Garrett Crochet to Make History as Chicago White Sox's Opening Day Starter

Chicago White Sox manager Pedro Grifol has named Garrett Crochet as his Opening Day starting pitcher, putting the young southpaw on pace to make history in his debut.

Chicago White Sox manager Pedro Grifol announced Monday that 24-year-old left-hander Garrett Crochet would be his team's starting pitcher on Opening Day.

In doing so, Grifol etched Crochet's name into the history books.

Crochet has 72 major league appearances under his belt, the first of which came back in 2020. He was a regular member of Chicago's bullpen in 2021, but missed all of 2022 due to Tommy John surgery.

In another injury plagued 2023 campaign, Crochet was still able to pitch in 13 major league contests.

Crochet has never started a game at the big league level, though, and even his 12 career minor league outings have all come as a reliever. The last time he started a game was during his college days at Tennessee, just before Chicago selected him in the first round of the 2020 MLB Draft.

That is now slated to change come March 28 against the Detroit Tigers.

Per Baseball Reference's Christopher Kamka, Crochet will become the first White Sox pitcher to make their first career MLB start on Opening Day since Roy Patterson in 1901. And even with Patterson, he made starts in 1900, but they technically didn't count because the American League was still considered a minor league at the time.

Garrett Crochet will be the first White Sox pitcher to make an opening day start for his first career MLB start since Roy Patterson in 1901 - though Patterson also made starts for the White Sox in 1900 when the American League was still classified as a minor league.

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) March 18, 2024

MLB.com's Sarah Langs added that Crochet will be the ninth pitcher in the last 110 years to make his first career start on Opening Day, and only the third since the end of World War II.

The last player to accomplish the feat was Tanner Scheppers with the Texas Rangers in 2014, and before him it was Los Angeles Dodgers legend Fernando Valenzuela in 1981.

Garrett Crochet will be the 9th pitcher in the last 110 years to make his 1st career start on Opening Day, joining:

2014 Tanner Scheppers
1981 Fernando Valenzuela
1944 Preacher Roe
1943 Al Gerhauser
1939 Red Evans
1938 Jim Bagby
1925 Lefty Grove
1920 Eddie Eayrs https://t.co/K8DLY4n6Pe

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) March 18, 2024

Crochet, once the No. 56 prospect in baseball and No. 2 pitcher in the White Sox's system, owns a 2.71 ERA, 1.329 WHIP, 10.5 strikeouts per nine innings and a 1.8 WAR in his MLB career.

The young southpaw is set to take on such a large role in 2024 because Chicago's front office just traded longtime ace Dylan Cease to the San Diego Padres. The White Sox also decided to move former top prospect Michael Kopech to the bullpen last week, further paving the way for Crochet to snag the No. 1 starter position.

Free agent additions Erick Fedde and Chris Flexen are poised to hold down roles in the rotation, as are recent trade acquisitions Michael Soroka and Nick Nastrini, per FanGraphs.

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