On March 28th, Garrett Crochet will do something no White Sox pitcher has done since 1901. Make his first career start on Opening Day.
The White Sox announced on Monday that Crochet will be getting the ball against the Tigers to kick off the 2024 season. He will be head-to-head against fellow southpaw Tarik Skubal. It was a surprising decision from Pedro Grifol and company, considering Crochet is making a jump from the bullpen to the starting rotation. The longest Crochet has pitched in an MLB gamer to this point is three innings, which came on April 25th, 2021 against the Texas Rangers. During that outing, he allowed three hits, no runs, no walks, and struck out one.
The last time Corchet took the ball to open a game dates back to his college days at the University of Tennessee, where he made 13 starts over three seasons. The last time he threw over four innings came on May 11th, 2019 when he tossed 6.1 innings with six strikeouts against the Florida Gators.
That’s not to say Crochet can’t handle the pressure. He found himself pitching in the AL Wild Card Series just months after being drafted and struck out both batters he faced. The 24-year-old is also the longest-tenured White Sox player in the starting rotation, despite being the youngest player since Chris Sale in 2013, to be named the Opening Day starter.
Crochet marks just the ninth pitcher in the last 110 years to make his first start on Opening Day and the first since Tanner Scheppers in 2014. Like Crochet, Scheppers began his career as a reliever. Unlike Scheppers, Crochet hopes his career as a starter is a permanent switch. Schepper’s Opening Day start against the Phillies turned out to be the one of just four he would make in his career. Scheppers lasted just four innings allowing seven earned runs.
So what can we expect from Crochet? He missed the entire 2022 season with Tommy John surgery. After Michael Kopech missed a year from Tommy John surgery the White Sox threw him in the bullpen for a year in an attempt to build up his workload. Crochet is being thrown straight into the fire.
Reports during his rehab last season indicated that he looked stronger than ever and his Cactus League results back that up. His work this Spring has earned him a spot in the starting rotation. He has combined for nine scoreless innings in four games with 12 strikeouts and a 0.78 WHIP.
White Sox pitching coach Ehtan Katz broke the news to Corchet that he was getting the Opening Day nod.
“Heard he had some exciting news for me, thought it was that I just made the rotation,” Crochet told reporters.
Going from vying for a spot in the rotation to the number one starter is a major leap. It is also a roll of the dice. The White Sox rotation already has a handful of question marks. They need starters who can eat innings to take the stress off a patchwork bullpen that was assembled this offseason. Having a pitcher who hasn’t thrown more than four innings since 2019 is a risky proposition. He will likely be on a pitch limit that hovers around 80 pitches, however, the White Sox have not yet said there will be any limits on how long the hard-throwing left-hander can go.
This spring he has been nothing but efficient on the mound. During his nine innings of Cactus League action, he did not surrender a walk. He will also be facing a Tigers offense that ranked 28th in runs scored last season with a much-improved defense behind him. This improved White Sox defense should allow Crochet to be more aggressive and attack the strike zone. It is also not a bad way to set the tone against a division rival by having a 6 foot 6 pitcher chuck a 100 mph fastball around them during a chilly March afternoon.
Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times asked Crochet how many innings he thinks he can last.
“Kind of the story of my spring is where my feet are,” Crochet responded. “We’ll see when that day comes. If I’m efficient who knows.”
