Red Sox Ace Garrett Crochet Is Still Not Throwing A Baseball And He Just Dropped a Brutal Reality Check on His Season
Okay, so it wasn't a great question.
"Is it kinda a toss-up that you'll pitch again this season?"
I like yes-or-no questions without the word "kinda" in them. Maybe that's just me. But the answer is sure as shit not what Red Sox fans want to hear from their ace.
"It's tough to say; I'm not going to make a claim like that. I understand why you ask a question like that...it's just completely different from the original diagnosis.”
Specifically, the part where it says that when he first got injured, he felt like he might only miss one start. That was back on April 27.
“It’s just completely different from the original diagnosis.”
Winslow Townson. Getty Images.It's now July 22 - 86 days later - and Crochet has not even started throwing. He doesn't seem to have an idea of when he might even start doing that.
“To be honest, I don’t really have an idea,” Crochet said about a throwing timetable. “I think just with the setbacks that I had in the past, we’ve been rightfully cautious. For me, I’m just kind of doing what I’m asked.”
These comments from an NBC Sports Boston video…not good. But in a separate conversation with the Boston Globe on Tuesday, Crochet sounded even more frustrated that he doesn't have a throwing timetable yet.
“Then it kind of goes into the realm of, what the [expletive] is the point of building up the strength now?” Crochet said. “I intend on having further conversations with the training staff, whether it be today or this week, in terms of firming up a plan.”
Damnit. More from the Globe interview.
“Just kind of playing it by ear, which sucks to say on the record, but right now that’s kind of all we have to go off of,” he said.
The postseason aspirations raise plenty of other questions.
Would he need to pitch in a regular-season game first, to avoid the dramatic shift from minor-league ball to the sport’s biggest stage?
Would he be effective in that setting after sitting out so long?
“The questions that you’re asking are questions that are swirling in my brain that I’m trying to find the answer to as well,” Crochet said. “Obviously, confidence in myself. But it’s not going to be up to me when the time comes.
“Worst-case scenario, I’m not ready. Second-worst-case scenario is I’m throwing, but it’s dog [expletive], like it was at the beginning of the year. I don’t want to be out there to be a warm body, especially with the way that the guys, the whole staff, has been performing.”
Watching this video and reading these answers, it's hard to have much faith we'll see Crochet again this season.
This Red Sox team has been on some sort of run, winning 14 in a row. They've played so well, and the American League is such dog shit, that it's actually easy to see them as a Wild Card team at this point. But making a deep run in the playoffs? The only way I could see that happening is with a healthy Garrett Crochet at the top of the rotation to start a playoff series.
2025 Garrett Crochet made 35 starts and had a 2.59 ERA for the Red Sox - he was one of the best pitchers in the league. Not only was he great, but he also had an attitude and an edge you want to see out of your ace. I was assuming you'd get that guy back off the IL here at some point, even after he struggled through six starts this season before getting hurt.
And to their credit, Ranger Suarez, Payton Tolle, Sonny Gray, Connelly Early, and Jake Bennett have all stepped up BIG TIME to carry this rotation. But you need that ace in the playoffs, and Crochet has shown he can be that.
This is where I have to point out that from the outside, it looks like it's been a brutal year for the Red Sox medical staff.
⚾ Crochet thought he might miss one start - now he's still not throwing almost 90 days later
⚾ Roman Anthony's injury was so mishandled by the team that he had to come out and explain it himself, and the team had to apologize. He's in Florida rehabbing - still not close to coming back. He got hurt back on May 4.
⚾ Johan Oviedo had a 'minor' injury at the start of the season. Then he explained that "When I woke up in the morning, I couldn't bend or flex my arm when I was getting out of bed." He's been out since April.
It's been hard to trust their timetables and reports on this stuff becasue they have been so wrong. At this point, if you told me Crochet was out of the season, I'd believe you. If there was any possibility of moving one of the young starters for a bat at the trade deadline, you'd have to have faith Crochet was 100% coming back this season - that now seems unlikely.
I don't think it will be what motivates him to come back, but if Crochet misses another 35 straight days on the IL, his player opt-out for 2030 will be voided. He addressed that with the Globe.
“It sucks, but I mean, what’s the worst thing that happens? I’m in Boston for another year? Which is pretty good. This is a place that I wanted to be,” Crochet said. “That was a clause that was kind of helping the team mitigate the risk, I suppose. And they knew that there was risk. I knew that there was risk. Last year, it’s like, am I outperforming [his salary]? Or does it matter? And now I get hurt, and it’s like, I’m glad that I secured the protection.
“What I felt when I signed the contract was that I wanted to outperform the deal. So it sucks, but there’s still time.”
Look, he has time to make that contract still look like a great deal for the Sox. But the clock is ticking for him to get back and be the ace for this 2026 Red Sox team in the playoffs.