Can Red Sox withstand this version of Garrett Crochet? Boston's troubles start, but don't end, with the ace

In order to turn things around, the Red Sox need more from a healthy Gray. They need Suárez and Early to keep throwing well. They need a lot more from either Bello or whomever replaces him in the rotation at some point. The offense has to hit more, notably for more power -- and, hey, maybe Monday will prove to be the start of an upswing.

Most of all, though, the Red Sox need their elite-level ace back.

Crochet believes he knows the issue and that he's capable of fixing it.

"Right now, every mistake that I make is getting absolutely hammered," he said Sunday (via The Athletic). "But it's because they're mistakes when I'm behind in the count.

"I went into it today with a willingness to throw the four-seamer at the top zone at a high volume. Then I dig myself in the hole versus (Dillon) Dingler and kind of just fall into a trap of having to throw a four-seam for a strike. … Right now, I feel like I know what needs to happen. Just a matter of doing it."

In today's era of having every bit of data at our fingertips, we often question where a pitcher's velocity is when he's having issues. Crochet is right in line with last season there. He's averaging 95.9 mph with his four-seam fastball and while that's lower than last year overall, it's identical to his results last April. As it got warmer and the season progressed, he threw harder (97.2 mph in August, for example).

Did he get off to a slow start last season too? Not so much. Through five starts in 2025, he had a 1.13 ERA with 35 strikeouts in 32 innings.

If there is any concern here, I'd submit fatigue carryover from 2025. Crochet first became a full-time starter in 2024 with the White Sox and worked 146 innings. He followed that up with a jump to 213 innings (including the playoffs) last season.

Crochet is a big guy at 6-foot-6, 245 pounds and has an incredibly strong arm, but that kind of workload increase is likely to be a shock to anyone's system.

While the velocity isn't an overwhelming concern, Crochet's control may be. He has already hit four batters after only hitting three all of last season. His walk rate is up to 7.8% from last year's 5.7%. He's also regularly falling behind in counts, as he mentioned. He's only gotten hitters down 0-2 19% of the time compared to 30.4% of the time last season.

Pitchers go through slumps, just like hitters. It's possible this is just a slow start to the season for Crochet and, again, he's been good in two of his five starts and was awfully close to a good outing on Sunday.

There are certainly reasons for concern worth monitoring, though, and while the Red Sox need several parts of the ballclub to play better, he's the most important one.