Red Sox, Garrett Crochet agree to six-year, $170 million extension

The Boston Red Sox have signed left-handed pitcher Garrett Crochet to a 6-year contract extension that spans the 2026-2031 seasons.

Crochet will make $3.8 million in his final year of arbitration-eligibility this season before the extension kicks in at the start of 2026. The six-year deal runs through 2031 and includes an opt-out after 2030. It’s the second-largest contract the Red Sox have given out to a pitcher behind David Price’s seven-year, $217 million free-agent deal in 2015. It marks the largest-ever contract extension they’ve given to a pitcher.

The deal marks the largest ever for a pitcher with just four-plus years of service time. According to MLB Trade Rumors, the largest previous deal for a player with between four and five years of service time was Jacob deGrom’s 2019 extension with the New York Mets, which guaranteed him $120.5 million over the next four seasons (the deal had a valuation of $110.5 million with deferrals).

When the Red Sox traded for Crochet this winter, sending their two most recent first-round picks in a four-player package to the Chicago White Sox, they expressed serious interest in signing him to a long-term extension, given he was set to become a free agent after the 2026 season. But as spring training drew to a close, Crochet said he wanted to table talks during the season to focus on the season and not be a distraction to teammates.

The 25-year-old dominated in spring training, striking out 30 of 66 batters he faced across five starts, while flashing a triple-digit fastball from his first start.

In the regular-season opener on Thursday against the Texas Rangers, Crochet was not quite as sharp as he had been in spring, allowing two runs on five hits and two walks in five innings, striking out four.

Last season for the White Sox, Crochet earned his first All-Star nod after an impressive first half with a 3.02 ERA through 20 starts. He finished the year with a 3.58 ERA and 35.1 percent strikeout rate across 32 starts, albeit shortened starts, as the White Sox aimed to keep him healthy coming off Tommy John surgery.

The Red Sox, in need of an anchor for their rotation, pursued Crochet for much of the winter before finalizing the deal at the Winter Meetings, marking one of the biggest trades of the offseason. Now they have locked up their No. 1 starter of the future.

Extension takeaways: What deals for Garrett Crochet, Cal Raleigh, others mean for the market

(Photo: Richard Rodriguez / Getty Images)

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