Royals Writer Praises Cole Ragans Contract After Red Sox's $170M Garrett Crochet Deal

It's a great time to be a left-handed pitcher in the American League.

Last season, Tarik Skubal of the Detroit Tigers took home the Cy Young Award after achieving a pitching Triple Crown. But there were two other AL Central lefties--Cole Ragans of the Kansas City Royals and Garrett Crochet of the Chicago White Sox--who experienced breakout seasons.

Things have changed in 2025, as Crochet has moved on to the Boston Red Sox--and gotten paid handsomely. The 25-year-old signed a six-year, $170 million extension that ties him to Boston through at least the 2030 season, with a player option in 2031.

The Royals and Ragans worked out an extension, too, but on a much smaller scale. Kansas City gave him a three-year, $13.25 million deal this winter, but he was already tied to the club through 2028 thanks to arbitration, so they were really just making sure he was cost-controlled.

However, Stephen Parello of FanSided heaped praiseon the Royals for the Ragans extension in light of the Crochet deal, saying the Red Sox's expenditure made Kansas City look "even more prudent."

"The Red Sox decision to hand Garrett Crochet a six-year $170 million contract extension paints the Royals' handling of Cole Ragans in an even more favorable light," Parello wrote. "The Red Sox are only buying out Crochet's final year of arbitration, and as a result, are paying market rate for a pitcher with just one year of elite performance."

Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but to be perfectly honest, Parello is off base on a number of things here. Take this passage, for example:

"One can argue that Ragans, who pitched 40 more innings than Crochet in the same amount of starts in 2024, is the better pitcher, and a more durable one at that. While Ragans has had some calf issues in the past, Crochet has had a history of arm trouble including Tommy John surgery in 2022 and a shoulder issue in 2023."

The health argument is completely off-base, as Ragans himself had two Tommy John surgeries by age 21, delaying his progress through the Texas Rangers' minor-league system. That's why Crochet, who is a year and a half younger than Ragans, was scheduled to hit free agency two years sooner than his Kansas City counterpart.

But the main point here is that the Red Sox gained at least four years of control over Crochet, and those will likely be his peak years, at that. The Royals may already have Ragans for his peak years, thanks to his shifted free agency timeline, but they've gained zero years of control.

None of this is meant to discredit the Royals for the deal they made with Ragans, as it may well save them a few million bucks. But the Crochet deal was made under an entirely different set of circumstances, and Boston currently has their younger ace locked in for at least two more years than the Royals do.

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