Boston Red Sox fans should be thrilled with the news that left-hander Garrett Crochet has agreed to a six-year, $170 million contract that runs through 2031.
Put another way, Sox fans should be thrilled that chief baseball officer Craig Breslow has a pass key to the Fenway Park money room. (Fun fact: Though many scenes from the Ben Affleck flick “The Town” were filmed at Fenway, the money room scene was done somewhere else.)
You’ll recall that in February, with spring training underway, the Red Sox announced they had signed Alex Bregman to a three-year, $120 million contract. And now, in April, with the regular season underway, they’ve announced this Crochet extension. There used to be a saying, “These are not your father’s Red Sox.” As we sit here now, these are not your Red Sox. Just when Sox fans were getting used to mediocre regular seasons that bleed into offseason front-office babble about being “in on” this or that shiny free agent, along comes this new mission to make frequent trips to the money room in pursuit of talent.
The Red Sox were idle Tuesday, but Breslow filled the void by appearing on an online news conference to discuss the Crochet contract. This came as a welcome development for anyone who writes or talks about the Red Sox for a living, since there’s only so many ways to put it out there that Rafael Devers (0-for-19 with 15 strikeouts) has been struggling since agreeing to become Boston’s designated hitter.
Breslow talked about how the deal got done and when it got done, along with ladling out the usual platitudes after a new contract has been announced. “I think there is urgency to get a deal done when you recognize this is the type of person you want to make a commitment to,” Breslow said.
He also said, “I don’t think it’s wise to make a deal out of fear that the price might go up.”
In this case, it actually is wise to make such a deal, given Crochet’s immense talent and the fact the big lefty was closing in on free agency. Breslow didn’t send a truckload of prospects to the Chicago White Sox for Crochet to merely pass through town. The Red Sox want him to be sufficiently entrenched as to be sitting courtside at Boston Celtics games by this fall and maybe have an opinion on the Michelle Wu-Josh Kraft mayoral fight if he feels like weighing in.
Breslow also said something Red Sox fans should print out and tape to the refrigerator door. If that’s too 1960s sitcom for you, a simple screen grab will do. Anyway, here goes:
“My hope,” Breslow said, “is that this is another step in charting the course toward sustainable organizational health, toward vying for division titles, for World Series championships year over year.
“We can all get very excited about the young position player talent that we have,” he said. “Now we have Garrett locked up for the foreseeable future. We have a really strong rotation behind him. And we have some pitching up and coming alongside some of those young position players. So it further cements where we are in terms of our competitive window, and we’re ready to make good and honor the commitment we have made to our fans over the last six months.”
“Heaven knows I’ve criticized them, as have a number of other people in recent years, for their lack of spending.”@Ken_Rosenthal explains why Garrett Crochet’s extension is an excellent deal for both sides. pic.twitter.com/D6Ifr56Pnk
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) April 1, 2025
I’m not the official Craig Breslow interpreter. But, gee, when Chief Baseball Guy talks about “another step in charting the course toward sustainable organizational health,” it sure sounds like the Red Sox held a meeting over the winter and decided to stop finishing in last place.
Yes, yes, yes, the Red Sox have won four World Series championships this century after not winning one since … (checks notes) … 1918. Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing, and all that. But what the Red Sox have lost sight of in recent years is that the trade deadline sell-offs and the last-place finishes have a way of sending fans in other directions in pursuit of their sports entertainment. Look at it this way: In 1967, when the Red Sox forged their epic “Impossible Dream” pennant-winning campaign, it began a stretch of 16 straight seasons in which they played .500 or better. And after going just 78-84 in 1983 — the big adios for Carl Yastrzemski — they played .500 or better in seven of the next eight seasons.
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Where are the championships, you ask? Sorry, no rings. But there were three trips to the World Series, the epic but ultimately failed Game No. 163 against the New York Yankees in ’78, plus a near-miss in ’72 and a flat-out collapse in ’74. Plus, Denny McLain went 31-6 for the Detroit Tigers in ’68, and then the Baltimore Orioles rolled out a pitching staff that produced three 20-game winners and then four 20-game winners.
But in practically every one of those seasons, from post-1967 and then right through the Joe Morgan years, the Red Sox came out of spring training with most people agreeing they were capable of big things.
Despite their sluggish 1-4 start, the 2025 Red Sox are capable of big things. In a baseball market the size of Boston’s, Red Sox fans should have that annual expectation.
Or as Craig Breslow would put it, “sustainable organizational health.”
Print it out. Put it on the fridge. Grab that screen grab. And then hold Breslow and the Red Sox to it.
(Photo: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)
