Garrett Crochet

Dodgers To Reinstate Clayton Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow

By Darragh McDonald | July 21, 2024 at 10:59am CDT

The Dodgers have been scrambling to fill their rotation lately but will get a couple of big reinforcements back in the coming days. Manager Dave Roberts tells reporters that right-hander Tyler Glasnow and left-hander Clayton Kershaw will each come off the injured list to start on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. Kershaw is on the 60-day IL and will need a 40-man roster spot to be opened prior to taking the ball. Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times was among those to relay the news on X.

It’s a pretty big moment for Kershaw, who is coming back from the most significant absence of his career. The southpaw went under the knife in November to repair the gleno-humeral ligaments and capsule of his left shoulder. Though surgeries for pitchers have become quite commonplace in today’s baseball landscape, this was actually the first one for the veteran.

Kershaw was a workhorse earlier in his career but has had some health issues in recent seasons. From 2010 to 2015, he logged at least 198 innings for six straight years but hasn’t hit that number since. Recent years have seen him miss time here and there, often due to back issues, but the shoulder was the big concern in 2023. He somehow managed to toss 131 2/3 innings with a 2.55 earned run average despite his fastball velocity declining throughout the season but then was torched in his lone playoff start, only recording one out against the Diamondbacks while being charged with six earned runs.

The shoulder issue eventually require the aforementioned surgery in November and then he re-signed with the Dodgers in February. The deal is a two-year pact with the second season being a player option. Kershaw has a base salary of just $5MM in both years of the deal but with the ability to earn far more if he’s healthy. He gets an extra $1MM for getting to six starts, $1.5MM each for his seventh, eighth and ninth starts and then $2MM after his tenth. The Dodgers can’t get around this by using an opener, as a relief outing wherein Kershaw records at least nine outs also counts. At this point in the calendar, it’s still possible for Kershaw to unlock all of those bonuses and there are similar escalators for his 2025 option.

He began a rehab assignment by pitching three innings at the Single-A level on June 19. He was then shut down due to some shoulder soreness but Roberts downplayed the significance and Kershaw restarted his rehab assignment again more recently. He tossed three innings for Triple-A Oklahoma City last Saturday and then four innings on Friday, getting up to 67 pitches in the most recent outing. He’s now set to resume a big league career that already includes 2,712 2/3 innings with a 2.48 ERA.

Glasnow’s absence was far more mild, as he landed on the IL prior to the break due to some low back tightness, but the dual returns are significant for the Dodgers as they have had plenty of rotation challenges. Dustin May and Emmet Sheehan are each done for the year, with Tony Gonsolin likely to be in that camp as well. Yoshinobu Yamamoto has a rotator cuff strain that landed him on the 60-day IL, meaning he can’t return before mid-August. Bobby Miller struggled enough to get optioned down to the minors while Walker Buehler was ineffective before landing on the IL with a hip issue.

Amid all of those issues, the Dodgers have been using a rotation of veteran James Paxton, rookies Gavin Stone, Justin Wrobleski and Landon Knack, as well as occasional bullpen games. Getting Glasnow and Kershaw into that mix obviously helps, and the club will be promoting prospect River Ryan soon as well.

Though that group is about to be much stronger than it was heading into the All-Star break, the Dodgers are still expected to pursue rotation upgrades prior to the July 30 deadline. They have been connected to Garrett Crochet of the White Sox for weeks now and Bob Nightengale of USA Today mentions the fit again this morning, also adding that the club has interest in Tarik Skubal of the Tigers.

Though the Dodgers’ interest in Crochet has been known for a while, Nightengale adds that the Dodgers have discussed a blockbuster deal that would see them also acquire outfielder Luis Robert Jr. and maybe even reliever Michael Kopech as well. That’s not necessarily a big surprise, as teams usually discuss all kinds of various trade scenarios, with many of them not coming close to fruition.

But that does align with recent comments from president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, who suggested the Dodgers would be more focused on impact additions as opposed to marginal upgrades. The club has some holes but is understandably shooting for the stars at this point. They have made the playoffs in 11 straight years now and spent wildly in the offseason, adding Yamamoto and Shohei Ohtani and others. Making the postseason for a 12th straight year won’t really count as an accomplishment for the club or its fans, so aiming high at the deadline and trying for a World Series seems to be the play.

Crochet would obviously fit the bill since he’s been one of the best pitchers in the league this year with a 3.02 ERA and 35.2% strikeout rate through 20 starts. There are some concerns about his workload since he’s already thrown more innings this year than in his entire professional career prior to this campaign, but he should be able to provide an impact even if moved to some kind of relief role down the stretch.

Robert also has some durability concerns as he’s only tallied 100 games in a season once, but that one occurrence was quite impressive. He got into 145 contests for the Sox last year and hit 38 home runs, stole 20 bases and provided quality defense in center field. Injuries have been a problem before and have cropped up again this year, as he missed two months due to a right hip flexor strain. But he’s been great in his limited time, with 11 homers and 11 steals in just 45 games. His 32.6% strikeout rate is a career high but his 10.2% walk rate is almost twice his career pace.

He could fit into a Dodger outfield that has seen Mookie Betts move to the infield and then head to the injured list. Teoscar Hernández is having a good year but it’s flimsy apart from that. Andy Pages and Miguel Vargas are doing well overall but most of their damage has come against lefties. Ideally, they would be platooned with Jason Heyward, but Heyward is also on the IL. James Outman is hitting just .153/.250/.258 on the year and was optioned to the minors for a while, only getting recalled when Heyward went on the shelf. Utility players Chris Taylor, Enrique Hernández and Cavan Biggio have also struggled.

In addition to their talents, both players would be incredibly attractive due to their financial situations. Crochet is in his first arbitration season but his injury absences have limited him to a salary of $800K this year. He has two arb seasons left after this one and will be in line for a decent raises, but from a very modest base. Robert is making $12.5MM this year, far more than Crochet but still a bargain for a player of his talents. He’ll then make $15MM next year with a pair of $20MM club options after that.

Each player has significant trade value in a vacuum but it would take a massive blockbuster haul for the Dodgers to get both. Their farm system is considered strong but whether a deal can come together or not will depend on what kind of price the Sox are asking for and what other teams are offering. But at 27-73 and with a farm system that isn’t especially well regarded, it makes sense the Sox are considering trading almost anyone and it seems they are doing just that.

Kopech can’t match either Crochet or Robert in terms of huge appeal, but he would have some value in his own right. After some inconsistent results as a starter, the Sox have been using him as their closer this year with some interesting but mixed results. His 5.05 ERA isn’t going to wow anyone and his 12.7% walk rate is concerning, but he has punched out 30.9% of batters faced. He’s only making $3MM this year and can be retained via arbitration for another season after this.

As for Skubal, it’s understandable why the Dodgers or any other club would be interested. He is a Cy Young candidate this year with a 2.41 ERA, 30.8% strikeout rate, 4.6% walk rate and 47.4% ground ball rate. He’s making a modest $2.65MM and has two seasons of club control beyond this one.

But that also makes him plenty appealing to the Tigers and it’s fair to wonder how available he is. The club once seemed buried in the standings but have been hot lately, winning 11 of their last 14 and climbing to within five games of a playoff spot. Getting Skubal away from Detroit was probably going to take a haul even when they were in seller position but it’s probably become more difficult in recent weeks.

AL East Notes: Crochet, Red Sox, Yankees, Rasmussen, Tiedemann

By Mark Polishuk | July 20, 2024 at 1:11pm CDT

While Garrett Crochet has been a popular trade candidate heading into the deadline, the Red Sox are one team that doesn’t appear to be in the mix for the White Sox left-hander. In a recent edition of the Fenway Rundown podcast, MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo said that Boston has “not talked about Crochet at all….That is, at this point, not something they’ve aggressively tried to do.” Since the Red Sox are loath to move any of their top three prospects (Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, Kyle Teel) in trades, it seems hard to imagine that Chicago would accept a offer from Boston that didn’t include at least one of those three minor league stars.

The Yankees may also be limited participants in the Crochet sweepstakes, as Jon Heyman of the New York Post hears from a source who says the Bombers “are not that into” Crochet as a trade target. Since Heyman also wrote a couple of weeks ago that the Yankees “very much like Crochet,” this could indicate a change in New York’s plans, or perhaps the Yankees’ interest has been tempered by Chicago’s asking price. The White Sox are understandably asking for a huge return for Crochet in any trade, and Chicago’s particular interest in Spencer Jones as part of a Crochet trade package may have clashed with New York’s inclination to keep one of its top hitting prospects.

Latest On Garrett Crochet’s Trade Market

By Nick Deeds | July 14, 2024 at 9:37am CDT

The White Sox’s reported desire to deal dominant youngster Garrett Crochet this summer has made the southpaw one of the most intriguing players to watch in the days leading up to the trade deadline on July 30, and USA Today’s Bob Nightengale noted this morning that Chicago still intends to deal the lefty this summer even as rival GMs express uncertainty regarding whether or not a deal will come together. Nightengale goes on to note that while the Padres made a “recent” offer to the South Siders for Crochet, White Sox brass “quickly dismissed” the proposal.

This isn’t the first report to suggesting that the White Sox have been dismissive of offers from rival clubs, as reporting earlier this month suggested the Dodgers have also put forth an offer that was ultimately rejected. Still, it’s somewhat notable that San Diego’s offer for the lefty’s services was turned down given the fact that the Padres were reportedly the “most aggressive” team in their pursuit of the lefty’s services as recently as last month. It’s certainly possible that other clubs have become more aggressive in their pursuits of Crochet since then, but the news is nonetheless the latest signal that the price for the youngster’s services will be steep.

An exorbitant asking price is somewhat understandable given Crochet’s unique combination of youth, dominance, and team control. The 25-year-old has pitched to a 3.02 ERA in 107 1/3 innings of work this year with even stronger peripheral numbers, as he leads the majors with a whopping 150 strikeouts. That’s good for a 35.2% strikeout rate, and Crochet complements that heavy dose of K’s with a microscopic 5.4% walk rate and a strong 45.7% groundball rate. A starting pitcher with that sort of elite talent is extremely hard to come by in any case, much less at an age when some pitchers have yet to even establish themselves at the majors and with team control that runs through the end of the 2026 season.

While there’s been questions about whether or not Crochet will be able to remain in the rotation down the stretch after already more than doubling his total number of innings as a professional in the first half, the lefty would surely be a valuable asset even in a bullpen role for the second half this year before returning to the rotation in 2025. Given that, it’s hardly a surprise that Crochet is reportedly receiving widespread interest from clubs around the league. That should allow the White Sox to set the asking price on his services quite high, particularly given the fact that they could try to deal him again this winter if talks end up stalling out.

One clue as to where the Sox may set the bar regarding Crochet is that Nightengale suggests Chicago is “insisting” on Yankees outfield prospect Spencer Jones as part of the return for the lefty’s services in negotiations with New York. Jones, the Yankees’ first round pick in the 2022 draft, was a frequently discussed prospect this winter as the club resisted requests for him to be included in deals with various trade partners throughout the winter. He entered the season as a consensus top-100 prospect in the sport, with some services even ranking him in the top 30 or higher. A slow start to the season at Double-A saw most outlets settle on placing Jones in the top-75 range earlier this year, though he’s heated up in recent weeks and may have seen his prospect stock start to rebound a bit. Either way, reporting last week indicated that the Yankees remain unwilling to part with Jones, suggesting that a deal between New York and Chicago is unlikely unless one side or the other folds regarding the hulking outfield prospect.

AL Central Notes: Crochet, Jones, Allen, Meadows, Flaherty

By Mark Polishuk | July 7, 2024 at 4:45pm CDT

Since half the league has reportedly shown interest in White Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet, it isn’t surprising that a contender like the Yankees are on that list, as the New York Post’s Jon Heyman writes that the Bombers “very much like Crochet.” However, the Yankees still aren’t keen to part with top prospect Spencer Jones, who was known to be a chief White Sox target when Chicago and New York discussed a possible Dylan Cease trade last offseason before Cease was dealt to the Padres.

While Heyman isn’t sure if Jones is necessarily still a priority get for the White Sox, the 2022 first-rounder’s stock is likely still quite high despite only okay numbers at Double-A Somerset. After a very slow start to the season, Jones’ bat has started to cook over the last six weeks, bringing his season slash line to .241/.322/.408 over 320 plate appearances. Baseball America (73rd) and MLB Pipeline (74th) still have Jones within their top-75 prospect lists, and both outlets rank him behind only Jasson Dominguez as the top minor leaguer in the New York farm system.

MLBTR Podcast: The Rays Could Deal Starters, Garrett Crochet, James Wood And Free Agent Power Rankings

By Darragh McDonald | July 3, 2024 at 9:29am CDT

The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

MLBTR’s June update to the 2024-25 Power Rankings (3:00)
The Rays could* trade starting pitching without truly selling (14:25)
The Mets also could end up making starting pitching available even if they are buyers (20:40)
Garrett Crochet of the White Sox and his unique trade candidate status (25:35)
The Nationals promote James Wood (33:05)

* This podcast was recorded on the evening of July 2, before the Rays traded Aaron Civale to the Brewers.

Plus, we answer your questions, including…

What are the Astros going to do at the deadline? (42:15)
The Rangers are terrible but are World Series champions for the first time. Can they sell even if it’s the best thing for the team? (46:50)
Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris says the club could buy or sell. What do the final months of the season look like in Detroit? (54:30)

Check out our past episodes!

Injured Trade Candidates, The Cristopher Sánchez Extension And Blue Jays’ Woes – listen here
José Abreu’s Release, Mookie Betts and Yoshinobu Yamamoto Hit The IL And Even More Injuries – listen here
Injured Astros, The Chances Of Bad Teams Rebounding In 2025 And More – listen here

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!

Checking In On 2024’s Reliever-To-Rotation Experiments: July Edition

By Steve Adams | July 2, 2024 at 4:00pm CDT

About a quarter of the way through the 2024 season, I took a look at how the most prominent examples of teams’ attempts to turn an established reliever into a starter had progressed. At the time, the majority of these experiments were going well, by and large. At that mid-May juncture, most of the relievers making the switch had yet to reach their innings workloads from the season prior. Now that we’re at the season’s halfway point, that’s no longer the case. Many of the pitchers striving to make this jump are now approaching or have already eclipsed their 2023 innings totals — if not their career-high workloads — so it seems a good time to check back on how they’re faring.

As a reminder, the focus here is pitchers who pitched exclusively or near-exclusively out of the bullpen last season. Someone like the Rays’ Zack Littell or Red Sox’ Kutter Crawford, who moved into the rotation last summer and continued that move this year, isn’t the focus.

Garrett Crochet, LHP, White Sox

Stats at quarter mark: 9 games started, 46 2/3 innings, 4.63 ERA (2.47 SIERA), 34.2 K%, 4.8 BB%, 43.8 GB%

Stats since: 9 GS, 54 2/3 innings, 1.65 ERA (2.27 SIERA), 36.3 K%, 5.2 BB%, 45.5 GB%

At the 25% mark of the season, Crochet sat on a pedestrian ERA but elite K-BB profile. His production had been skewed by a series of three straight rough outings: five runs versus the Reds, seven in Philadelphia and another five in Minnesota.

Those three starts still stand as the worst three of his season. Crochet hasn’t yielded more than three runs in a single outing since that time. He’s not only maintained his elite K-BB profile but improved upon it, slightly upping his strikeout rate while sustaining his exceptional command. No starter in baseball is striking out hitters at a higher rate than Crochet, and only 12 are limiting their walks more effectively.

At last check, Crochet had ace-like rate stats but pedestrian run-prevention numbers overall. That’s no longer the case. The only question as to whether Crochet is a bona fide No. 1 starter is one of durability. All of the pieces are there, but Crochet has never pitched a full season in the rotation. In fact, this year’s combined 101 1/3 innings not only stand as a career-high, they eclipse his combined total of professional innings pitched — majors and minors combined — since being selected in the first round of the 2020 draft.

With two and a half years of team control left, a bottom-of-the-barrel $800K salary and the worst team in baseball behind him, Crochet stands as a clear-cut trade candidate. The Sox reportedly broached the possibility of an extension with him but are now expecting to trade him after contract talks failed to progress. A new team will have to worry about how Crochet will hold up down the stretch, but there’s little doubting that he’s a front-of-the-rotation talent.

Jordan Hicks, RHP, Giants

Stats at quarter mark: 9 GS, 48 innings, 2.44 ERA (3.99 SIERA), 19.9 K%, 8.2 BB%, 56.2 GB%

Stats since: 8 GS, 37 2/3 innings, 4.54 ERA (4.29 SIERA), 22.2 K%, 10.2 BB%, 45.8 GB%

Early on, Hicks was thriving in terms of run-prevention in spite of a pedestrian strikeout rate. He’s picked up the strikeout rate a bit since that time but has seen his command, ground-ball rate and velocity all drop. After averaging 5 1/3 innings through his first nine starts, Hicks is averaging about 4 2/3 innings per outing and has seen his average sinker velocity drop by nearly two miles per hour. Since mid-May, his sinker is averaging 93.5 mph — down from the 95.5 mph at last check and even further from the 100.2 mph Hicks averaged in his time as a reliever.

Hicks has struggled to turn the lineup over multiple times. Opponents own an awful .196/.268/.348 slash when facing him the first time in a game. Unlike many pitchers, who experience a stark drop when facing opponents a third time, Hicks’ troubles begin the second trip through the order. Opponents in those settings carry a .267/.373/.382 slash. He’s only faced a hitter for the third time on a given day 57 times this season, but opponents have batted .283/.333/.434 in that small sample.

Back in May, I noted that opponents had posted an embarrassing .079/.167/.105 slash in the 42 plate appearances Hicks had finished off with a splitter. They’ve fared better against the pitch since that time, though it’d be hard to have performed much worse. And, with opponents still slashing only .160/.244/.272 against the pitch (which Statcast credits with a .270 expected wOBA), that newly implemented offering still has the look of a plus pitch.

Hicks has remained reasonably effective but hasn’t been the roaring success he was through the first quarter of the season. San Francisco signed the 27-year-old flamethrower to a four-year, $44MM deal and did so with an eye toward Hicks starting, so it’s clear this is a multi-year undertaking. Nothing Hicks has done to date suggests he decidedly can’t handle being a starter, but he’s faded from his early-season production, which is perhaps to be expected for a pitcher whose 85 2/3 innings are already a career-high mark.

The manner in which Hicks has begun to fade only further underscores the remarkable nature of Crochet’s performance to date as he navigates uncharted workload territory. That said, Hicks has an overall 3.36 ERA with a nearly average strikeout rate, a manageable walk rate and a plus ground-ball rate. There have been some roadblocks of late, but this year could serve as a launching pad to a better performance in 2025-27, when he’s more accustomed to his current workload.

Reynaldo Lopez, RHP, Braves

Stats at quarter mark: 7 GS, 40 1/3 innings, 1.34 ERA (4.00 SIERA), 25.2 K%, 10.1 BB%, 40.2 GB%

Stats since: 7 GS, 39 innings, 2.08 ERA (3.58 SIERA), 26.1 K%, 7.0 BB%, 32.7 GB%

The Braves have been judicious with Lopez’s start-by-start workload thus far. He hasn’t topped 94 pitches in a single appearance and has only recorded four outs after the sixth inning all season. So far, that level of caution has paid off. Since last check, Lopez hasn’t lost any life of his heater and has actually tacked on 0.4 mph on average, per Statcast.

Atlanta doesn’t often give Lopez the opportunity to turn the lineup over a third time, and the opportunities he’s had haven’t gone well. Lopez has yielded a mid-.500s OPS to opponents the first or second time through the order but has been tagged for a .245/.359/.396 batting line the third time through. It’s not egregious, but it’s far less dominant than his first couple trips through a lineup.

Lopez is still running a plus strikeout rate, and he’s improved his command and his velocity as the season has worn on. As the only member of this list who’s previously worked multiple full seasons as a starter, he might have been the best-equipped to handle this transition, and so far it doesn’t appear he’s slowing down much at all.

Lopez entered the season with a career 71.1% strand rate, and he’s currently stranding 86.3% of his baserunners. His .279 average on balls in play is lower than league average but right in line with his career .281 mark. He’s allowed only 0.45 homers per nine frames, thanks in large part to a paltry 4.7% homer-to-flyball ratio that sits well shy of his career 11.3% mark. There’s some correlation there; it’s easier to strand runners if you’re almost never allowing a ball to clear the outfield fence, after all. In all likelihood, both that HR/FB and strand rate will trend toward his career marks as the season (and, more broadly, his three-year contract) wears on, but the outside-the-box bet on Lopez as a starter looks like one that will pay off for Atlanta.

Jose Soriano, RHP, Angels

Stats at quarter mark: 7 GS, 38 2/3 innings, 3.72 ERA (4.03 SIERA), 20.3 K%, 9.5 BB%, 61.5 GB%

Stats since: 5 GS, 33 2/3 innings, 3.21 ERA (3.97 SIERA), 16.9 K%, 6.2 BB%, 58.6 GB%

Soriano was continuing his sharp start to the season when he was scratched from a mid-June start due to abdominal pain. The Halos discovered an infection in the young righty’s abdomen that required a trip to the injured list and was expected to sideline him a few weeks. That’s thrown a bit of a wrench into his rotation breakout, though there’s no indication it’s a serious issue and the Halos can take solace in the fact that there’s no arm issue at play. And, after pitching just 65 1/3 innings last season, Soriano is already at 72 1/3 frames this year, so perhaps it can serve as a well-timed breather for his right arm.

The 25-year-old Soriano’s first run as a starter in the big leagues this season looked promising through mid-May and continues to do so. Impressively, he hasn’t lost any life on his four-seamer or sinker despite the shift from short relief to starting work. Statcast measured his average four-seamer at 98.9 mph in both 2023 and 2024, while his sinker clocked in at an average of 97.7 mph in 2023 and is actually marginally better in 2024 at 97.8 mph.

That sinker has helped Soriano run up an elite ground-ball rate; his 60.1% grounder rate ranks third among the 145 big league pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched this year, trailing only Framber Valdez (61.4%) and Cristopher Sanchez (60.3%). That uptick in grounder rate over last year’s 51% mark correlates with a huge spike in Soriano’s sinker usage (13.3% in ’23, 40% in ’24). The extra sinker usage has come at the expense of some four-seamers (25.8% in ’23, 17.8% in ’24) and particularly Soriano’s knuckle curve (41.2% in ’23, 27.5% in ’24).

The tweak in repertoire could come down to a pursuit of efficiency as Soriano looks to work deeper into games. The right-hander fanned 30.3% of opponents last season and registered a hearty 14.8% swinging-strike rate but also required 16.6 pitches per inning pitched, on average. In 2024, his strikeout rate is down to 20.3% with a 10.2% swinging-strike rate. But he’s significantly upped his grounder rate and is now averaging just 15.1 pitches per frame. Soriano averaged 6 2/3 innings per start in the five appearances between our last check and this one, so it seems clear he’s placing an emphasis on being able to work deeper into games in his new role. Opponents are hitting .313/.421/.521 in 58 plate appearances when facing him a third time, so the results aren’t there so far, however.

Bryse Wilson, RHP, Brewers

Stats at quarter mark: 11 G (5 GS), 34 innings, 2.65 ERA (4.60 SIERA), 20.4 K%, 10.9 BB%, 39.1 GB%

Stats since: 9 G (4 GS), 44 innings, 5.52 ERA (4.27 SIERA), 17.6 K%, 6.7 BB%, 41.3 GB%

Wilson hasn’t technically “started” each of his past nine appearances, but he’s averaged five innings per outing while working as a starter and bulk reliever (on the heels of an opener). Effectively, the Brewers are using him as a starter — they’re just shielding him from the top-third of some lineups on occasion, when the matchup dictates.

This wasn’t a planned move to a longer role. The former Braves top prospect and Pirates hurler entered the season slated for a second straight season as Milwaukee’s long man, but injuries to Wade Miley, Joe Ross, Robert Gasser and DL Hall combined to not only push Wilson into this rotation-ish role but to keep him there. After pitching 76 2/3 innings of pure long relief in 2023, Wilson is already at 78 frames and counting.

As one would typically expect, Wilson’s fastball has taken a slight dip as he’s stretched out for longer stints. He averaged 94 mph through the season’s first quarter, but several of those earlier appearances were still in short relief. He’s averaging 93.2 mph since mid-May and has seen his strikeout rate drop but also seen his walk rate improve. As he’s been tasked with facing more lefties, Wilson has upped his changeup and cutter usage a bit, doing so at the expense of his four-seamer and curveball.

Wilson has been far too homer-prone this season (1.62 HR/9) and is giving up too much hard contact (45.8%, per Statcast). More so than any pitcher on this list, he’s run into troubles the third time through the order; in 45 such plate appearances, they’ve posted a Herculean .400/.467/.650 slash. Those plate appearances account for just 13.6% of Wilson’s batters faced this season but have resulted in 21.5% of his home runs allowed. Wilson seems best suited for a long relief role or a five-inning start/bulk role, but he’s pitched more than five innings six times this season and is giving Milwaukee some desperately needed innings when their rotation is in tatters.

A.J. Puk, LHP, Marlins

Stats at quarter mark: 4 GS, 13 2/3 innings, 9.22 ERA (7.13 SIERA), 15.6 K%, 22.1 BB%, 31.9 GB%

Stats since: 0 GS, 21 1/3 innings, 2.95 ERA (3.36 SIERA), 21.4 K%, 4.8 BB%, 44.3 GB%

The Marlins quickly pulled the plug on the Puk rotation experiment, and it’s worked out for all parties. The former No. 6 overall pick (A’s, 2016) turned heads as a starter in spring training but was shelled in what currently stand as the only four starts of his big league career (though Puk was a starter both for the University of Florida and in the minor leagues).

It’s unlikely that Puk would’ve continued to struggle quite so substantially had Miami continued using him as a starter, but the left-hander certainly looks more comfortable in the short relief role in which he thrived from 2022-23 (123 innings, 3.51 ERA, 19 saves, 22 holds, 29.4 K%, 6.9 BB%). He’s performing far better in his old role, and he required a three-week stint on the injured list for shoulder fatigue following his early start in the rotation.

There’s no reason to fault the Marlins for trying to stretch out a clearly talented reliever who has a track record in the rotation, but Puk is back in the bullpen and figures to draw attention over the next month from teams seeking left-handed bullpen help. He’s controllable through the 2026 season.

Tyler Alexander, LHP, Rays

Stats at quarter mark: 7 G (5 GS), 39 2/3 innings, 5.45 ERA (4.44 SIERA), 19.1 K%, 6.9 BB%, 30.4 GB%

Stats since: 3 G (1 GS), 17 innings, 7.94 ERA (3.68 SIERA), 20.3 K%, 1.4 BB%, 27.8 GB%

Alexander entered the season in the same type of role Wilson currently holds with the Brewers: occasional starter and frequent bulk reliever behind an opener. He made a handful of solid appearances early on, though the value of those was offset by some particularly rough outings versus the Yankees (six runs in seven innings) and the Royals (eight runs in five innings).

Following our last check-in, Alexander made three appearances before being optioned to Triple-A Durham, where he’s worked quite effectively out of the Bulls’ rotation: five starts, 29 2/3 innings, 3.64 ERA, 24.2% strikeout rate, 2.4% walk rate. That should position him as a depth option in the event of a big league injury and/or trade. Tampa Bay reportedly has considered fielding offers on current members of its big league rotation — Zack Littell and Aaron Civale, most notably. Part of that is due to the looming returns of Shane Baz and Jeffrey Springs, but Alexander gives them another rotation candidate who’s performed well recently in Durham.

The Rays haven’t abandoned the Alexander starting experiment, but for the time being he’s not in their big league rotation plans. Speculatively, that could make Alexander himself a trade option for teams seeking back-of-the-rotation depth, though if the Rays do ultimately move Littell, Civale or a more expensive arm like Zach Eflin, they may not want to deplete the rotation depth much further.

Dodgers Rumors: Stone, Crochet, Shortstop, Outfield

By Steve Adams | July 1, 2024 at 10:52am CDT

Several teams tried to pry right-hander Gavin Stone from the Dodgers in offseason trade talks, writes Bob Nightengale of USA Today, but Los Angeles held firm on the former top prospect and is now reaping the benefits. After yielding 31 runs in his first 31 big league innings last season, Stone has emerged as a vital member of manager Dave Roberts’ rotation.

Stone, 25, ranks second on the Dodgers with 89 innings pitched and is tied for second with 15 games started. He’s posted a terrific 2.73 earned run average through the season’s halfway point. While his 19.5% strikeout rate is below average and his .268 average on balls in play and 6.3% homer-to-flyball ratio suggest there’s likely some ERA regression in store, he has the look of a legitimate big league starter. The 2020 fifth-round pick has been a constant in the L.A. rotation while the team has navigated injuries for Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Walker Buehler and others.

The Dodgers have a whopping six starters on the injured list, to say nothing of oft-injured arms like James Paxton and Tyler Glasnow healthy and in the rotation. Glasnow, in particular, is already 17 innings from his career-high at the MLB level (120 innings). He’s never topped 155 innings in any professional season before.

Unsurprisingly, given the wide slate of current injuries and the health histories of their current arms, the Dodgers have been exploring the market for pitching. Nightengale reported within that same column that the Dodgers have already made an offer to the White Sox for lefty Garrett Crochet, which has been rejected, and the latest report from Ken Rosenthal, Patrick Mooney and Will Sammon of The Athletic also touches on Los Angeles’ interest in Crochet.

Crochet isn’t an ideal fit for a team seeking consistent, bankable innings — as the Dodgers currently are. This year’s 101 1/3 innings is more than Crochet, a 2020 draftee, had thrown in his entire professional career combined prior to the ’24 campaign. There are questions about how the left-hander will hold up down the stretch, and The Athletic trio suggests he’s not a lock to spend the remainder of the season pitching in a regular rotation role if he is indeed moved — as the White Sox are reportedly planning on after extension talks with Crochet quickly stalled out. The Dodgers, however, view Crochet as a legitimate October weapon regardless of the role in which he’s used and could simply figure out the specifics of his usage down the line, depending on how the second half of the season plays out.

Rotation innings are just one of multiple questions the Dodgers will face over the next four-plus weeks as the deadline looms. They’re also staring down an absence of six to eight weeks for star leadoff man Mookie Betts, who in recent years has moved from right field to both middle-infield positions, playing virtually anywhere the team asks without seeing any real drop-off in his MVP-caliber offensive production. With Betts on the shelf, the Dodgers have plugged hot-hitting Miguel Rojas back into a regular role at shortstop, and the veteran’s play this season could make that a more permanent arrangement when when Betts is healthy.

“I would, I would,” manager Dave Roberts replied when asked by Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times whether he’d consider keeping Rojas his everyday shortstop when Betts returns. “I don’t think anyone can debate the level of shortstop play from Miguel Rojas. Some of it is contingent on the timeline for Mookie’s return and where Miggy is physically and how things are going. But to your question, would I consider it? Absolutely.”

Rojas, 35, is hitting .297/.344/.446 (126 wRC+) — his best career production outside of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. He’s playing his customary brand of high-end defense at shortstop, drawing lavish praise from both Roberts and Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel, who calls Rojas one of the five best defensive shortstops in the sport. (Statcast lists Rojas tied for seventh among all shortstops with six Outs Above Average in just 215 innings this season; every other name among the top-8 this season has played more than 700 innings).

Keeping Rojas at shortstop and sliding Betts back over to second base in place of Gavin Lux could deepen the team’s lineup and improve the defense. The Athletic report notes that adding an everyday outfielder would allow the Dodgers to use Betts at second base and go with a platoon of Andy Pages and Jason Heyward in the outfield alongside the new acquisition and Teoscar Hernandez.

Of course, that’s just one of many viable scenarios, and it’s not framed within that report as a clear objective so much as one of various possibilities that could be explored. Alternatively, if the Dodgers were to add someone who can handle second base on a regular basis — and do so at a higher level than in-house choices like Lux, Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernandez — that could push Betts back to the outfield.

As is frequently the case with the Dodgers, their blend of versatile defenders and a hefty lead in the division combine to create various trade avenues to explore while also reducing urgency to complete a deal. Los Angeles holds a 7.5-game lead over second-place San Diego in the NL West. They’ll surely upgrade in multiple areas between now and July 30, but the size of their lead likely reduces pressure on president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, GM Brandon Gomes and their staff to complete something in the short-term and gives them the luxury of taking a fluid approach to augmenting an already first-place roster.

Report: White Sox Explored Extension With Garrett Crochet, Aiming For Deadline Trade

By Mark Polishuk | June 30, 2024 at 10:58pm CDT

As the White Sox look to sell at the trade deadline, the team is reportedly open to discussing pretty much everyone on the roster, ranging from short-term veterans to more controllable players like Garrett Crochet. However, the Sox also recently had some talks with Crochet and his reps at CAA Sports about a contract extension, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. These negotiations were “brief” and the team has “no optimism towards reaching an agreement,” and thus Nightengale writes that the White Sox are now indeed planning to move Crochet at the deadline, even though he is still under arbitration control through the 2026 season.

Crochet is on the hill against the Rockies today for the 18th start of a breakout campaign. The southpaw has a 3.05 ERA over 94 1/3 innings, with a league-best 130 strikeouts and 12.4 K/9, plus a 34.9% strikeout rate that ranks in the 98th percentile of all pitchers. This ability to miss bats has been paired with limited free passes, as Crochet’s 5.4% walk rate is a key stat given how he had dealt with some control issues in his young career. Crochet’s cutter and his 96.9mph fastball are both among the deadliest pitches in the league, leaving batters fooled unless they can capitalize on his below-average slider.

This kind of production isn’t exactly a surprise, given that Crochet was the 11th overall pick of the 2020 draft and was seen as an advanced enough prospect that he made his debut that very season, tossing six innings over five appearances. Chicago further eased him into the majors in 2021 by using him as a reliever, and Crochet delivered a 2.82 ERA over 54 1/3 innings out of the Sox bullpen. However, the injury concerns that long surrounded Crochet struck in 2022, as a Tommy John surgery cost him the entirety of that season and limited him to 12 2/3 frames in 2023.

Though it is quite rare to see midseason extensions actually finalized, it is common practice for clubs to at least broach the idea of a longer-term deal with potential trade candidates. After all, if a player has enough value to draw trade attention from multiple rival teams, that same player can provide value to his own team, so there’s no harm in a club seeing if any common ground could be found on a multi-year contract.

This logic even extends to a team like the White Sox, who are a lot closer to a full-on fire sale than they are to contending in the near future. Crochet only just turned 25 this month, and has been so impressive in his first season as a starting pitcher that he looks like he could be a front-of-the-rotation staple. Even if the Sox might internally acknowledge that it’ll take a few years to fully right the ship, Crochet is still young enough that it is possible to see him as the ace of the next contending White Sox club….as long as he isn’t traded, of course.

Interestingly, Nightengale floats the idea that a long-term contract might also factor into Crochet’s trade situation, as Crochet and his representations might quickly seek out an extension with a new team. Since Crochet has already thrown more innings (94 1/3) in 2024 than in the rest of his pro career combined (85 1/3 innings in the majors and minors from 2020-23), Nightengale suggested that Crochet might seek out some extra financial security to mitigate the extra risk if a new team asks him to put a lot more innings on his arm over the course of the regular season and potentially into October.

In terms of how the White Sox themselves intend to manage Crochet, Nightengale writes that the club “and Crochet already have a firm plan in place to greatly limit his workload.” This description runs somewhat counter to the looser arrangement Sox manager Pedro Grifol described to The Associated Press and other reporters earlier this week. Grifol didn’t describe the situation as an actual innings limit, citing a hypothetical scenario where Crochet might sail through several innings in a start on a low pitch count.

“It’s not something we’re going to put out and say, ’Here’s what we’re doing,’ because nothing in this game is black and white…He’s slowly detraining through the course of the year so he can finish the season,” Grifol said. “We’re not going to detrain him and build him back to the capacity where he was at the start of the season. This is going downhill now. We have to really monitor his workload.”

A team that acquired Crochet would surely have these same innings-management concerns in mind, which adds another wrinkle to his trade market. Could a team with some rotation depth problems but with a fairly stable top two or three pitchers use Crochet as a starter to ensure they reach the playoffs, and then use Crochet as an (overqualified) relief weapon in the postseason? Could a team multiple decent starters but not a clear-cut ace perhaps insert Crochet as part of a six-man rotation, in order to try and keep him fresh for the playoffs? Or, could a team that is only a borderline contender this season acquire Crochet and stick to Chicago’s plan, perhaps more with an eye towards a full-fledged run at contention in 2025?

There is no shortage of interest in Crochet, as Nightengale reports that 15 teams have checked in with the White Sox front office about the left-hander’s services. The Sox have already turned down one offer from the Dodgers, who stand out as a logical suitor for several reasons — their win-now mentality, their rotation needs amidst several injuries to starters, and a deep farm system that would theoretically meet Chicago’s sky-high asking price.

In terms of other White Sox trade chips, Luis Robert Jr. continues to generate interest, but Nightengale feels the Sox might not have as much motivation to move the outfielder by the deadline. Robert missed close to two months of the season with a hip flexor strain and has only a .206/.280/.486 slash line over his first 118 plate appearances, albeit with eight home runs. With this latest injury and Robert’s modest production in mind, the White Sox wouldn’t exactly be selling high if they dealt Robert by July 30, so the team could wait until the offseason to more fully gauge offers (after Robert has presumably finished off the 2024 season in healthy and productive fashion). Robert’s contract comes with a pair of club options that control his services through 2027, so the White Sox have some flexibility in waiting to see if an acceptable trade offer emerges.

The Sox are also “openly shopping” Andrew Benintendi, Nightengale writes, which comes as zero surprise. If Crochet and Robert are Chicago’s top trade chips, Benintendi represents the other end of the spectrum, as a pricey veteran who is struggling through his second consecutive rough seasons. Since Benintendi is owed $47.5MM over the 2025-27 seasons, the White Sox would either have to eat all or virtually all of that remaining salary to facilitate a trade, or swap Benintendi for another unfavorable contract. Neither scenario would provide much benefit to the Sox, so Benintendi could remain one for the more immovable players in the sport.

AL Central Notes: Crochet, Clevinger, Wacha, Lange

By Mark Polishuk | June 16, 2024 at 4:27pm CDT

Unsurprisingly, the White Sox have set an “exorbitant” asking price on Garrett Crochet in early trade talks, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale writes. As we already saw this past winter with the Dylan Cease trade negotiations and the eventual deal that sent Cease to the Padres, the Sox are naturally out for the biggest return possible when moving any of their most valuable trade chips. Crochet definitely fits that description, as he has broken out as a starting pitcher this year and is under arbitration control through the 2026 season.

Chicago isn’t likely to drop its demands much (or even at all) until closer to the deadline, and Crochet’s arbitration control also gives the Sox some extra leverage since the team doesn’t need to move the southpaw any time soon. If anything, Crochet having a full and healthy season as a starter might only increase what the White Sox might be looking for in trade talks during the offseason, when the Sox could speak to a wider array of potential suitors.

White Sox Open To Offers On Luis Robert, Garrett Crochet

By Steve Adams | June 5, 2024 at 4:15pm CDT

The White Sox are baseball’s worst team by a long shot and seemed to acknowledge that likelihood even before the season began when they traded Dylan Cease to the Padres in spring training. San Diego is already reportedly interested in yet another Sox pitcher, lefty Garrett Crochet, and ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that the Sox are open to offers not only on Crochet but on center fielder Luis Robert Jr. Passan categorizes the ChiSox as “open for business” and lists Robert, Crochet, Erick Fedde and virtually all of the team’s short-term veterans as players who could be moved between now and the trade deadline.

Fedde, Tommy Pham, Paul DeJong, Mike Clevinger, John Brebbia, Tim Hill and other players who aren’t signed long-term — Fedde is signed through next season, the others are all free agents this winter — all stood as obvious trade candidates to begin with. I wrote about Fedde’s trade candidacy for MLBTR Front Office subscribers a couple weeks back. DeJong recently said on 670 The Score in Chicago that he and Pham both fully expect to be traded. That anyone from that group is viewed as likely to change hands is only logical.

Names like Robert and Crochet being available is far less certain, even for a rebuilding club like the Sox, given the amount of club control each has remaining. In Robert’s case, he’s signed through the 2027 season in the form of a $12.5MM salary this season, a $15MM salary in 2025 and a pair of club options valued at $20MM apiece (both with a $2MM buyout). Crochet entered the 2024 campaign with three years of big league service, meaning he’s in his first arbitration season and has another pair of seasons of club control beyond 2024.

It bears emphasizing that the Sox being “open” to offers or “willing to trade” either player is far different from the team actively shopping said players. That open-minded approach is also far from a guarantee that either will be moved. The substantial control remaining beyond the current season means Chicago GM Chris Getz will set an enormous asking price on both players, and both will still retain tremendous trade value into the offseason and even into next year’s deadline if a deal doesn’t come together this summer.

Robert, still just 26 years old, returned from the injured list yesterday after an absence of nearly two months. He suffered a Grade 2 strain of his hip flexor early in the season and was sidelined for the bulk of April and the entirety of May. He wasted little time in reminding the type of impact he brings to a game, going 2-for-4 with a homer in his return effort. The Cuban-born five-tool standout has played in only eight games and taken just 33 plate appearances this season but carries a .250/.273/.594 batting line with three homers.

Last year saw Robert take his always tantalizing game to new heights. The dynamic center fielder stayed healthy for a career-high 145 games and posted a stout .264/.315/.542 batting line with a career-high 38 home runs, 36 doubles, a triple and 20 stolen bases (in 24 tries). Robert ranked in the 84th percentile of MLB players in terms of sprint speed, per Statcast, and was among the league leaders in barrel rate. He’s a premium outfield defender with plus range and an above-average arm — evidenced both by gaudy Statcast percentile rankings and by career marks of +13 Defensive Runs Saved and +24 Outs Above Average in 3116 innings of work.

Durability and an over-aggressive approach at the plate are the primary knocks on Robert, who is two months into his fifth MLB season and already has five career IL placements for injury (plus another shorter stay on the Covid-related injured list). Robert played in 56 of 60 games during his rookie showing in the Covid-shortened 2020 season, but he logged just 68 and 98 games in 2021 and 2022, respectively, and he could finish the 2024 season with fewer than 100 games played as well, thanks to one already lengthy absence. He’s now had significant strains of his left and right hip flexors, in addition to an MCL sprain and a wrist strain in his career.

In terms of Robert’s approach at the plate, the results are strong so it’s hard to be too critical. But Robert rarely walks (career 5.3%) and chases pitches off the plate more than nearly any player in the sport. Since his 2020 debut, only Salvador Perez, Harold Ramirez and Javier Baez swing at more balls out of the strike zone than Robert’s massive 46.3% (at least among qualified hitters). His 54.6% contact rate on such swings is well below average, and his career 83.2% contact rate on pitches in the strike zone is also a couple points south of par. It hasn’t led to an exorbitant strikeout rate just yet — Robert has fanned in 25.5% of his career plate appearances — but it’s a less-than-ideal trend that could worsen if Robert loses what Statcast currently measures as elite bat speed (seventh fastest in the majors, on average).

There’s little precedent for a player of this quality with this level of affordability and team control being traded. Robert is owed just under $8MM through season’s end as of this writing plus another $45MM over the next three seasons. Three-and-a-half years of an MVP-caliber talent at a maximum rate of $63MM is a raucous bargain by today’s contractual standards. Teams may be wary of Robert’s injury history and free-swinging ways, but he’s signed for the remainder of his 20s and would be a legitimately franchise-altering deadline acquisition if a team can put together an impressive enough trade offer. Robert might not quite command the type of haul the Padres sent to the Nats for Juan Soto a couple years back, but he’s closer to that level of value than the standard deadline trade candidates. Getz alluded to as much in the offseason, calling Robert “one of the best players in baseball” and noting that he was a “difficult player to trade.”

There are similarities, in terms of trade value, when it comes to Crochet. It’s rare to see a high-end pitcher with two and a half seasons of club control traded at the deadline. Crochet is extra appealing given that his injuries and former role in the bullpen have tamped down his first-year arbitration price. He’s being paid only $800K this season. He’ll be due a pair of notable raises in each of the next two offseasons but still isn’t likely to command even $15MM in salary over those two years.

The 24-year-old Crochet’s transition from reliever to starter hit a brief snag with a trio of rough outings in mid-April, but he’s on an absolute tear right now and looks the part of a frontline starter, as one might expect for a former first-round talent who has long been touted to have ace upside. In 13 starts, Crochet is sitting on a 3.49 earned run average with vastly better fielding-independent marks (2.87 FIP, 2.48 SIERA). That’s due largely to his elite strikeout and walk numbers; Crochet has punched out 33.7% of his opponents against just a 5.4% walk rate — all while keeping the ball on the ground at an above-average 45.9% clip and averaging a blazing 96.9 mph on his heater.

Since that set of consecutive rough outings in April, Crochet has been on another planet. Arguably baseball’s best pitcher in that time, he’s logged a 1.35 ERA with a 53-to-7 K/BB ratio over his past 40 innings. Crochet allowed five, seven and five earned runs in his run of three straight rocky April outings. He’s yielded two or fewer runs in each of his ten other starts this season.

Rival clubs might be wary of how well he’ll hold up over the course of a full season in the rotation. It’s a fair qualm, as Crochet pitched just 25 innings last season and didn’t pitch at all in 2022 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. This year’s 69 2/3 innings are already a new career-high for the lefty, who entered 2024 with only 85 1/3 professional innings total (majors and minors combined). That said, even if there are concerns about Crochet fading down the stretch, there’s considerable long-term upside, as one would imagine the effects of a full starter’s workload will be more normalized for him in 2025 and 2026. If he wears down later this year, he’s also quite familiar with pitching in short relief.

Any trepidation about how he’ll hold up this year hasn’t stopped the Padres from reaching out to the White Sox. They’ve reportedly inquired on the lefty and have strong interest in him, which makes sense given not only Crochet’s dominance and San Diego’s need for arms, but also his minimal salary and the Friars’ relative proximity to the luxury tax barrier. Adding one of the game’s most dominant pitchers while barely even advancing your luxury tax line ought to hold overwhelming appeal for the majority of the team’s highest-spending clubs. At the same time, Crochet’s minimal salary also makes him appealing to small-market clubs with payroll concerns. Short of the innings worries, he’s an ideal trade target.

Because of that, the asking price on Crochet figures to be extreme, just as it will be with Robert. If Getz and his team genuinely make both available and play some bidders against one another, the Sox could genuinely overhaul the entire farm system with this pair of trades — to say nothing of deals involving Fedde, Pham and the other previously mentioned veterans. It’s going to take an enormous package of prospects to pry either player from the Sox, but with widespread mediocrity permeating the National League and leaving few teams in position to truly wave the white flag on the 2024 season, it could be a seller’s market. There’s no salvaging this lost season for the South Siders, but getting one or both of these trades right could wildly accelerate their rebuilding efforts.

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