On Tuesday, we learned that the Chicago White Sox are going to give the ball to left-hander Garrett Crochet on March 28 for their Opening Day matchup with the Detroit Tigers.
It's an amazing jump for Crochet, who benefits from the team trading away Dylan Cease last week. In fact, it will be Crochet's first start ever, as he had previously served in a bullpen-only capacity.
Our colleague Sam Connon wrote a great story on the historic nature of his announcement, which you can read here, but there's more to this as well.
By earning the start, Crochet will join Chris Sale in White Sox' lore.
Per Sarah Langs of MLB.com on social media:
Garrett Crochet will be the White Sox youngest Opening Day starting pitcher since a 24-year-old Chris Sale in 2013
Crochet is a 24-year-old, hard-throwing lefty who made his major league debut in 2020. He's made 72 appearances lifetime, all out of the bullpen. He really burst onto the scene in 2021, throwing in 54 games and pitching to a 2.82 ERA.
Unfortunately, he missed all of 2022 with injury and then only pitched in 13 games in 2023 as he came back.
As for Sale, the lanky lefty is one of the best White Sox' pitchers of the last 20 years. He spent seven years with the White Sox, finishing in the Top-10 in Cy Young voting in five different seasons. He was also named an All-Star five times with the Sox before going onto the Red Sox for the last six seasons.
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