On the day first-round left-hander Hagen Smith threw out the first pitch at Guaranteed Rate Field, the odds of All-Star left-hander Garrett Crochet being in a White Sox uniform next season never seemed smaller.
The Sox are rebuilding, Crochet has two years of control left and unless somebody knows something nobody else does, won’t be signing an extension. The Sox won’t want to spend the big money it could take to keep Crochet in a Sox uniform when his contract expires.
While saying he was proud of what Crochet has achieved and citing Crochet getting named Opening Day starter as the highlight of 2024, general manager Chris Getz on Monday suggested Crochet will be traded in the offseason.
“The reality of baseball and where we’re at as an organization, you need to look at the types of return you could potentially get in trades,” Getz said before the Sox took a 33-111 record into their game against the Guardians at Guaranteed Rate Field, where Guardians left-hander Joey Cantillo opened with 6 2/3 perfect innings. “We need to weigh where we’re going to be in a year or two years, but we also know how talented he is and he can certainly lead a rotation with the White Sox or anyone else, so we’re going to take advantage of what he’s capable of doing as a starter. But also, it’s wise to see what the market holds for a Garrett Crochet to see if we can improve the White Sox for the future.”
If there’s a strength in the Sox farm system is in their pitching, specifically with 2022 first-round lefty Noah Schultz and Smith, the No. 5 pick in this year’s draft, who could ease the sting of parting with Crochet.
“We feel really good about the pitching development and our infrastructure,” Getz said. “We’re going to continue to nurture that and figure out how to get this club better.”
It’s hard to see the Sox being better without Crochet next season, but Getz is looking beyond 2025, which could be another 100-loss season. With Crochet, look how bad the Sox are now, anyway.
“He’s been one of the bright spots of baseball, quite honestly,” Getz said. “It’s not a player we’re actively shopping. Obviously, there’s a lot of interest in a Garrett Crochet because what he can do on the mound. We’ll wrap up this year, get into the offseason and kind of go from there. You look at the long list of arms we’ve accumulated, both through the draft and trades [for prospects], we feel like we’re in a pretty healthy spot from a pitching standpoint.”
There is nothing healthy about the Sox record, which was headed to 33-112 with the Guardians leading 5-1. David Fry and Bo Naylor homered for the Guardians against opener Jared Shuster and Enyel De Los Santos, the Sox put on a ragged defensive performance and looked helpless against Cantillo, who struck out 10 in the first seven innings and didn’t allow a baserunner until Andrew Benintendi singled with two outs in the seventh.
The AL record for most losses belongs to the 2003 Tigers, who went 43-119. The major league record belongs to the 1962 Mets, who were 40-120.
“If you would have told me we were going to end up flirting with the record I would have been a little surprised,” Getz said. “Now if you would have told me prior to the year that we would have ended up with over 100 losses, 105, 110, I wouldn’t have been as surprised. But this is the cards that we’ve been dealt at this point. You try to make the best of it, and I think it’s an opportunity to embrace the situation that we’re in.
“As someone that grew up in Detroit, we saw the Tigers in 2003 with 43 wins and three years later, we’re in the World Series. I view it as kind of the frustrating part of the story, but I also know that the future’s looking bright and it’s going to make it just that much sweeter once we get there.”