The Chicago White Sox have an update on the health of Garrett Crochet.
A lot of Chicago White Sox fans had a lot of faith in Garrett Crochet to get the job done in whatever role he would be used in for the payoffs. He came in after Dane Dunning couldn’t get it done in the first inning of the elimination game and looked good but his velocity was down. In the second inning, he came out with forearm tightness which made fans think the worst. Whenever a pitcher has “forearm tightness”, you have to fear the worst which is Tommy John’s surgery.
Well, Rick Hahn provided us with some good news about Crochet on Monday. It was Hahn’s postseason press conference which came a little bit later than we would have thought. The meeting was dominated by the fact that they fired Rick Renteria and Don Cooper but eventually, he gave us the Crochet updates.
It is not an injury for Crochet that is going to require Tommy John’s surgery. That is fantastic news for him and everyone who likes the White Sox because that would have taken a long time. He certainly would have missed all of 2021 before coming back the following year. He would have been fine in the end but losing a whole year of development when you are that young is tough. Now, we get to be excited about what he might bring to the organization (in the MLB or MiLB) next year and beyond.
Crochet wasn’t the only one we received an update on today. Eloy Jimenez had his foot issue during the final week of the season going into the playoffs but Hahn confirmed that it is nothing serious. He is going to be just fine after a few weeks of rest. The one that was surprising is the fact that Nick Madrigal needed shoulder surgery. That will take 5-6 months to recover but he should be good to go during Spring Training.
The hope has to be that Crochet and friends will be back healthier than ever next year. This team needs to have all hands on deck if they are going to win baseball games with frequency. It was good to see Crochet make an impact this year and thinking about how good he might be able to become as a starter is truly scary.