Fastball

Chicago White Sox' Opening Day Starter to Be Linked with Chris Sale in Franchise Lore

By earning the Opening Day nod, left-handed pitcher Garrett Crochet will be the youngest Opening Day starter for the team since Chris Sale back in 2013.

Brady Farkas

Chicago White Sox' Opening Day Starter to Be Linked with Chris Sale in Franchise Lore
Chicago White Sox' Opening Day Starter to Be Linked with Chris Sale in Franchise Lore /
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On Tuesday, we learned that the Chicago White Sox are going to give the ball to left-hander Garrett Crochet on March 28 for their Opening Day matchup with the Detroit Tigers.

It's an amazing jump for Crochet, who benefits from the team trading away Dylan Cease last week. In fact, it will be Crochet's first start ever, as he had previously served in a bullpen-only capacity. 

Our colleague Sam Connon wrote a great story on the historic nature of his announcement, which you can read here, but there's more to this as well.

By earning the start, Crochet will join Chris Sale in White Sox' lore.

Per Sarah Langs of MLB.com on social media:

Garrett Crochet will be the White Sox youngest Opening Day starting pitcher since a 24-year-old Chris Sale in 2013

Crochet is a 24-year-old, hard-throwing lefty who made his major league debut in 2020. He's made 72 appearances lifetime, all out of the bullpen. He really burst onto the scene in 2021, throwing in 54 games and pitching to a 2.82 ERA.

Unfortunately, he missed all of 2022 with injury and then only pitched in 13 games in 2023 as he came back.

As for Sale, the lanky lefty is one of the best White Sox' pitchers of the last 20 years. He spent seven years with the White Sox, finishing in the Top-10 in Cy Young voting in five different seasons. He was also named an All-Star five times with the Sox before going onto the Red Sox for the last six seasons.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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