Can Garrett Crochet crack White Sox’ starting rotation at spring training?

PHOENIX – Could Garrett Crochet really land a spot in the White Sox’ starting rotation this spring?

If you know the answer, take your crystal ball and make a beeline for Las Vegas.

Everything about where Crochet, the White Sox’ first-round draft pick in 2020, ends up by the end of camp late next month is to be determined. But what’s certain is that he’s getting the opportunity to do what he wants. And what he wants to do is be a major league starting pitcher.

“I’m ecstatic,” the tall left-hander said Tuesday, the eve of pitchers and catchers reporting to camp. “I had a conversation with (general manager Chris) Getz early in the offseason and felt like it went really well. It’s not like I expect to be given anything. I just want a chance to fight for a spot and earn it, and at the end of spring training, (we’ll) reevaluate.

“That’s kind of the prized pony of Major League Baseball. Everybody wants to be able to start. Not everyone can do it. For me, I have a lot of self-belief I can do it, so I wanted a chance to prove that.”

At first blush, it figures to be tough sledding for Crochet, who hasn’t amassed many innings in pro ball. In fact, due to the COVID-19 pandemic shortening his collegiate career, he hasn’t accumulated many innings at all.

After being drafted in 2020, he reached the big leagues without pitching in any minor league games and appeared in the postseason. He was an effective bullpen arm for the White Sox when they won the AL Central in 2021. Then he missed all of 2022 while recovering from Tommy John surgery and most of 2023 while doing the same and dealing with additional health issues.

All told, he’s pitched 73 innings in the big leagues. Even if he went just five innings every time out as a starting pitcher, he’d eclipse that number in just 15 starts, or half the total a healthy starting pitcher makes during a major league season.

But the White Sox, who at the outset of another rebuilding effort might not need Crochet’s presence in the ‘pen as badly as they did while attempting to win a division crown, are letting him attempt to make the jump to the rotation. And Getz surprised Monday, when during his pre-spring media session he considered the possibility of Crochet making that jump in time for a spot in the rotation by Opening Day.

“It was very clear he was excited to get a look as a starter. When you’ve got a player that has that type of conviction, I think you’re doing the player a disservice to ignore that,” Getz said. “His mind and his body is prepared to be a starting pitcher at this point. Obviously, he needs to be built up further. He hasn’t had too many starter innings under his belt, that’s even going back to college. But he’s a special arm.

“He’s got the starter kit to be a starting pitcher. Now it’s just a matter of going out and executing and figuring out how to navigate games. I look forward to seeing how it plays out. If we need to make adjustments along the way, we’ll do that.

“If we feel that (putting him in the rotation on Opening Day is) best for Garrett and us, yes, that’s certainly under consideration.”

Crochet explained that he felt he could provide more value for the White Sox by getting more than just three outs per outing. He said he wanted to focus on just one role, rather than going back and forth between starting and relieving. And you can’t ignore the fact that the game’s best starting pitchers tend to make a ton of money, particularly compared to their counterparts in the bullpen.

But Crochet’s desire – and the White Sox’ willingness to give him this opportunity – don’t set his future in stone. It seems this experiment could end in a number of different ways, including a place in the Opening Day rotation, a spot in the Opening Day bullpen or a trip to the minors to work further on earning a place as a long-term starting pitcher.

One thing Getz and the White Sox aren’t doing this spring is closing the door on any possibility with their roster or with any individual player, and that is certainly the approach they’re taking when it comes to Crochet.

But more specifically, even Crochet, as confident as he is in his ability to become a big league starter, knows that his final assignment will depend on what his body allows him to do. A pair of injuries over the last two years – the Tommy John surgery and what Getz referred to as a “shoulder hiccup” – plus the limited workload on his left arm, mean it’s unknown how starting will treat him from one outing to the next.

“In the talks I’ve had with (pitching coach Ethan Katz) and Chris, it’s up to how I’m recovering,” Crochet said. “If I’m having success, it’s a little bit easier to pencil me in for that spot. But (it’s about) recovery first and foremost, and we’ll kind of see.”

“All offseason has been in preparation for him to be a starter and, primarily, be healthy,” Getz said of how the team would handle Crochet during the spring. “It will be one inning and two innings and three innings, and we’ll kind of go from there. Does that mean he comes out of the ‘pen to begin with and gets his innings? Spring training is unique. It’s a little bit different than in season. You’ve got backfield games, obviously opportunities to start (Cactus League) games. More than anything, it’s keeping him healthy and then stretching him out appropriately and deploying him how we see fit, both for Garrett and for the organization.”

But even the end of that leaves the door open for any number of outcomes. Crochet is obviously focused on one of them, but he knows this could go any number of ways. On top of how he responds physically and whether or not he can be successfully built-up to take on a starter’s workload, there’s the matter of competition and the limited available spots in the White Sox’ rotation.

Dylan Cease has already been crowned Pedro Grifol’s starter for Game 1. Michael Kopech will have every opportunity to become the dominant starter that has long been promised. Erik Fedde is aboard on a two-year free-agent deal, almost certainly locking the reigning Korean baseball MVP into one of those five spots. Past that, Chris Flexen signed a major league free-agent deal this winter, trade acquisition Michael Soroka has an All-Star appearance on his resume, and the organization has several intriguing youngsters in the mix.

Grifol said Tuesday that the team is planning to stretch out 14 or 15 players for the starting-pitching competition. Crochet is just one of them, and he just might not finish camp as one of the best five.

Again, there’s a lot of ways this could play out. But the White Sox are at least giving Crochet the shot he wants, the chance to become a major league starter. This is the very beginning of this experiment, and we’ll know an awful lot more about Crochet’s chances at success as the weeks go on than we do after just a couple days of talking about it.

“I’m open to anything,” Crochet said. “I’ve been training this offseason to be a starter, and it’s kind of what’s in my mind. It’s up to the front office to decide what’s the best path to kind of execute the plan. But I’m open to anything that’s helping the big league club. Starting is definitely No. 1 for me.”

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