Red Sox’s Options to Unleash Garrett Crochet as Return Becomes More Real

With each passing day right now, it seems like more and more positive news is surfacing around the Boston Red Sox and ace Garrett Crochet.

Crochet hasn’t taken the mound in a big league game since April 25 due to shoulder and lat issues, but he’s trending in the right direction, to say the least. Crochet has been throwing bullpens and took the hill once again on Tuesday over at Fenway Park in a full Red Sox uniform with chief baseball officer Craig Breslow watching closely.

If Crochet can take the hill before the season ends — and look like himself — that’s a significant weapon that could help the Red Sox’s playoff push. This is the guy who finished second in the 2025 American League Cy Young Award voting that we’re talking about here. Plus, Crochet is the guy who had one of the most impressive starts in a playoff game in a Red Sox uniform in recent memory when he took the hill in Game 1 of the Wild Card series against the New York Yankees last season at Yankee Stadium and tossed 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball with 11 strikeouts.

Garrett Crochet Could Help Boston In Multiple Ways

Now, of course, it has been out there for a few weeks that if Crochet is able to return, his role won’t look exactly the same for the rest of the season. Instead, he’ll be a short-inning guy. But even then, he can give this club a big lift. And it really sounds like he’s trending up. He told Tim Healey of The Boston Globe that he would be comfortable in the postseason, even if he didn’t get to pitch in a rehab game or regular season game beforehand.

It’s certainly going to be interesting to see how things shake out from here. Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic reported that the big lefty is scheduled to throw another bullpen on Friday or Saturday. McCaffrey insinuated that the next step afterward could be another bullpen and then facing live hitters.

“Crochet is scheduled for another bullpen Friday or Saturday. The Red Sox are being careful not to look too far ahead, but a logical step after that might be one more bullpen followed by facing hitters in live batting practice. With the Triple-A season ending on Sept. 20, time is short on getting Crochet into a rehab game,” McCaffrey wrote.

Back in mid-August, Crochet said that the most he could build up to would be “probably” two innings. One thing that is interesting is that McCaffrey reported that Boston “won’t stretch him” beyond three innings, if he can return. If the Red Sox could get three innings from Crochet at his best in a playoff game, that would be enough to give Boston an advantage, no matter which innings you pick.

Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy didn’t shut down the idea of using Crochet as an opener as well. Again, if he’s healthy enough.

“He’d have plenty of comfort opening if you wanted to go that route,” Tracy said to McCaffrey. “He pitched out of [bullpen]. 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.”

It’s exciting to think about the possibility of Crochet taking the hill again for the Red Sox in 2026. This is a club that has already gotten big-time players back, who have made an impact. Roman Anthony and Trevor Story returned to the lineup and both have been cooking. If you get Crochet back to looking like himself, even for just a few innings, that changes things. Imagine a Crochet-Brayan Bello piggyback in a playoff game if the lefty is an opener? Or, you could always throw Crochet behind someone like Sonny Gray, Ranger Suárez, or Payton Tolle to form a two-headed monster in a game.

It’s all going to come down to how Crochet’s most comfortable. If he’s good with either option, arguably the best option would be having him ready to piggyback off another starter. Playoff innings are more important than anything else. A bad inning can transform not only a game, but a series. Especially, in a three-game set. So, having Crochet ready just in case Gray, Suárez or Tolle are shaky would give the club a bridge, just in case something negative happens. If none of the three struggle, it would be even better. If the Red Sox got six innings from Gray and then three from Crochet, for example, that would be a dream scenario to keep the bullpen fresh in a series.

There are a lot of options. Right now, all of them are trending in a positive direction for Boston.

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