Trade details: Boston Red Sox acquire LHP Garrett Crochet from the Chicago White Sox for C Kyle Teel, OF Braden Montgomery, IF Chase Meidroth and RHP Wikelman Gonzalez
In a replay of a deal struck at the 2016 winter meetings, the Red Sox are sending four prospects to the White Sox for a top-end starting pitcher who’s left-handed and has an unusual delivery. This time, it’s Garrett Crochet, who went from a miserable comeback season in 2023 to become one of the best pitchers in the American League in 2024, and is now heading east for Boston’s last two first-round picks and two other lesser prospects.
Crochet helps Boston if he’s healthy, which he was in 2024 but hadn’t been before that. He added a cutter this year and became a strike-thrower for the first time in his career, including college, cutting his walk rate from prior to Tommy John surgery in half to 5.5 percent, and getting left- and right-handed hitters out equally well despite a cross-body delivery that should give righties a long look at the ball.
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Red Sox acquire Garrett Crochet; White Sox return highlighted by Kyle Teel
He worked mostly four-seamer cutter in 2024, and his “sweeper” was actually his worst pitch by run values; from his arm slot, a true slider seems like a natural, although I know the White Sox tried to develop one when they drafted him. He was a 4.1 bWAR/4.7 fWAR pitcher this past season, which would have led Boston’s pitching staff, and if you consider him as the replacement for free agent Nick Pivetta, it’s an immediate 2.5-3 win upgrade — if he stays healthy.
Crochet missed the 2022 season due to Tommy John surgery, then developed shoulder inflammation while rehabbing in 2023, a recurrence of shoulder pain he’d had in college at Tennessee. It is not a good delivery at all, with that cross-body motion and a late arm. I don’t blame the White Sox one iota for trading him now at what is likely to be the peak of his value given his performance, health history, and service time (he’s got two years left to free agency).
This deal could be a home run for the White Sox, but it rests pretty heavily on Braden Montgomery’s ankle. Montgomery was Boston’s first-round pick in 2024, selected just a few weeks after he fractured his ankle in Texas A&M’s Super Regional game against Oregon while trying to score from second base on a single to left.
Montgomery had a huge season for Texas A&M before an ankle injury ended his year. (Maria Lysaker / USA Today)
When healthy, he was one of the best prospects in the draft class, ranking No. 4 on my final Big Board, as he makes extremely hard contact and does so consistently. He’s a right-fielder with a 70 arm and plays above-average defense there, while at the plate, he’s a switch-hitter who has power from both sides but has been a much more productive hitter batting left-handed, to the point where some amateur scouts questioned whether he should even keep hitting right-handed. (I saw him hit a monster homer right-handed at Globe Life Field last March, which makes it hard for me to accept that he might not be able to keep hitting that way, even though that is the anecdotal fallacy incarnate.)
He was originally in the same draft class as the unrelated White Sox prospect Colson Montgomery, but chose to go to Stanford rather than going pro, then transferred to College Station after two years as a Cardinal. If the ankle injury has no lasting effects, the White Sox just got a guy with All-Star upside.
Kyle Teel’s inclusion is a mild surprise, just because he seemed primed to be the Red Sox’ starting catcher by the end of 2025. He’s a great athlete for the position and has strong bat speed with doubles power, going right to Double A to start his first full pro season, hitting .299/.390/.462 there and then hitting .255/.374/.343 in 28 games in Triple A at the end of the year.
He’s a left-handed hitter who has shown a modest platoon split so far in the minors, with less power and a 31 percent strikeout rate against southpaws in 2024, although he’s also had all of about 130 pro plate appearances against them. It’s more an area for development than an area for concern. I think he’s an above-average regular or a little better, as he’s a strong receiver with a plus arm and moves really well behind the dish, while his bat will be well above the norm for the position.
Right-hander Wikelman Gonzalez has a great arm but poor control, walking 46 guys in 83 2/3 innings last year (12.8 percent), although that was an improvement from the year before (14.7 percent). He’s 95-98 mph and it plays up because he comes from a low three-quarters slot, getting more ride and carry on the pitch.
The Red Sox had him add a slider last year, which is a much more natural fit for his arm slot than a curveball, although it’s still a work in progress. His changeup looks fringy but has been effective so far just from the velocity separation between it and the fastball. I think he’s a reliever in the end because the delivery isn’t going to allow him to have average control, but if the slider improves — and the White Sox do have a history of that — he could prove me wrong.
Chase Meidroth walked 105 times in Triple A last year at age 22, just two years out of the draft, with a super-short swing geared towards contact (he struck out just 12.7 percent of the time last year) but that generates no power. He didn’t hit a ball over 108.1 mph last year and his Barrel rate was 2.2 percent. He’s played all three infield spots and could be a good utility infielder thanks to his on-base skills, lacking the power or impact to be a regular unless he becomes a plus defender at short.
This deal removes the best pitcher who was at least known to be available in trade from the market, and I think increases the pressure on contenders still looking for pitching help, notably Baltimore and the Mets. The Orioles probably could have topped this deal with Samuel Basallo and Coby Mayo, but may have been unwilling to trade their top two prospects given Crochet’s health history.
The number of options for those teams and any other contenders looking for pitching keeps dwindling, which is why I emphasized in my column on the Orioles’ smaller moves that the clock was ticking. This year’s hot stove is scorching, and those clubs — and probably the Cubs and Atlanta — need to do something sooner before all of the good ones are taken.
(Top photo of Crochet: Nuccio DiNuzzo / Getty Images)
