Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet has people to prove wrong in ‘26 — but keeping them to himself for now

It might be difficult for Garrett Crochet to improve on his first season with the Red Sox.

Acquired at the winter meetings in December of 2024, then awarded with a huge contract extension in April of 2025, Crochet led all American League starters in innings pitched and strikeouts, was third in ERA and was chosen to the AL All-Star team. He finished second in Cy Young Award balloting.

But athletes are always looking to get better, and to do so, they often play intricate mind games with themselves. They recall a slight from someone to motivate them further. They hunt for motivation. They may resort to inventing straw men — anything to provide them with additional fuel.

And yes, Crochet has some things in mind to drive himself to greater heights in 2026. Just don’t ask him what those are.

“I think to externalize those thoughts,” he said with a smile, “kind of takes away from the magic of the drive, what they give you. (But) definitely, (I have things motivating me) — always.”

If Crochet isn’t willing to bare his soul, he’s unafraid to cite what aspects of his game he’d like to improve in his second season with the Sox.

“Consistency,” he said without hesitation. “One good year doesn’t make you a great player. You have to come in and earn your stripes every year. I realize the success that I had last year will make teams game-plan a little bit more for me, whether it be pitch usage or specifically counts. I’ve got to be ready to combat that.”

More specifically, Crochet spoke of some adjustments he’d like to make. He wants to get better with the glove-side command of his four-seam fastball and continue to master a new changeup grip he adapted in the middle of last year.

Always, there are things to work on.

This year, Crochet will be part of a new rotation. Veteran teammates Lucas Giolito and Walker Buehler are gone. New to the staff are Sonny Gray, Ranger Suarez and Johan Oviedo.

“With Bello not breaking Opening Day last year,” he said “we’re looking at 80 percent of a new rotation. But it’s really cool. Sonny brings a ton of experience and a ton of strikeouts and innings the past couple of years. Obviously, we’ve seen what Ranger has done in the NL in one of the better divisions in baseball and also one of the more hostile environments (Philadelphia) so I think we’re excited to see him meet the challenge in Boston. And Oviedo’s got an incredible profile. You see the pitch shapes and the arsenal as a whole, there’s a lot to like there.”

One thing that Crochet doesn’t have to concern himself with is his financial future and security. That gotten taken care of with a six-year, $170 million extension.

Had he waited on an extension, it’s likely his superb 2025 might have led to an even bigger deal this past winter as he got to within a season of free agency.

But Crochet has no regrets.

“I think that being offered life-changing money like that,” he said, “and signing my name and committing myself to this team freed me up in a lot of ways, that allowed me to have the season that I just did. When you look at deals like that, especially signed before I had really done anything — I know that I was an All-Star in ‘2, but I hadn’t accomplished anything. I think it just kind of allowed me to go out and be myself. It took away the pressure of free agency and it just allowed me to focus on winning day-to-day.”

With the benefit of hindsight, he can also now recognize the wisdom that went into some decisions last year to manage his workload. At the time, he was irate when he was lifted after 5.1 innings against the Mets last May after just 85 pitches.

“It’s like it’s a little harder to see the big picture when you’re in it,” he said. “I was kind of just thinking, ‘What are we doing? We were trying to win today, but….’ Then you look at the year as a whole and how everything was able to come to fruition. Hindsight is always 20/20, but that was definitely the right call for the situation.”

Looking back, Crochet can recognize that precautions like that helped him be so effective down the stretch, capped by a brilliant start in Game 1 of their wildcard series against the Yankees.

Lesson learned.

Sort of.

Asked how he would handle a similar quick hook in the first few months this season, Crochet didn’t hesitate.

“I’ll probably still be pissed,” he acknowledged ruefully. “But I feel like that’s the nature of the game.”