And looking like an early Cy Young Favorite…
Garrett Crochet has been the Red Sox’ best starter thus far this season, and one of the best in the league. At the same time, he hasn’t looked quite as dominant as he did prior to arriving in Boston. His ERA is exactly two through ten starts, though he’s struggled through some innings and outings. On Friday night against Atlanta, Crochet put together one of his best starts this season, allowing two runs over the course of seven innings. The two runs came via back-to-back home runs in the second inning, both off the four-seam fastball.
By no means am I saying that Crochet had been bad prior to Friday’s start. He’s been objectively spectacular and is one of the favorites to win the American League Cy Young. He hasn’t always looked “in control”, so to speak, though. On Friday, he was exactly that. Here’s the pitch plot:
This command is nearly perfect. Fastballs at the top of the zone, cutters and sweepers to the glove side, and sinkers on the arm side. Aside from the home runs, he didn’t allow a single extra base hit. The only hits he allowed were singles, a few of which were some unfortunate batted ball luck.
I want to focus on his fastballs. In 2024, his fastball and cutter combined for 82% of Crochet’s pitches. His four-seamer has taken some steps back in the early part of 2025, it’s a little more hittable this season. The biggest change is mechanical; his extension is down from 7.2” to 6.7”. The velocity has also fallen about a tick and a half, although it’s ticked back up over his last few starts. He’s also been in the zone with the pitch slightly less, but again, he seems to have clicked mechanically, and his command has been greatly improved over his last two starts. With decreased extension, command becomes more important, but Crochet seems to have found a rhythm with the pitch. Ideally, the extension would come back, but the pitch is still well above average as is. Overall, the fastball hasn’t been as dominant in 2025 as it was in 2024, but it’s started to come back to life.
His cutter is also a little different this season. He’s not throwing it as hard, and he’s throwing it in the zone more frequently. He’s getting more strikes overall, but much fewer swinging strikes. He’s also been locating it more to the arm side, rather than getting to on the glove side, although I don’t think it’s entirely intentional. Through his first five or so starts, most of his misses were to the arm side, suggesting a mechanical error. Here’s his cutter location from 2024:
Compared to 2025, prior to Friday:
On Friday night, he dotted the glove side consistently, leading to six whiffs on 30 pitches. Arm-side cutters aren’t necessarily a bad thing, especially to right handed hitters. They can return plenty of called strikes, and they’re not easy to hit hard to the pull side. The glove side is where he’ll get whiffs, though. The putaway rate (how often a two-strike pitch results in a strikeout) has fallen from 29.1% to 19.5%. Arm-side can work early in counts, but the glove side cutter is nearly unhittable if he establishes his fastball and will help him get efficiently navigate lineups.
If Crochet can regain the extension he had in 2024, and continue to locate his cutter, he’s one of the few starters in the league who could get by with just two pitches. The current fastball is hittable enough (see the two HRs allowed) that he needs more. Fortunately, he’s located a sweeper down and away as well. He has a sinker for lefties and a changeup for righties as well. Let’s see it in action, here’s Ozzie Albies in the second inning.
Crochet leads with a fastball up and in. Perfect. Unless you’re really looking for this, it’s very difficult to drive. 0-1.
At 0-1, Crochet spikes a changeup. He’s probably trying to get a called strike or weak ground ball by throwing it down and away, but misses badly. No harm, 1-1.
At 1-1, this is a perfect cutter from Crochet. It’s right on the inside corner, and Albies swings right over it. It looks like a fastball most of the way, but runs in over the plate, causing some ugly swings. After a swing like that, I’d go back to the cutter with two strikes.
He does go back to the cutter, and Albies fouls it off. He’s still out in front, but this one is high enough where he can get a bat on it. I’d continue with the cutter, just try to get it to the same spot as the first one.
It’s a sweeper this time, but he misses to the arm side. Albies takes an emergency swing and fouls it off again.
Following the sweeper miss, Crochet goes to the cutter again and spots it well, but Albies gets more bat on it. While it’s still a foul ball, Albies seems to be timed up for it, so I’d go to something else.
Crochet goes back to the sweeper, hits his spot, and gets Albies to fly out. Ideally, this at-bat ends in fewer than seven pitches, but it’s a job well done nonetheless.
Let’s do one more, here’s Sean Murphy in his second at-bat. He homered his first time up on a high fastball.
Crochet starts Murphy off with a cutter. It’s not 0-0 pitch, but Murphy can only foul it off.
Crochet follows the fastball with a sweeper down and in. Crochet doesn’t typically throw sweepers to righties, but he’s located it well and it’s returned tons of swinging strikes. Here, he spots it down and in, Murphy is way out in front and whiffs for strike two.
He goes back to the sweeper, even further from the zone this time, and Murphy barely holds up. This is a great 0-2 pitch, even if it doesn’t get the out. No risk at all, and competitive enough to throw it again if he wants to.
Crochet triples up on the sweeper, this one starts too far off the plate to get a swing. Following three sweepers, Murphy may think he’s not going to see a fastball after homering off one his first time up. Crochet may be able to get one past him, or he could go with a changeup or a cutter.
Beautiful. 96 MPH at the top of the zone, and Murphy can’t resist. Great pitch.
Crochet was fantastic on Friday night, and has started to find a groove. The fastball gives me some pause, but he seems to be more in-tune mechanically and is dictating at-bats better than he was to start the season. For my money, I’d bet on Tarik Skubal to win the Cy Young, but if Crochet continues to pitch at this level, he’ll have a great shot at it.