Garrett Crochet was a Cy Young Award finalist in 2025 with the Chicago White Sox. While he looks to repeat and get the better of Tarik Skubal this season, the Boston Red Sox ace has the chance to make MLB history as well.
Paul “Hembo” Hembekides joined Buster Olney on ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight” podcast and believes Crochet could do something no other big league pitcher has ever done: strike out 40% or more of all hitters faced.
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“I think it might be the best stuff on the planet,” said Hembekides. “Among 126 pitchers that threw at least 100 innings, he ranked first among all of them in Stuff+. That looks at the physical characteristics of every pitch. Further, among that subset of pitchers, he ranked number one among all of them in inducing swing and miss in the zone which evaluators will tell me is an even more predictive measurement of swing and miss than chase percentage.”
For context, Crochet struck out 35.1% of all batters in 2024 with the White Sox. While he has some work to do in boosting his strikeout percentage, Crochet is only 25 years old. He certainly has the potential and upside to push for 40% or more.
As Hembekides mentions, Gerrit Cole came the closest out of any MLB pitcher in history; he struck out 39.9% of batters in 2019 with the Houston Astros. Cole was 28 years old during that season and four years older than Crochet is currently.
According to FanGraphs, there isn’t a single metric predicting Crochet to finish with a strikeout rate of 33% or more. However, it doesn’t mean he can’t prove the metrics wrong. He faced 595 batters in 2024 and averaged 4.56 innings per start.
With a little more efficiency, Crochet could do deeper into games and could be well on his way toward making MLB history.
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