednesday night, 14 ahead of (Tarik) Skubal," Adler wrote. "He also has a 2.59 ERA and leads the AL with 205 1/3 innings pitched. Crochet was Boston's marquee acquisition this offseason, and with him as their ace, the Red Sox are holding onto a Wild Card spot."

That write-up reads like a first or second-place finish in the rankings, does it not? By virtually every metric, Crochet outstripped names like Fried, Bryan Woo, and Cristopher Sánchez, and yet those pitchers somehow ended up ahead of him because... he gave up a couple of home runs in some wins recently?

It's simply not right. Crochet racked up 51 more punchouts than Sánchez with virtually the same ERA, and his ERA is significantly better than both Fried's and Woo's. He's probably been better on the whole than Los Angeles Dodgers star Yoshinobu Yamamoto as well, who the site had second on the list.

Go right ahead and tell Crochet he's not a top-five pitcher heading into these playoffs. He'll take the mound on Tuesday (knock on wood) and prove how very wrong that calculation was.

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