The Red Sox Just ROBBED the MLB...

Craig Breslow and the rest of the front office for the Boston Red Sox got it done. They have extended ace Garrett Crochet for the next six years. I'm here to break down the contract and really how it all lays out, as well as why this is such a great move by the Boston Red Sox organization. Welcome back to Red Sox Digest. I'm Houston, and we're going to be breaking down all of that on this episode. Before we get to the news and information, please do remember to subscribe to the channel if you're a part of the near 90%. Currently watching this video, not currently subscribed to the channel. We do appreciate the love and support, so thank you guys. But now let's get to it and break down not only how this is a major update, but the Garrett Crochet extension. Now this is something that we have heard conversations about, but again, it didn't seem like there was actually a steady movement in progress of really getting closer to this deal being done. It seems like, obviously, it has, as Garrett Crochet, as Jeff Passan just tweeted and let the world know, that Garrett Crochet and the Boston Red Sox are in an agreement on a six-year, $170 million contract extension. Sources tell ESPN the deal starts in 2026 and includes an opt-out after 2030, by far the largest deal ever for a pitcher with four-plus years of service. Now, Jeff Passan didn't end there as he went on to tweet once again, Garrett Crochet's $170 million deal with the Red Sox does not include any deferred money per sources. The previous record for a four-plus-year player was Jacob DeGrom's five-year, $137.5 million deal, which included an opt-out after the fourth season. Crochet can opt out at 31 years of age. Huge news. Garrett Crochet will be a Red Sox for the next six years, and obviously he can opt out after that fifth year is age 31 season in 2030. It's going to be very interesting to see how this all plays out, but again, this is extremely well-deserved. If we look at Garrett Crochet and the numbers that we saw last season with the Chicago White Sox in really the main tryout year, if you will, for the Red Sox to go out and observe and see, we lost max three. Because of that, we have to go out there and we have to go out and get Garrett Crochet, And that's exactly what they did. And obviously, it wasn't just Max Reed. Now, whether or not they were going to make a push at Blake Snell before he signed with the Dodgers, obviously, he was another southpaw on the free agent market. He went to the Dodgers pretty quickly in free agency. And then Max Reed immediately went to the New York Yankees following that move. And it's put Boston in a position where they had to move some mountains to go out and get a piece of talent rather than just offering them a contract right out of free agency after seeing their last years of work. obviously they watch Crochet with the White Sox and realize damn this kid is very very good at baseball and he's only 25 years of age with a whole lot of upside being a big left-handed pitcher with great velocity we've seen that through the years of baseball be very very successful it seems like the Red Sox are all in on Garrett Crochet being the ace for the next handful of years at least for this Red Sox team now obviously his Baseball Savant page that we're looking at now from 2024, again, last year's work with the White Sox, Garrett Crochet was in a class of very, very few. The only problem was he was playing for the Chicago White Sox, and in doing so, despite great outings, it didn't really result in really anything that looked good visually to the eye. Because if you were watching White Sox games, it was usually just when Crochet was on the mound, because outside of that, they were losing 110-plus games last year. They were horrible. Set a record for most losses in a season. So again, when Crochet was able to get out of there, and now he's with Boston, and obviously he's only made one start up to this point where he went five innings, yeah, five innings, he gave up five hits in two runs, obviously both earned, and he did walk two while striking out four. It wasn't his greatest performance, but again, it was opening day. It was with a brand new organization, a big-time organization in the Boston Red Sox. It was a big moment for Garrett Crochet, probably one of the bigger moments through his professional career up to this point. And with time and with more, just really more reps with the Red Sox organization as this season progresses and goes on, I believe Crochet is going to be setting records in the sense of leading the league in strikeouts. He's going to be in the conversation for Cy Young, and now he has been paid. It seems like this was a great move by the Red Sox to get ahead of this. Don't let any more time go by before you realize, wow, I should, we have to pay him because the dollar amount we're going to have to give him, not only AAV-wise, annually per year, but also the sense in total value. His number is going to continue to go up once he goes out there and continues to dominate on the mound. Now, Crochet's contract looks in comparison to the rest of the league as follows. He ranks currently 8th in the league in the sense of only starting pitching, obviously. In the sense of starting pitchers, he ranks 8th in the entire league of baseball, getting $170 million total, just behind Aaron Nola, who is getting $172 million. But if you do look, Max Fried, this past offseason, went to the New York Yankees, a rival to the Boston Red Sox in division in the NL got 218 million dollars 218 million dollars now Max Fried is a bit older than Garrett Crochet and honestly doesn't have the long-term optimism that someone in Garrett Crochet does really maintain at such a young age and with so much upside and so much of his career left in front of him obviously Fried has been a model of consistency for the last handful of years with the Atlanta Braves and now going to the New York Yankees we'll see which version of Fried the Yankees ended up getting but I think this is a hell of a steal especially in comparison to some of the names above him and like Max Fried again Max Fried getting 48 more million dollars in total to go to the New York Yankees obviously Garrett Crochet you could argue is a lot better of a player than Max Fried at least in current day obviously if you go off the resumes and total careers Max Fried is going to get that as he's been a model of consistency through the entirety of his career. But again, massive steal for the Boston Red Sox. I think this is going to go a long way for them. I think this is going to be transcendent in a year or maybe two years. We as a collective of fans and people who watch and follow the Boston Red Sox as an organization and players specifically, we're going to look at this as a steal. And the reason I say that is because we're going to see Garrett Crochet, If he doesn't win a Cy Young, he'll be in the running for them. If he's not leading the league in strikeouts, he's going to be in the top 3 to 5. He's going to have dominant and filthy stuff with a ridiculous delivery point at being so tall, being so lengthy, and delivering from the left side. But then you add the fact that he has great velocity, and he's in within the 98 to 100 range. We've seen him hit 100 in spring already. Obviously, I don't believe he topped out at 100 or 101 in the season opener against the Rangers. But again, it is slowly but surely coming once we lose those jitters going forward. This is going to be a great, great signing looking down the line from the Boston Red Sox. And now, without a doubt, unequivocally, the Red Sox have their ace for the next five years at minimum. Now, obviously, Crochet can opt out after that fifth year when he does turn 32 years of age, which would be interesting. Again if he goes on the dominate for the next five years we could see Crochet demand more money in a sense of a different type of contract obviously he can opt out if he doesn't he will return for 28.3 million dollars in that final year of his contract before becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2032 I love this move by the Boston Red Sox I can't wait to hear how you guys feel about it down in below in the comments let me know how you guys think and what you guys think and how you guys feel about this signing to Garrett Crochet and how Christian Campbell could be next. It seems like they are in John Henry, Craig Breslow, and the rest of this Boston Red Sox organization is in the mood to spend some money right now, possibly or obviously just got Crochet extended. We've heard talks about Christian Campbell possibly being extended and could see that coming very, very soon if they are in fact ready and able to spend the money in-house like we've seen them do. So again, thank you guys for watching. I'll see you guys in the next one. Thank you.