Latest Cy Young Chances for Red Sox’s Garrett Crochet Vs. Tigers’ Tarik Skubal

The latest predictions for the American League Cy Young Award are in and they don’t bode well for Boston Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet. He continues to run third, trailing Detroit Tigers’ Tarik Skubal and Houston Astros’ Hunter Brown. That’s based on MLB.com’s poll of 49 experts.

Skubal received 47 first-place votes while one went to Brown and one went to New York Yankees left-hander Max Fried. That’s right: Crochet didn’t receive a single first-place vote. But that doesn’t take away from what he’s doing in his first season with the Red Sox.

“Crochet has given the Red Sox exactly the ace-level performance they wanted when they acquired him from the White Sox in the offseason,” MLB.com’s Jason Foster wrote Wednesday. “He’s 9-4 with a 2.34 ERA, leads the Majors in strikeouts (151) and is tied for the MLB lead in innings (120 1/3).

“He’s also held opponents to two or fewer earned runs 16 times, including a stretch of seven straight starts from late April to early June.”

Crochet is lined up to start Saturday against the Tampa Bay Rays. That’s the same day Skubal takes the mound against the Seattle Mariners and Fried faces the Chicago Cubs. So it’s very likely one of those three will be selected to start for the American League in next week’s All-Star Game.

What about Brown, you ask? He likely made his final start of the first half of the season on Tuesday against the Cleveland Guardians and gave up six runs in six innings of work. Brown surrendered six hits, including a pair of home runs, and saw his ERA rise to 2.21.

Crochet is trying to become the first Red Sox pitcher to win the Cy Young Award since right-hander Rick Porcello in 2016.