The White Sox have, for the most part, avoided a lot of serious injury news this Spring Training. However, that changed today, as Garrett Crochet left his appearance against the Cincinnati Reds early with an apparent arm injury. Daryl Van Schouwen captured a little bit of video on the incident, in which Crochet left the game pretty quickly after calling the training staff out to the mound.
Obviously, there is no in-game video to show the injury. However, Crochet struck out the first batter of his appearance, and was 3-1 on the next batter when he left the game. The Reds’ radio broadcast gave us the most information we have: Crochet apparently spiked a ball in front of the plate and was unable to move his left arm very much on his way out of the game. Neither of things things sound incredibly promising on the face.
Additionally, Garrett Crochet is unfortunately not new to arm concerns. You’ll remember his rookie debut in 2020, specifically in Game 3 of the 2021 AL Wild Card against the Athletics. Crochet was dealing early, but left that game early as well, dealing with elbow soreness. Throughout the 2021 season, Crochet would never reach the same 100+ velocity readings we saw from him back in 2020.
Crochet enters the 2022 campaign as the expected replacement for Michael Kopech’s role in the bullpen: a multi-inning reliever with plus-plus stuff with the ability to eventually start ballgames. However, this injury calls his readiness for Opening Day into doubt, at least until we receive more information on exactly what happened today. From the sound of it, we should expect Crochet to miss at least a bit of time over the next few weeks.
We will keep you updated on the situation as more information becomes available on Crochet’s condition.
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