No matter the role, Crochet ready to help White Sox in playoffs
The White Sox have some big roster decisions to make before facing the A's in Oakland Tuesday in the opening round of the playoffs.
Garrett Crochet is not one of them.
Even though he had no minor-league experience after being drafted No. 11 overall in the June draft, and despite logging a grand total of 6 inning in the majors, Crochet has proven he belongs.
Not only is he unscored upon, Crochet has hit 100-mph or higher on 45 of the 85 pitches he's thrown this season and racked up 8 strikeouts.
"It definitely gets on you," catcher James McCann said of the 21-year-old rookie's fastball. "It's firm. But one thing that's impressed me so much is how well he's commanded the ball. So that makes it easy, when you're throwing strikes."
When the 2021 season starts, Crochet might be pitching in the Sox's starting rotation. He might even be an option to be an "opener" in a postseason game this year.
For now, Crochet's more than satisfied getting work out of the bullpen.
"I don't really have a preference," he said. "Whenever they give me the ball, it's to go in there and get outs. Whenever they feel like it's a good time to put me in the game, I'm going to go in there and get outs."
Eloy update:
After spraining his right foot in Thursday's loss at Cleveland, left fielder Eloy Jimenez sat out the weekend series against the Cubs.
The White Sox will set their playoff roster Monday, and manager Rick Renteria is hopeful Jimenez is going to be on it.
"He's doing much better," Renteria said. "He's improving exponentially. We're cautiously optimistic and (Monday) will be a good day for us to kind of truly assess where he's at."
Rise and fall:
Jose Abreu drove in 60 runs in 60 games and finished the season as the American League RBI champion for the second straight year.
Tim Anderson was 0-for-4 Sunday and the Sox's shortstop had 6 hits in his final 47 at-bats (.128).
Looking to win back-to-back batting titles, Anderson wound up with a .322 average and finished second behind the Yankees' DJ LeMahieu (.364).
"Could be he's trying to do a little bit too much, absolutely," manager Rick Renteria said of Anderson. "When he takes that approach that has given him so much success with just staying to the middle of diamond and going the other way, everything else comes with it. And he certainly handles that bat very, very well. He's not a person that I ever really get too concerned about."