The Boston Red Sox are getting ramped up for the start of the season in spring training, and they're set to have one of the best pitching rotations in the league. That rotation is led by Garrett Crochet, who had a big season last year and almost won the Cy Young award.
The Red Sox recently made an interesting move, as they scratched Crochet from his Grapefruit League start against the Minnesota Twins, but he is set to start the next day in a minor-league game at JetBlue Park.
Many were worried about why the Red Sox would do that, but manager Alex Cora noted that they wanted to take advantage of more off days over the first month of the season. As for Crochet, he shared his thoughts about the schedule the team has him on.
“I like the five-day routine and then I look at the schedule and it’s like six-day, six-day, six-day the first month of the season,” Crochet said via Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic. “We have a lot of off days, thankfully at home. I’m trying to be adaptable as best as I can in that regard.”
The stats show that Crochet is better when he has more days of rest. Last season, his ERA was 3.16 in 11 starts on four days of rest. In 18 starts he had while pitching every sixth day, his ERA was 2.27.
“It’s funny because I said I like the five-day routine,” Crochet said. “Then last year, I see the stats on four days of rest and it’s not very good, so maybe I shouldn’t say that anymore.”
Crochet will have one more Grapefruit League start on March 21 before he pitches in the season opener in Cincinnati on March 26. With the six-day schedule, he’s projected to pitch April 1 against the Houston Astros, April 7 against the Milwaukee Brewers, April 13 against the Minnesota Twins, and April 19 against the Detroit Tigers.
