Garrett Crochet Is Considering Becoming a Craftier Power Pitcher

Garrett Crochet has been overpowering hitters in his first season as a major league starting pitcher. In 27 outings comprising 128 2/3 innings — the woebegone White Sox have been especially cautious with his workload since the All-Star break — the 25-year-old southpaw has a 34.2% strikeout rate to go with a 3.64 ERA and a 2.83 FIP. Relying heavily on a four-seamer/cutter combination that’s augmented by a sweeper and the occasional changeup, Crochet ranks in the 92nd percentile for fastball velocity at 97.1 mph, and in the 93rd percentile for whiff rate at 32.9%.

Crochet sat down to discuss his repertoire and approach prior to a recent game at Chicago’s Guaranteed Rate Field.

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David Laurila: Most fans are familiar with you as a pitcher. That said, how would you describe yourself?

Garrett Crochet: “I guess I think of myself as a power pitcher. I pretty much rely on two pitches, although I would like to maybe open the floor a little bit more for [additional] usage of the slider and changeup. Some outings call for that more than others, but to be honest, I haven’t gotten many reps with my changeup. It’s been difficult for me to incorporate that pitch very much in a year where I’m relying pretty much solely on efficiency. It’s been about not wanting to waste pitches. That’s why it came down to me using the fastball and the cutter primarily.”

Laurila: How different of a pitcher do you feel you’d be with a more diversified mix?

Crochet: “It’s maybe not diversifying my mix so much as the usage percentages. That’s more so how I think about it. But I have kind of been tinkering with a sinker here and there recently. Whether it’s here to stay or something that I continue to just throw in catch play — continue to work on that way — who’s to say? I guess I’ll have to wait until I can view its effectiveness as a whole, or not. I’ve thrown a couple of them in games and no damage yet. The strike percentage hasn’t been very high though.

“For me, it’s looking at how I can rip the cutter. I sometimes get similar metrics to the sliders of some guys, and then I could shape it and go up in the zone. The sinker I want to throw with the same mindset to where it’s a power pitch. That’s who I am as a person. It’s ‘I’m willing to throw this pitch hard and in the zone, and whatever happens is what happens.’”

Laurila: Is your approach more or less to aim middle and let the movement and velocity play from there?

Crochet: “Yes and no. With the cutter it’s… yeah, that’s primarily the focus. But with the heater — with the four-seam — I’m still trying to be relatively crafty. Like, I’m trying to go down and away. I’m trying to go up, and up and away, chasing above. I give myself wider room for margin with my velocity, sure, but it’s still honing in on a spot and focusing on execution.”

Laurila: Being crafty with a power heater is interesting, if not a little counterintuitive…

Crochet: “Yeah, definitely. I think that I said something along those lines in spring training to [pitching coach Ethan] Katz. I was like, ‘I get stuck, because internally I feel like I have the ability to be crafty, but it’s also my nature to just be a power pitcher. That’s my competitor, my inner competitor. That’s kind of what fuels my fire.”

Laurila: How do you define crafty?

Crochet: “Pitching backwards. Backdoor cutters. Backdoor sliders. Things of that nature. Kind of like how I’m saying fastballs down and away, instead of how I throw four-seams, so maybe I should live at the top of the zone. But I kind of want to utilize all four quadrants of the plate.

“There was a window in May and June where I felt like I was really getting to the down-and-away quadrant, but lately I haven’t really been as much. In the game versus Houston a couple starts ago, my changeup was the one getting to that quadrant. But I would like to increase chase, or at least keep guys honest, when I throw the cutter down.”

Laurila: Do you know the metrics on your pitches?

Crochet: “My heater ranges. Sometimes it will be like 16 vert and -12 horizontal. Sometimes it will be 18-19 vert and -2 horizontal. It’s very rangy. But mostly it’s around 16 and -10.

“My cutter ranges, too. I like to manipulate it a little bit. I guess the highest the vert will get is probably like eight or nine, but at the same time, when I throw it up in the zone, sometimes it will be like 12. It’s anywhere from zero to +6 horizontal.”

Laurila: Do you find that your cutter is more effective when it gets more horizontal movement, or is that not the case because hitters might recognize it more easily?

Crochet: “Right. Sometimes I try to shape it a little too much. The purpose of the cutter is that it looks like a heater for so long. On some of them, I tend to think, ‘Man, how does he not swing and miss at that one?’ Visually it looked like the best one I’d thrown all day. So, it’s likely due to what you’re saying, that they can pick it up earlier when it’s moving more.”

Laurila: Any final thoughts? Maybe something important to you that we haven’t really addressed?

Crochet: “I don’t know. I feel like we kind of hit on it with the usage percentages. For me, it’s always, ‘What if this? What if that?’ Like I said earlier, I would like to bring my changeup and slider usage percentages up, but at the same time, with the way that the heater and cutter have been working, I think I’m maybe being dumb, or naive, by thinking that I need those pitches more than I do. It’s weird. I don’t know. The splits are obviously different left and right, but I haven’t really faced a ton of lefties this year, so I suppose I haven’t needed the slider as much. But yeah, I’ve been thinking about [the usage percentages].”