Red Sox’s Garrett Crochet’s Cy Young Chances Jump In Latest Power Rankings

It’s onward and upward for Boston Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet, whose Cy Young Award chances seemingly improve every time he takes the mound.

The left-hander landed at No. 5 in the latest pitcher power rankings, according to MLB.com’s David Adler. That’s up two spots from the previous list.

The only American League pitchers ahead of Crochet are Detroit Tigers ace (and reigning AL Cy Young Award winner) Tarik Skubal and Texas Rangers right-hander Jacob deGrom.

“Crochet is Skubal’s other top challenger for the AL Cy Young Award right now,” Adler wrote Wednesday. “He leads the Majors with 160 strikeouts and 129 1/3 innings pitched, and his 2.23 ERA is tied with Skubal for the American League lead.

“Crochet closed out the first half with a brilliant nine-strikeout shutout of the Rays, the first complete game of his career,” Adler added.

DeGrom going ahead of Crochet is a bit of a head-scratcher. Just look at their numbers and AL ranks from the first half of the season.

Crochet: 2.23 ERA (first), 10 wins (tied for second), 129 1/3 innings (first), 160 strikeouts (first), 4.0 WAR (third).

DeGrom: 2.32 ERA (third), 9 wins (tied for sixth), 112 1/3 innings (14th), 113 strikeouts (tied for ninth), 3.1 WAR (10th).

But wait, there’s more. Crochet is the No. 2 pitcher in the AL according to ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle.

His breakdown of the Cy Young race has Houston Astros left-hander Framber Valdez and Minnesota Twins ace (and Red Sox trade target) Joe Ryan tied for third.

In fact, based on Doolittle’s math, deGrom isn’t even the highest-ranked pitcher on the Rangers. That honor went to former Red Sox right-hander Nathan Eovaldi.

As for Crochet, Doolittle said the Boston lefty is one to watch.

“Crochet has been coming on like gangbusters, as has the team around him,” Doolittle wrote. “He finished his first half with a complete-game, three-hit shutout of Tampa Bay, closing the AXE gap between him and Skubal.

“Crochet leads the AL in innings pitched (129⅓), strikeouts (160) and ERA+ (185). We’ve seen Skubal do this for a full season; now, it’s up to Crochet to prove he can match the reigning Cy Young winner start for start in what’s shaping up as a great race,” Doolittle concluded.

If you’re wondering what AXE is, wonder no more. Per ESPN, “AXE is a rating system developed to combine the results from the leading publicly available value metrics to create a consensus evaluation of each player.”

Crochet is hoping to become the first Red Sox player to win the AL Cy Young Award since Rick Porcello in 2016.