It seems pretty clear that the Chicago White Sox will not extend Garrett Crochet this offseason
GM Chris Getz's recent comments makes it clear the team will likely trade him this offseason.
Leave it to the Chicago White Sox to find a way to kill any positive momentum.
The Sox have been on a roll lately in the good news department coming off a historically awful 121-loss season. The team hired arguably the best managing candidate available without big-league manager experience in Will Venable.
The team then made an innovative hire by naming Ryan Fuller the team's director of hitting. This is a big deal because he comes from the Baltimore Orioles, a club that has success developing young hitting, and this is what forward-thinking organizations do.
Then general manager Chris Getz threw a wet blanket on all of that when he made it clear that he is likely to trade ace pitcher Garrett Crochet this offseason.
Crochet was one of the few bright spots for the worst MLB team of all time (contextually). He went from throwing a career 73 innings in the bigs and never starting a game as a professional to making the AL All-Star team.
He was the only player to finish the season on the Southside to post a fWAR over two.
Most teams would love to lock up a 25-year-old left-handed ace through the rest of the decade. Since the Sox are not going to spend much in free agency to improve their batting order and the team just does not pay pitchers in general, it appears that Crochet will be on his way out of the Southside.
However, the team still has two more years left of club control, so Getz does not have to rush into trading his ace.
"With a pitcher like Garrett [Crochet] you have an opportunity to get both high impact and upper level talent" in a trade, Getz said. He also said he wouldn't be surprised if Crochet is White Sox' Opening Day starter.
— Daryl Van Schouwen (@CST_soxvan) November 5, 2024
One thing his comments have made clear is that it does not look like the team will be giving Crochet an extension.
Why not extend Crochet and build a rotation around him?
— Daryl Van Schouwen (@CST_soxvan) November 5, 2024
"It's easier said than done, that's for sure," Getz said. "We've been obviously very excited with what he has become in a White Sox uniform. That said, we've got to be very honest with ourselves with where we're at."
Since the White Sox lack impact bats in their organization and will be sitting out free agency for the most part despite winning just 41 games, Getz has to use his only trade asset if he hopes to get the team back to being competitive by 2027.
However, it would be nice for the team to finally reward players they draft and develop along with finally signing a player to a contract over $100 million--the going rate for players who post fWARs such as Garrett's 4.7.
Instead, this will be another instance where the Sox have to trade another exciting young pitcher, much like they did this past spring training when Dylan Cease was traded. The Sox never seriously explored an extension for Cease, and Dylan was shipped out of town before this season started.
That is why it is hard to get excited with all the young, talented pitching prospects the Sox have. The organization seems good at developing pitching, but since they do not extend those youngsters, it is just a matter of time before they are traded away.
Jonathan Cannon, Drew Thorpe, Davis Martin, and Sean Burke all provided hope that they can be good big-league pitchers. Plus, the Sox have top pitching prospects in Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith not too far away.
It is hard to feel great about the impact they will have since the moment it comes time to pay them, they will likely get dealt, especially since this team is terrible at developing hitters.
That is why hiring a director of hitting was a big deal only to be ruined by the business-as-usual news that a great player is likely to be traded.
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