MLB Writer Projects Potential Garrett Crochet Red Sox Extension

Opening Day for the 2025 Red Sox season is rapidly approaching, which means Garrett Crochet won’t be open for business much longer.

Crochet indicated last week he’d like to have any and all talks about a potential contract extension wrapped up before the regular season begins. The big left-hander has been as advertised so far and looks like the real deal after Boston swung an offseason blockbuster with the White Sox to land him.

The 25-year-old is under team control through next season. At the least, the Red Sox will get two full seasons of the Cy Young Award hopeful. Boston though, is ready to contend, and locking up Crochet to anchor the rotation for the rest of the decade should be a priority.

That’s easier said than done given Crochet’s relative inexperience. He missed the entire 2022 season due to injury, made a brief return in 2023 and didn’t pitch his first full season as a big-league starter until 2024. Despite debuting in 2020, Crochet has just 219 career innings under his belt.

The Athletic’s Tim Britton recently set out to find sensible contract extensions for some of the best young players in the game, and he included Crochet. Britton believes it would behoove both sides to iron out a deal in the neighborhood of five years and $110 million.

Britton noted Crochet’s “scant track record,” but he also pointed to Crochet’s age. Since Crochet will be entering his age-28 season when he hits the market, that doesn’t give him as much prime on which to capitalize. As such, Britton pointed to the Spencer Strider deal with Atlanta (six years, $75 million) as a potential benchmark.

“Crochet’s relative youth could mean that the Red Sox are comfortable buying out four or even five free-agent years at a price in (the Strider) range,” Britton wrote. “For now, I’ll stick with what I said last summer: an extension that values three free-agent years at $32 million apiece and ends up at five years and $110 million.”

Essentially, the Red Sox would be buying out Crochet’s first three years of free agency at that $32 million per season figure, taking into account the two arbitration years he has remaining.

Finding something that works for both sides in this case is tricky for the reasons laid out. The reason both should be motivated to do something, though, is the same for any countless number of similar scenarios for players and teams in the past. The Red Sox benefit from buying up those free-agent years, especially if Crochet continues to contend for Cy Young Awards. Crochet, meanwhile, would get life-changing money with the potential to hit the market again in his prime and really cash in.

One other wrinkle to consider: The Red Sox, as of right now, have just $162 million tied up in 2027 — and that’s assuming both Alex Bregman and Trevor Story have exercised their respective player options. That also should be around the time Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell are making legitimate impacts in Boston at bargain rates on their first deals.