BOSTON – Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet, who has been idle since April 26 with a left shoulder injury that was worse than originally thought, is doing his best to be a good cheerleader for the hottest team in baseball.
And strangely enough, that includes not being in the dugout during games.
You might have heard that baseball players can be superstitious. Due to Crochet’s training regimen, he wasn’t available to be on the bench during the early stages of a torrid 19-2 stretch that started on June 25.
As the good times continued to roll, Crochet decided he'd better stay put in the clubhouse. Boston is on a 14-game winning streak and can tie the club record set by the 1946 Sox in Game 1 of a day-night doubleheader on Wednesday against the Orioles.
“It was kind of the way that my schedule was working to get treatment in and not interfere with everyone else that's playing,” said Crochet. “And then it was like, ‘Man, we kind of got a good thing going here.’ And then I finished my work the other day in like the seventh inning, and was like, ‘Let me finish this inning in here, and maybe I'll go out.’”
But just before he did tempt fate on Saturday, as his team clawed back from a 6-3 deficit against the Rays, Wilyer Abreu clocked a two-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to lift the Sox to a wild 7-6 win. At that point, Crochet heard the message from the baseball gods loud and clear.
“Wilyer hit the homer, and I was like, ‘Oh, I've got to stay inside.’ And it was funny watching [Monday night]. I was sitting by [Payton] Tolle, and when [Caleb] Durbin hit the homer, you could hear the crowd. So it was funny to watch,” Crochet said.
Truth be told, Crochet would much rather be pitching. Or at least throwing.
But Crochet’s initial ramp-up from the injury hit a snag in late May when, two days after throwing live batting practice, he experienced a minor left lat strain.
Though the lat injury in itself was minor, it became apparent at that point that his lack of shoulder strength was compromising other areas when he threw the ball.
The Red Sox have proceeded with caution ever since, making it unknown if Crochet will make it back in time to pitch this season.
But he is doing everything he can to return.
For a stretch, Crochet was throwing plyometric balls. But after a couple of weeks of that, it was starting to feel counterproductive.
Over the last three weeks, all his efforts have been focused on strengthening his rotator cuff, which will take pressure off the capsule joint in his shoulder.
Crochet was asked if it was a toss-up whether he will pitch again this season.
“It's tough to say. I'm not going to make a claim like that,” he said.
Is he surprised it’s even a slight possibility he won’t take the mound again in 2026?
“A little bit," Crochet said. "I understand why you asked the question. It sucks though, because I remember when I went on the IL originally, I was like, 'Maybe I'll just miss one start.' And then the way that the injury just kind of matured, especially with the setback following the first ramp-up, it just matured to a place where it's just completely different from the original diagnosis, which sucks. But the shoulder's complex like that."
Crochet remains enthused by his team’s stunning turnaround, and he just hopes he can be a part of it at some point.
“It's been awesome. It’s incredible,” Crochet said. “It's somebody different getting it done every night. As [Willson Contreras] said the other day, everyone is pulling in the same direction. Everybody's got one goal, and that's to win; it doesn't matter if your day didn't go as planned as long as we get the team win, and everybody's feeling good about that.”