A good way to understand Garrett Crochet's ability to dominate with his cutter being the only secondary he uses a significant portion of the time is to understand his ability to vary it to serve multiple needs.
"He kept getting burned by right-handed hitters with the sweeper, so we encouraged him to use his cutter as a sweeper," said pitching coach Ethan Katz. "He'll shape a little bit more going in to righties, going down. When he's trying to throw it up or backdoor to righties, he doesn't shape it as much. That's been the ultimate change: how good that cutter is and also using less of a pitch that was getting burnt."
"It’s really just the thought process behind it that’s different I suppose," Crochet said after blanking the Dodgers for 17 outs on Monday. "The shape I can manipulate a little bit, which is nice."
The low-80s slider/sweeper that right-handers were able to track even as it broke toward their front hip is now cracking the low-90s and mirroring his fastball shape better, and the sweeper has been mostly relegated to a chase pitch for left-handers.
But Katz generally discourages trying to use four pitches when two are carrying you to the All-Star Game, so cameos for Crochet's sweeper and changeup are likely to be relegated to early-game opportunities when he's ahead in the count. Getting beat or having the game outcome swing on something that isn't Crochet's cutter or fastball is unlikely.
"Once we've hammered that inner quadrant, we've gone up and that down and away [quadrant] to righties is open -- and they've seen multiple pitches -- that's a good time for [his changeup]," said Katz. "But those are the kinds of things where if they're not adjusting, we don't need to adjust either."
So in effect, Crochet has not given up on having a four-pitch mix. It's just that his cutter is already filling the function served by the other pitches better most of the time. That he only gained comfort with it spring, after an offseason of mostly unsuccessfully trying to develop other pitches, is the real marvel.
"It's amazing what he's done developing that pitch into a cutter in spring training," said Erick Fedde. "The biggest thing is his walk rate (5.4 percent) is so low. It's unbelievable and it's getting him deeper in games. I don't know, when I watch him go out there I truly believe there's not many guys that are better than him."
The only limitation is workload, where Crochet was once again understanding of the plan postgame, but clearly eager to have gone deeper than the 5 2/3 innings and 91 pitches he was allotted Monday night. Part of it was a function of Crochet being on regular, rather than extended rest, but if he had his way, the five-day routine would be a standard part of his schedule too.
Crochet doesn't have his way, though, but he says he understands why.
“I vouch for myself as much as I can," Crochet said. "I think that I could throw 130 pitches and be cool. That’s how I felt like I was tonight. But with where the innings are at, I definitely understand where everybody’s coming from, trying to monitor things. But like I was saying, every game matters, so I want to pitch every game like it’s going to be my last. I don’t really want to take my foot off the gas for a second. But I understand.”
"I want him to be pissed off when he comes out of the game, I want him to," said Pedro Grifol, further affirming that Crochet was pissed off. "It's not a strategic move. I've been talking about this for a long time now. We have to control the workload. We have to manage the workload. This is a part of it. This kid threw less than 30 innings last year. He's on pace right now for 170, 180 innings if he continues to go."
In a similar vein, Michael Kopech knows he's fastball-heavy to the point of being predictable. Statcast has him at 78.8 percent on the season, which is lower than I might have guessed. It's humming in at elite high-90s velocity and plus extension, but opponents are slugging .430 against it this season. But he's reluctant in his role to deploy inferior pitches in his arsenal when he's behind in the count -- as he tends to be more than most.
"I'm going to throw my best weapon to a good hitter in a hitter's count," Kopech said. "There's situations where I'm going to lean heavily on this no matter what. That's who I am as a pitcher, I'm going to go with Pitch No. 1. But I'm not always going to do that. I'm not just going to throw fastballs and that's something we've talked about in-house. That's something I've talked about with Korey [Lee], and Ethan [Katz] and [Martín] Maldonado and [Matt] Wise. It's been a discussion that's been taken seriously. It's just a matter of me sticking to the plan and executing it."
Kopech places more of an onus on getting into advantageous counts to expand his arsenal, which calls on him to identify when and why his fastball is misfiring and quickly correcting it. There have been glimpses of Kopech trying to work his slider back in to end at-bats in his last couple of outings. But since he's still running a 13 percent walk rate, these opportunities are too uncommon, and more instances of using his low-90s cutter to get ahead would be welcome.
"The cutter percentage as of a week ago was at 75 percent strikes," Katz said. "So it's a pitch he can definitely lean on. He's had a lot of success when guys are ready for that fastball, being able to sprinkle something else in."
Paul DeJong's errant throw to Andrew Vaughn in the seventh Monday night plated the 43rd unearned run that the White Sox have allowed this season. Pinning this on the defense is tricky because pitching is often responsible for the runners allowed to reach before or after the misplay. Pinning this on the pitching is tricky because major league hitters are good, and getting them out three times in an inning is hard enough.
Tabbing this as a half-decent barometer of whether the White Sox are achieving their goal of playing better defense and establishing this organization as a good place for incoming pitchers to succeed? That feels just right.
Assuming I know how to subtract correctly, the Red Sox have allowed 49 unearned runs, which paces the four teams (Mets, A's, Cubs) that have piled up more of these than the White Sox.
If you want to get aspirational, the Royals have allowed just 20, and the Guardians are sitting pretty at 18.
The Sox also had a pair of near-collisions Monday night with DeJong and Lenyn Sosa both converging on what wound up being a Freddie Freeman infield single in the first, and DeJong and Danny Mendick nearly crossing paths on a Shohei Ohtani groundout in the third.
"It could be some communication stuff," Pedro Grifol said postgame. "I’ll talk to [third base coach] Eddie [Rodríguez] now and make sure we clean that up. There’s some things we’ve got to talk about before tomorrow’s ballgame on the infield side."
The infield single ran up Crochet's pitch count, as he eventually needed 24 bullets to end his first inning of work, triggering workload management to stop him short of six innings. The other misplays remind that DeJong's DRS has dropped to -7, though Statcast's OAA still has him as a scratch defender.
"He’s playing a little deeper, some of those balls have been slow hit balls that he’s just got to come get," Grifol said of DeJong's recent misplays. "He’s working on it with Eddie, they communicate a ton. They come out, they do early work, they dissect the game. That’s what he’s going to continue to do. He’s going to continue to show up to the ballpark, he’s going to talk to Eddie about the previous day and try to fix it. And he’s been out there before and he’s done this for a long time and he’s going to continue to work, he’s a really good worker."
