The Boston Red Sox have been without Garrett Crochet for most of the season, but he is trying to make a return.
He has been on the injured list since April with shoulder inflammation, but he threw a bullpen session on Tuesday. He threw just 20 pitches, but it is a step in the right direction. There is not enough time to get him built up to be a starter again, but he could be a weapon out of the bullpen. According to Jen McCaffrey, the Red Sox will not build him up past three innings, so what could his role look like if he's ready?
“He’d have plenty of comfort opening if you wanted to go that route,” interim manager Chad Tracy said on Tuesday. “He pitched out of ‘pen. So if you need him to come in the middle innings of a game, a two-inning pocket, I’m sure he’d have comfort doing that too. That’s the beauty of it. If he’s healthy and ready and he looks like Garrett, there’s different things you can do. I hate getting too far ahead of myself. I just want to see him continue to check the boxes he needs to check and as we get closer and it feels like, ‘Hey, this is a realistic thing now,’ then we can kind of figure out what that is.”
Crochet was the American League Cy Young Award runner-up last season, but was off to a poor start to this season. He had a 6.30 ERA through six starts, but perhaps the shoulder injury was a reason for that. If he's healthy, he could be a real difference-maker for the Red Sox. The team seems comfortable putting him out there even if he cannot go pitch in rehab games.
“It’s Garrett,” pitching coach Andrew Bailey said on Tuesday. “He’s done amazing things in this league already. I wouldn’t put it past him (to come back without having pitched in a rehab game). He’s an animal on the mound. Again, anytime you can insert Garrett onto the roster, and into any role on the team, there’s a ton of value, and you feel good about it, so I wouldn’t put it past him.”
Crochet has a 2.71 ERA as a reliever in his career, with all of those outings coming with the Chicago White Sox. He has not come out of the bullpen since 2023.
If the Red Sox use him as an opener, they could throw Brayan Bello out after him for a bulk outing. Bello has a 2.03 ERA as a reliever and a 9.07 ERA as a starter. Bello has been exceptional in his long relief role since coming back to the big leagues.