As of early November, the Chicago White Sox weren't sure what they were going to do with Garrett Crochet in 2022.
Well, we're a long way from early November, but with so much offseason work left to be done, perhaps the White Sox are still keeping their options open with their 2020 first-round pick.
Thing is, now as in November, the realities of the major league roster in a season with World Series aspirations might force their hand. Because it sure seems like the White Sox can little afford to leave Crochet out of their 2022 bullpen plans.
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"He had a very good year, which does make you hesitant to move him out of something that's working, because he is valuable in that role," White Six general manager Rick Hahn said in November. "That said, we still very much believe in his potential to be an impactful starter, too. That's just something we want to find a way to possibly bring out of him."
That there is even a decision to be made stems from the White Sox' long-term hopes for the lefty fireballer, who wowed by reaching the majors with no minor league experience the year he was drafted and blowing away big league hitters with 101-mile-an-hour fastballs. The idea is that Crochet will one day take his talents to the South Side starting rotation, part of a starting staff of the future that can extend the White Sox' contention window deep into the decade.
Right now, of course, there's no room for Crochet in that rotation, nor is he developed enough to join it even if there was. If Crochet is going to be a starter one day, he's going to need to be developed as one, something that would most likely need to take place at the minor league level. It might seem odd to suggest that someone who's spent more than a full season in the bigs would need to go backward down the organizational ladder, but Crochet hasn't started at the major league level, has never started at the minor league level and made just one start during his junior season at the University of Tennessee before the pandemic shut down college athletics.
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Crochet was a first-round pick for a reason, of course, a talented hurler who got compared to Chris Sale on draft night. But it goes without saying that someone is going to need to teach Crochet how to be a major league starter if he's ever going to be a major league starter.
It's not impossible for that education to happen while he's pitching at the major league level, though, and one long-term route the White Sox could go is stretching him out more and more as a bullpen arm, shifting him from late-inning flamethrower to multi-inning long reliever over time. But that's just one route, with the more traditional trip through the minors being another.
Here's the thing, though. The South Side bullpen is a lot thinner than it was when the 2021 season ended in October. And Crochet's skills as a reliever might be more valuable than ever right now.
Michael Kopech got his promotion from the 'pen to the rotation. Craig Kimbrel is being openly discussed as a trade candidate. Ryan Tepera and Evan Marshall are free agents. While Hahn's front office made a big-time addition to the relief corps by inking free agent Kendall Graveman to a multi-year deal, there's not much to bank on past the late-inning combination of Liam Hendriks, Aaron Bummer and Graveman and the starting-pitching depth provided by Reynaldo López.
Crochet's planned future as a starter only adds to that uncertainty, and if the White Sox wanted to get his transition started right away in 2022, that yanks another arm that Tony La Russa leaned on throughout the 2021 season out of the mix for this year.
That mystery surrounding how the White Sox will fill out their bullpen makes keeping Crochet a reliever a seemingly prudent course of action. Obviously, there's a lot more work Hahn & Co. will have to do on the other side of baseball's ongoing lockout, and that work could change that thinking dramatically. Two more arms added to the 'pen, and suddenly Crochet is not a relief necessity, allowing the White Sox to get his career as a starting pitcher off and running.
Of course, while Hahn is intentionally keeping one eye on the future — long-term success a primary goal of his rebuilding project — it's undoubtedly winning time on the South Side. And it's more than possible that Crochet, who despite throwing far fewer of those triple-digit heaters in 2021 finished the year with a very fine 2.82 ERA, gives the White Sox the best chance to achieve their championship-level goals as a big league reliever in 2022.
So there's a lot going on with this decision.
But if Crochet stays in the major league 'pen, expect him to be called on a lot, La Russa including the lanky lefty among his most used pitchers last year, when Crochet ranked fourth on the team in relief appearances, behind only Hendriks, Bummer and José Ruiz. And his ERA was significantly lower than Bummer's and Kopech's, for that matter, speaking to his success if masking his memorable unlucky moments pitching in extra innings.
That blazing heat might never return in full, as Crochet was most likely "throwing" as opposed to "pitching," a favorite coach comparison, as a first-time big leaguer at the end of the 2020 season. But "pitching" is how you have consistent success in the majors, especially as a starting pitcher, which Crochet is slated to be for these White Sox in the not too distant future.
As for the immediate future, though, he seems an effective relief weapon, something the White Sox could certainly use after a bullpen exodus. And that, with the team hoping to reach the end of October, might be the determining factor in his 2022 fate.