Garrett Nolan Crochet (born June 21, 1999) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

for the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB). The White Sox selected Crochet with the 11th overall selection of the 2020 MLB draft out of the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

. Crochet was called up in September by the White Sox to become the first MLB player in six years to reach the big leagues in the same year in which he was drafted.

Amateur career

Crochet grew up in

Ocean Springs, Mississippi Ocean Springs is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States, approximately east of Biloxi and west of Gautier. It is part of the Pascagoula, Mississippi Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 17,225 at the 2000 U.S. Census. ...

, and attended

Ocean Springs High School Ocean Springs High School is an IB-certified public high school in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. The school serves students in grades 9– 12 and is part of the Ocean Springs School District. In addition to Ocean Springs it serves Gulf Pa ...

. During his junior season, he posted a 3–0

win–loss record In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of match ...

with a 0.51

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

(ERA) and 25

strikeout In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...

s in

innings pitched In baseball, innings pitched (IP) are the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of batters and baserunners that are put out while the pitcher is on the pitching mound in a game. Three outs made is equal to one innin ...

. Following the season, Crochet initially committed to play

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

Jones County Junior College Jones College is a public community college in Ellisville, Mississippi. It is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and serves its eight-county district consisting of Clarke, Covington, Gree ...

. As a senior, he went 6–4 with a 1.48 ERA and 76 strikeouts to draw late recruiting interest from many top collegiate programs, including Texas and Tennessee. Crochet was selected by the

Milwaukee Brewers The Milwaukee Brewers are an American professional baseball team based in Milwaukee. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division. The Brewers are named for t ...

in the 34th round of the

2017 Major League Baseball draft The 2017 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft began on June 12, 2017. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The first 36 picks, including the first round and compensatory picks, were broadcast on MLB Network on J ...

, but chose not to sign and instead enrolled at Tennessee. As a true freshman at Tennessee in 2018, Crochet appeared in 17 games with 11 starts, posting a 5–6 record with a 5.51 ERA and 62 strikeouts. In 2019, his sophomore year, he went 5–3 with a 4.02 ERA over 18 appearances (six starts), missing the SEC Tournament after suffering a broken jaw in his last regular season start. After the season Crochet was invited to training camp for the United States Collegiate National Baseball Team, and entered his junior season as a first team preseason All-American by ''

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' is a sports enterprise that covers baseball at every level, including MLB, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in the MiLB, college, high school, and international leagues. It is currently published in the form o ...

'' and on the watch list for the

Golden Spikes Award The Golden Spikes Award is bestowed annually to the best amateur baseball player in the United States. The award, created by USA Baseball and sponsored by the Major League Baseball Players Association, was first presented in 1978. It is given to ...

. Crochet missed the first three weeks of the season due to arm soreness, then appeared in one game before the college baseball season was cut short due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Professional career

The White Sox selected Crochet in the first round, with the 11th overall selection, in the

2020 Major League Baseball draft The 2020 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on June 10 and 11, 2020. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The draft order was set based on the reverse order of the 2019 MLB season ...

, and he signed a contract on June 22, 2020, that included a $4,547,500 bonus. On September 18, 2020, Crochet became the first player from the 2020 MLB Draft class to be promoted to the major leagues. He is the 22nd player to go straight from the draft to the majors without playing in the minor leagues, and the first since

Mike Leake Michael Raymond Leake (born November 12, 1987) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, Seattle Mariners, and Arizona Diamon ...

in 2010 and was the first player to be promoted in their draft year since

Brandon Finnegan Brandon Kyle Finnegan (born April 14, 1993) is an American professional baseball pitcher who is currently a free agent. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Royals and the Cincinnati Reds. Prior to his professional ca ...

in 2014. With the 2020 Chicago White Sox, Crochet appeared in five games, not allowing a run in six innings pitched while consistently throwing . He came out of the bullpen to strike out both batters he faced in Chicago's 6–4 loss to the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

in the decisive Game 3 of the

2020 American League Wild Card Series The 2020 American League Wild Card Series were four best-of-three series in Major League Baseball (MLB) to determine participating teams in the 2020 American League Division Series. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MLB expanded the postseason instea ...

before leaving with forearm tightness. Crochet had his first full season in 2021, when he recorded a 2.82 ERA with 65 strikeouts in innings. Crochet would miss the entire 2022 season after undergoing

Tommy John surgery Ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction, colloquially known as Tommy John surgery (TJS), is a surgical graft procedure where the ulnar collateral ligament in the medial elbow is replaced with either a tendon from elsewhere in the patient's bo ...

on April 2.

References

External links

Tennessee Volunteers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crochet, Garrett 1999 births Living people Baseball players from Mississippi Birmingham Barons players Charlotte Knights players Chicago White Sox players Major League Baseball pitchers People from Ocean Springs, Mississippi Tennessee Volunteers baseball players United States national baseball team players