ESPN Analyst Names Red Sox’s First-Half MVP Before All-Star Announcements
More than midway through the 2025 season, an offseason acquisition has delivered an immense return for the Boston Red Sox.
ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle selected each MLB team’s first-half MVP as the All-Star break approaches. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that he chose Garrett Crochet for Boston.
“Crochet pitched this well last season for the White Sox, his first full season as a big league starting pitcher,” Doolittle wrote. “But it wasn’t quite a full season because Chicago tamped down his usage in advance of dealing him for maximum return. Trading for Crochet for a valuable combination of prospects was a bit of a leap of faith by Craig Breslow. Well, you can quibble with a lot of things that have happened in Boston, but so far, the Crochet trade is not one of them.”
Boston took a big swing by sending four prospects, including 2023 and 2024 first-round picks Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery, to the Chicago White Sox for Crochet. The Red Sox immediately awarded the southpaw a six-year, $170 million extension, a considerable risk considering he pitched a career-high 146 innings as a converted starting pitcher last season.
So far, Crochet has justified both gambles. The 26-year-old wields a 2.34 ERA and MLB-leading 144 strikeouts entering Sunday afternoon’s start against the Washington Nationals. Boston hasn’t shown much concern over his workload, letting Crochet pitch an American League-high 115 1/3 innings in 18 starts.
No matter how Crochet fares Sunday, he should get named to his second straight All-Star Game later in the day. He’s currently tied with Hunter Brown for second behind Tarik Skubal in the AL Cy Young Award odds on FanDuel Sportsbook.
Doolittle would have faced a much tougher decision had Alex Bregman not spent the last six weeks on the injured list. Boston’s other huge offseason addition was batting .299/.385/.553 in 51 games before getting sidelined in late May.
Crochet can continue his dominant first half when he takes the mound at Nationals Park for Sunday’s game, which starts at 1:35 p.m. ET.