Crochet looks to make impact out of Sox's bullpen
As if the White Sox rebuild wasn't painful enough, seemingly one key pitcher after another went down with Tommy John surgery.
Over the three-year stretch (2017-19) when the Sox were taking their lumps while looking forward to better days ahead, Carlos Rodon, Michael Kopech, Zack Burdi, Dane Dunning Jimmy Lambert and Ryan Burr all had the reconstructive elbow surgery, as did promising outfield prospect Micker Adolfo.
"Someone told me recently that something around 33 percent of big-league pitchers had Tommy John surgery already," Sox general manager Rick Hahn said midway through the 2019 season. "I don't have a great answer for what is the root cause of this, whether it's the added velocity or youth programs or any of the things fans have heard as possible causes of this. I do know on the one hand, there's a great deal of confidence in our individual Chicago White Sox training programs and methods and usage patterns, as well as our track record of performance in this area.
"At the same time, none of us are stubborn enough to just rest on those laurels. We're going to continue to look at ways to try to get better in those training methods to hopefully stem the tide that we've been going through here."
Sox pitchers made it through the 2020 season Tommy John free, despite all the challenges presented by COVID-19.
There was a very late scare when Garrett Crochet exited Game 3 of the playoffs with left forearm tightness. That's a symptom that often leads to Tommy John, but Crochet managed to avoid the surgery.
After the Sox were eliminated by the Athletics in Game 3, Crochet had the opportunity to rest his arm.
"It was a pretty slow build up," he said. "I took about a month off when the season ended and right after that I moved out here to Arizona and got to work with the training staff out here. It started off pretty slow, playing catch three times per week, just going 60, 75 feet and as my throwing progressed, my arm just continued to feel better once that strength kind of came back into it.
"As my throwing program ramped up, I was able to ramp up my weightlifting too, holding a little bit heavier dumb bells, starting to do some hex bar dead lifts. I saw my weight kind of start to climb back up a little bit."
Having survived a dizzying 2020 season, Crochet is looking forward to his first full year in the majors.
The White Sox's first-round draft pick last year, Crochet went from Tennessee to the alternate training site in Schaumburg to the Sox's bullpen in a blink of an eye.
Not only did the 21-year-old flamethrower handle the rapid ascension, Crochet thrived in 5 relief appearances. Over 6 scoreless innings, he had 8 strikeouts and no walks.
"He's got big, big talent but normally guys like that are more throwers than pitchers early, until they start finessing and understand their delivery," manager Tony La Russa said. "He's way ahead of the game."
Crochet made his Cactus League debut Saturday in the White Sox's 7-0 win over the Indians. His big fastball was back up near 100 mph during 1 scoreless inning of relief.
"It felt really good to get back out there on the mound and compete against another team," Crochet said. "The arm feels good so that's the main takeaway. I felt really good with my off-speed. Fastball command wavered a little bit, but for the most part I felt very confident with it."
In 2022, Crochet is likely to be in the Sox's starting rotation. This year, he's set up to be a stopper at the back end of the bullpen.
"I don't really concern myself with the role," Crochet said. "I just like to follow orders and right now I'm concerned with coming out of the bullpen and getting outs for the White Sox. Whatever ending that may be, I'm happy to do that. In college I actually had more relief appearances than starts. It's not very new to me."