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Why Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet isn’t starting Sunday as initially planned
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- Why Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet isn’t starting Sunday as initially planned
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Garrett Crochet was scratched from his Grapefruit League start on Sunday against the Twins.
But there's no cause for concern.
The Red Sox are simply lining up their rotation and Crochet's workload for the first month of the season. Crochet, who is starting the regular season opener on March 26 in Cincinnati , will instead pitch in a minor league game on Monday.
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"We have to rearrange a few things schedule-wise and kind of like lining up things for not only for him, but the whole group for Cincinnati," Manager Alex Cora said. "So instead of pitching today, he's pitching tomorrow. Seventy-five pitches in a Triple-A game here."
Kyle Keller, a non-roster invitee who is competing for one of the final bullpen spots on the Opening Day roster, will start in place of Crochet. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m.
Crochet is now lined up to pitch next Saturday (March 21) in a Grapefruit League game against the Braves. That would put him on five-days rest for his Opening Day start in Cincinnati.
That said, the Red Sox aren't just taking the opener into consideration. Boston is also planning based on off days during the first month of the season.
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The Sox are off Friday, March 27, the day after the opener. They also have off days on Thursday, April 2 (the day after their six-game road trip ends in Houston ) and Thursday, April 9 (the day after their first homestand ends).
"It's kind of like trying to make everything work," Cora said. "And the days we know that we have an off day on Thursday right after Houston and then we have another off day after the homestand. So it's doing the math when we want him to get his extra rest. So it's more like scheduling stuff.
"Like how we see it, how medical sees it and just go from there," Cora said.
Crochet finished second in the 2025 AL Cy Young voting behind Detroit 's Tarik Skubal . He went 18-5 with a 2.59 ERA in 32 starts. He led the AL in innings (205 ⅓) and the majors in strikeouts (255).
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Cora also said Sonny Gray is likely to start the second game of the regular season.
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