The Boston Red Sox season may have been cut short by their rivals in the wild card round, but that doesn’t mean the season was a total failure for the team. MLB announced that Sox ace Garrett Crochet is a finalist for the AL Cy Young award and rookie outfielder Roman Anthony is a finalist for the AL Rookie of the Year award.
Crochet’s Stellar Debut Season With Boston
Garrett Crochet’s arrival in Boston gave the Red Sox something they’d missed since the departure of Chris Sale a few years ago: a true ace. Crochet proved he was worth all $170 million the Sox paid him in the offseason, as he was one of just three pitchers in the MLB to register 200+ innings. He stabilized an otherwise inconsistent pitching staff with a stellar 2.59 ERA and 255 strikeouts.
Crochet is up against the Detroit Tigers‘ Tarik Skubal and the Houston Astros’ Hunter Brown for the prestigious Cy Young award. It’s more than likely a two-dog race between Crochet and Skubal, as Brown trailed both in nearly every major stat category.
Crochet is certainly the underdog between he and Skubal. Though their stats are pretty close to identical, Skubal has the narrow advantage in WAR (wins above replacement) and ERA, which are what many would consider to be two of the three most consequential stats for pitchers. Skubal posted a WAR of 6.6, while Crochet was close behind at 6.3. Skubal also posted an ERA of 2.21 while Crochet was relatively far behind him at 2.59.
The third major category is strikeouts, a battle that Crochet won with an astounding 255 to Skubal’s 241. Crochet also threw 10 more innings than Skubal and had 18 wins to Skubal’s 13.
If voters take strikeouts and stamina into account, Crochet will have a chance to win the award, but Skubal does have the leg up in the major categories which will be hard to overlook.
Nonetheless, the Red Sox can rest easily knowing in a world without Tarik Skubal, they’d have the 2025 AL Cy Young winner on their team.
Anthony Up Against Two A’s For Rookie of the Year
Roman Anthony burst onto the scene in June for Boston, playing a huge role in the midseason turnaround that brought the Red Sox into playoff contention.
Though Anthony certainly has a case for ROY honors, he is more than likely going to finish third, solely because of how few games he played compared to the two other finalists, Nick Kurtz and Jacob Wilson, both of the currently homeless Athletics.
Kurtz and Wilson played 117 and 125 games, respectively, compared to Anthony’s 71. Anthony wasn’t called up to the big leagues until June, and then missed the final month of the season with an oblique injury.
Though he won’t win the award, it’s nothing but a slight hiccup for the 21-year-old phenom, who projects to be one of the Red Sox best players for years to come. In his 71 games, the rookie put up eight home runs and 32 RBI while batting .292. He performed so well in fact, that Boston quickly locked him up with an eight-year, $130 million contract that will keep him in Beantown until he’s nearly 30-years-old.
Garrett Crochet, Roman Anthony Named Finalists For MLB Awards