Garrett Crochet's post-workout grocery store run was absolutely thrown into a flux on Wednesday afternoon, with a phone call from Chris Getz compelling him to pull out of the self-checkout line.
"I was by the pharmacy and I remember looking around while I was on the phone, trying to be secretive," Crochet said in a phone call after being traded to the Red Sox. "As if anybody here in Nashville gives a crap what the White Sox and the Red Sox are doing."
As far as life-altering phone calls go, the impact of this one was as muted as it could be.
Crochet and his wife had discussed the potential perils of a repeat in timing of the mid-March Dylan Cease trade, which would require trying to find spring training housing last minute at a second location. Instead, Crochet won't even have to field questions about trade chatter with relatives over the holidays and will have at least four former White Sox teammates in camp at Fort Myers, Fla.
As much as he enjoyed being a mentor on a pitching staff that saw countless guys making their debuts or return from long-term injury, and feeling like he was on the ground floor of something new, Crochet revels in the upgrade in difficulty level his performance has earned him.
"It's meaningful baseball in the idea that [the Red Sox] are contending, but I also feel like the AL East is such a hotbed of talent that it's kind of where you want to be, it's where the competition level is at its highest," Crochet said. "You could probably say the NL West is as well, but this is the American League's version of that in my eyes, so I couldn't be more excited to go there. It's going to be a gauntlet but a challenge I'm ready to welcome."
More than anything, man did Garrett Crochet know he was getting traded.
Crochet got to the end of May with his emergence on the mound still being interesting for its own sake, before the dismal state of the White Sox, and how soon his performance might see him delivered out of it, became the subtext to every interview. Every day -- especially when his representation shared his conditions were he swapped at the deadline -- contained texts from a friend or teammate carrying a link to an article on his status that he'd inevitably find himself clicking through, such that the trade finally going down brought a sense of relief.
Most clearly, at just 25 years old with two full seasons left under arbitration, Crochet could see that see that he didn't fit into the White Sox's timeline. Nor would things be reshaped to make sure he fit it.
"It never really looked as though an extension was going to be on the table, or at least one that seemed fair for both sides," Crochet said. "I suppose if one were to be truly presented, I'd probably have different thoughts on it.
"But since it never really came to that, I don't really have a strong viewpoint. It just wasn't meant to be. I have a lot of gratitude for the organization. They drafted me in a position where during COVID, a lot of guys had thrown 25-30 innings and I had thrown three. I didn't exactly have the track record ... I felt like the White Sox made a big leap."
Crochet expounded upon this point too long for idle praise.
Scouting director Mike Shirley memorably declared his confidence that Crochet had three plus pitches on draft night at a time when other teams were skeptical that he could even command two. When asked if he wonders if things would have shaken out differently had he developed as a traditional starter, Crochet stipulated that he was the one in meetings with the White Sox insisting that he could follow "the Chris Sale path" to progress from relieving in the majors to starting.
The major league experience was invaluable, he felt, even if the path often looked atypical.
"Whether they thought that I was ready, or if I just had the confidence and was naive enough to be able to tell them with a straight face that I believed I was ready for that, I was just explaining to them experience is experience, no matter which way you look at it," Crochet said.
It's not that Crochet wasn't a fine and willing interview before this season, but his comments always had to be guarded around some legitimate uncertainty clouding his career, be it his long-term role or health, and he rarely offered false confidence about an unknown future. What made him a joyful presence in a bleak 2024 White Sox season was his newfound sense of absolute confidence and satisfaction of what he was doing on the field, and where his game was headed. In a year where almost no White Sox employees felt that good about themselves, Crochet took satisfaction in spreading his surplus to his teammates, even if talking about it feels like giggling at a funeral.
"I'm trying to be careful with what I say but at the same time, I'm not a member of the White Sox anymore so if the fans hate me, they hate me," Crochet said. "We had a lot of guys make their debuts, so that was a really happy time for a lot of guys in the clubhouse. For myself, I hadn't been really healthy in two years, so being back in the big leagues and being back around guys that I truly loved playing with and cared for, that was a happy thing for me. Obviously our team sucked and it wasn't fun at the end of the game most nights...The game would be fun up until the one or two plays where the other team would take the lead.
"We were doing everything we could, so there was no reason to be upset and moping around. I suppose you could argue you should only be happy if you're winning, but for as much as we lost, I don't think it would have been fair for us to be miserable."
There are no immediate candidates on the Sox roster for who can replicate Crochet's production in 2025, let alone his league-leading strikeout rate. But he's a big believer in the rotation he leaves behind, and spent much of the year trying to pump up with confidence, even while noting the irony that he was barely older -- if at all -- than the teammates he was advising.
Crochet became the umpteenth person to gawk at how quickly Davis Martin learned his kick changeup, with mere days between when they were watching a Tread Athletics post about it on YouTube together and when he used it to flummox A's hitters. He testified to how distinct all of Drew Thorpe's pitch shapes are when viewed on an axis plot. He was awed at how Sean Burke threw down the stretch, and lauded how Jonathan Cannon's wide arsenal complements it all. After feeling like he came into a more static roster picture at the outset of his career, Crochet enjoyed how much of a true fight for spots last spring felt, and thinks this young pitching staff will benefit from a repeat.
On the most recent podcast, Josh played around with how the stratification of teams across MLB mimic the different levels and leagues in English soccer, and Crochet definitely speaks like someone graciously headed to the Premier League after a productive run with a smaller outfit. When the Orioles, Red Sox or Yankees would roll into town, a different level of playoff intensity rolled in with them, and Crochet recalled getting up for those games to show they belonged.
As a collective, the White Sox still very much do not belong. But at the height of his powers, Crochet is going up to show that he does.
"The atmosphere in that division is unlike any other," Crochet said. "The excitement level is very high."
