The Chicago White Sox really hope that Garrett Crochet’s injury is minor.
The Chicago White Sox have a lot of incredible young talent ready to explode even more in 2021 than they did in 2020. One of those players is supposed to be Garrett Crochet. Chicago drafted him in the 2020 MLB Draft. Due to COVID-19, there was no Minor League season so he went from making one college start this year to the big leagues in a couple of months. It is very rare but he made some tremendous strides towards being a great MLB pitcher.
The idea is for him to be a starter who can hit his spots while throwing 101 miles per hour. He is incredibly talented and will be great for a long time. The problem is, after trying to use him in their winner take all playoff game against the Oakland Athletics, he came out with what the White Sox were calling “forearm tightness”.
That was a terrible thing to hear because that is a sign of the worst possible injury for a pitcher. If he does in fact need to have Tommy John surgery, that is a huge blow to this organization. It is unclear if he would have started in the Majors next year or not but missing a whole season for recovery would be really tough to see. He would come back just fine in 2022 but it would be nice for him not to have to go through that.
We should find out from the team if this is the harsh reality sometime soon. If it is the case, they will immediately get it underway and start his recovery program. This is an incredibly talented young man and the White Sox would really benefit from him making a full recovery and making it back to the big leagues.
The fact that Rick Renteria was willing to use him in his draft year in such a big spot, shows how much of a talent he is. It didn’t work out for them because he was hurt and there are probably some things that should have been done differently but the confidence is there. There is no doubt that the next time he is on the active roster, the White Sox will be better for it.