Article: Garrett Crochet’s Velocity Is Down, but Don’t Worry

[Davy Andrews]

Garrett Crochet seems to have made some serious mechanical adjustments this season. Luckily, his dominance over big league hitters hasn't changed.

Tonight, Garrett Crochet will make his third start in a Red Sox uniform. He was absolutely lights-out during the first two, allowing just two earned runs for a 1.38 ERA and 1.79 FIP. However, if you’re a serious pitching nerd, you might have noticed that he has looked a bit different than he did last season. The first thing I noticed was Crochet’s velocity. It’s down. In 2024, the pitch averaged 97.1 mph, but it’s averaging 96.3 so far this season. That doesn’t sound like a good thing. That’s still plenty fast, especially for a left-handed pitcher, but it’s enough to be notable, even this early in the season.

What caught me off guard was that Stuff+, the advanced metric that gives every pitch a grade based on its characteristics, actually thinks that Crochet’s four-seamer is better this season than last season, improving from 112 from 116. That made me curious, so I dug into the specifics. I won’t drag you along for my whole journey through Crochet’s stats. Here’s the bottom line: Garrett Crochet has dropped his arm angle in a major way this season. Not that it’s the first time. It’s actually a continuation of a trend that’s been going on since his first full season in 2021. The Baseball Savant images below paint a very clear picture.

 

Over the past four seasons, Crochet’s arm angle has dropped an enormous 25 degrees, from 56 in 2021 to 31 in 2025. In 2021, he had an extremely over-the-top arm angle. In 2023 and 2024, he was pretty close to a standard three-quarters delivery. This season’s change was a big one. It officially made him a sidearm guy. That alone is enough to explain the drop-off in velocity, as pitchers are generally able to throw harder from higher arm slots, but there’s more going on.

Crochet’s extension is also much lower, going from 7.1 feet to 6.8 feet, a drop of roughly 3.6 inches. Crochet’s not reaching toward home plate the way he used to, and because the ball has to travel slightly farther to home plate, the drop-off in perceived velocity is even bigger than the actual drop-off. However, I’m more concerned about the overall effect. In the GIF below, the difference in arm angle is obvious. What I want you to watch is Crochet’s right foot.

These frames are both from Texas in order to make sure that they’re from the same camera angle. In 2024, when Crochet’s in a White Sox jersey, you can just barely see the toe of his right cleat sticking out from behind his left leg. In 2025, you can see the whole front of his foot. He’s planting further toward the first base side and throwing across his body more. When you put the lower arm angle, the lower extension, and the crossfire action together, there’s a clear takeaway. Crochet is less linear – that is, moving down the mound and toward home plate – and more rotational – whipping his arm around his body – than he was last year.

None of this happens by accident. The Red Sox have placed a huge emphasis on pitching development, and they clearly think this is the best version of Crochet. His fastball is getting two more inches of horizontal break and slightly more rise. He’s throwing his cutter more often and it’s getting even more cut than it did last year. This is a new model of Crochet, with a new look, a tweaked pitch mix, and new movement.

It’s worth noting that Crochet’s strikeout rate is down a full 10 percentage points from last year, falling from 35% to 25%. Likewise, his whiff rate and chase rate have taken big steps back. That’s definitely something to keep an eye on both tonight and as we get further into the season. In Fenway, Crochet has just moved into an extreme hitter’s park, and he’ll need as many strikeouts as he can get. Still, for the moment, it’s good enough that the stuff metrics like this new version of him and the top-line results are as good as you could ask for.

I'll leave you with a slightly spurious point. If all these changes Crochet has made sound familiar, that’s because they are. In August, Chris Sale was on the mound against the Mets for the Braves, and Sean Manaea, watching from the New York dugout, decided that maybe he should try pitching more like Sale. He dropped his arm angle down, moved closer to the first base side of the rubber, focused on his four-seamer and sweeper, and went on an absolute tear to close the season. Crochet’s arm angle is nowhere near that low, yet anyway. Still, this new change sort of makes it look like not long after a regrettable trade that sent Sale to Atlanta, the Red Sox have just decided to make a brand new Chris Sale.

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