Chicago White Sox Looks To Trade Strikeout Machine

There has been a sea change in the top tier of pitching across MLB. None of the ten best pitchers in WAR were anywhere near last year’s top ten list. The greatest of all might be Chicago White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet, and he could be on the move by the end of the month.

According to a report by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, 15 teams have already requested a price check on Crochet, and it’s easy to understand his appeal. The 25-year-old leads MLB with 141 strikeouts, 12.5 strikeouts per nine innings, and a 35.3% strikeout rate. He also paces the American League with a 2.37 FIP over 18 starts and 101 1/3 innings. In yesterday’s outing against the Colorado Rockies, he fanned 11 batters in seven frames while allowing two runs on five hits with no walks.

Crochet is a lock to make the All-Star team and a frontrunner for the Cy Young Award—if he remains in the American League all year—but his dominance came out of nowhere. The White Sox drafted him in the first round in 2020 and he made it to Chicago that same year, throwing five innings out of the bullpen. He posted a 2.82 ERA over 54 relief appearances in 2021, but Tommy John surgery wiped out his entire 2022 campaign, and multiple injuries cost him all but 13 appearances in 2023. He didn’t even become a starting pitcher until this season.

Crochet’s pitching arsenal is unique insomuch as he heavily relies on fastballs. He throws his four-seamer 55.2% of the time and his cutter 26.7%. He also mixes in a slider with 12% usage and features an occasional changeup strictly against right-handed hitters. His four-seamer averages 96.9 mph and Baseball Savant credits him with a fastball run value of 20, which is the best in MLB this year. It’s a reliever’s pitch mix, but he’s thriving with it as a starter.

Despite being arguably the best pitcher in the game this year, he is only making $800,000 in salary. 2024 is his first year of arbitration eligibility, but the fact that he was a reliever before this season and he was injured for all of 2022 and most of 2023 gave him no leverage in negotiations. Of course, his 2025 and 2026 arbitration salaries will be substantially larger.

The White Sox hope to mitigate those future costs and retain him beyond 2026 by negotiating an extension, but according Nightengale, there is, “No optimism towards reaching an agreement.” The report also suggests any team that trades for him might have to negotiate an extension to get Crochet to agree to lift a workload limitation in the second half of the season. His previous career-high for innings in a season is 65, which he reached in 2019—his sophomore year at the University of Tennessee.

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The fact that the White Sox are willing to engage in trade conversations around a 25-year-old ace with more than two years of team control remaining is an indictment on the present and near-term future of the franchise. Their 24-62 record is the worst in MLB despite the efforts of Crochet and fellow unlikely star pitcher Erick Fedde, and the front office evidently doesn’t believe they can turn the team around before 2026.

Crochet’s success and the surrounding trade speculation must give White Sox fans flashbacks to another 6-foot-6 lefty ace. Chris Sale was their first-round pick in 2010, and just like Crochet, he reached MLB as reliever the same season in which he was drafted. He converted to a starting role in 2012 and became an All-Star who received down-ballot Cy Young votes in each of the next seven seasons, but not all of them were with Chicago. The franchise traded him to the Boston Red Sox after the 2016 campaign while he was still in his prime at age 27.

It goes without saying that every team in MLB would be thrilled to have a 25-year-old strikeout machine earning $800,000 who doesn’t reach free agency until 2027. If the White Sox indeed trade him, they will command an enormous haul of prospects and young talent. Expect a fierce bidding war until the July 30 trade deadline.