Sure, we’re all well aware of the Dodgers’ situation when it comes to injuries this season. They’re piling up and, though the team continues to win—they were 10-4 in their last 14 before dropping two straight to the Diamondbacks this week—health remains the big concern around the roster. Health and, well, the upcoming MLB trade deadline, which is looming in a little more than three weeks.
The team is navigating a string of injuries to the everyday lineup, but it is the pitching staff that is causing the most concern. Clayton Kershaw still working his way back from shoulder surgery and rookie starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto is out with a rotator cuff problem that still has no timeline for return. Walker Buehler, returning from Tommy John surgery, is out with a hip injury.
The bullpen (Joe Kelly, Ryan Brasier, Michael Grove) also has been bitten by injuries. With that in mind, CBS Sports MLB analyst Dayn Perry is predicting that if and when the White Sox trade away surprising ace lefty Garrett Crochet this month, the Dodgers will be his most likely landing spot.
Crochet, heading into the weekend, is the consensus No. 3 betting favorite for the 2024 A.L. Cy Young Award, behind the Tigers’ Tarik Skobal and the Orioles’ Corbin Burnes.
Dodgers Trade Could Allow Them to ‘Swing Upside’ on a Pitching Gamble
Writing in the “Batting Around” segment at CBSSports.com, Perry answered the question, “Where will Garrett Crochet be traded?” with what some might consider a surprising answer: The Dodgers.
Perry wrote that the Dodgers, who are heavily invested in this season after spending about $1 billion to bring in star slugger Shohei Ohtani and Japanese rookie pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, can afford to gamble on Crochet, whose lack of a resume as a starter (or even as a healthy reliever) plus his injury history make him a second-half wildcard.
Would the Dodgers, or anyone who acquires Crochet, start him? Rest him? Bring him from the bullpen? Who knows?
“I’ll guess the Dodgers,” he wrote. “Their current injury situation means they need rotation help right now. That said, they also have depth when healthy, and their comfortable lead in the division means they can perhaps ease back on Crochet’s workload.
“He’s never approached this kind of innings count before, and it’s an open question as to whether he’ll remain healthy and effective as the outings climb. The Dodgers don’t mind swinging upside over certainty as they eye a deep run in October, and Crochet seems to fit that mold.”
Garrett Crochet MLB’s Biggest Pitching Surprise
Crochet is one of the most remarkable stories of the 2024 season, an ace starter and Cy Young candidate whom no one could have seen coming. He was the No. 11 overall pick in the 2020 MLB draft by the White Sox out of Tennessee, picked based largely on his electric stuff—he showed a triple-digit fastball in college—but was a bit of a risk. He suffered a broken jaw and soreness in his shoulder in his three seasons in Knoxville, limiting him to 36 games, only 13 of which were starts, and 132 innings.
Crochet posted just a 10-9 record and an ERA of 4.64 in his entire collegiate career.
Still, Crochet impressed the White Sox so thoroughly while working out at the team training facility that he made his debut at the end of the 2020 season, just months after he was drafted, at the big-league level, becoming the first player in a decade to bypass the minors and debut with a big-league club.
Injury concerns about Crochet caught up with the team, when, after a successful debut first full season working out of the bullpen in 2021, Crochet missed all of 2022 recovering from Tommy John surgery. He made only 25 appearances, all in relief, in 2023 as he was further dealing with recovery.
Crochet came into 2024 with 73 total big-league innings to his credit, and zero starts. Including college, he had thrown just 217 innings in a six-year span.
In a little more than three months, Crochet has thrown nearly half that number. And he’s been one of the best in the league in doing so.
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Dodgers Predicted to Make Blockbuster Trade for Cy Young Candidate