For much of the past few months, the Philadelphia Phillies have been seriously in on Chicago White Sox ace Garrett Crochet as the perfect trade solution to their starting rotation. In fact, the Phillies had a strong interest in Crochet dating all the way back to the trade deadline this past season. Rumors have also had it that Philadelphia has continued their pursuit during the offseason with hopes that eventually a deal could get done.
However, that possibility may no longer seem as optimistic as Matt Gelb of The Athletic recently stated that despite the Phillies being active in monitoring a potential Crochet trade, major-league sources revealed that the Phillies and White Sox were a better fit in July than right now (subscription required) because talks were more serious then. He further elaborated that Chicago could find better suitors this offseason that could provide an even stronger return prospect package.
A Phillies trade for Garrett Crochet feels further out of reach after report
Most likely, the Phillies were offering up a much better prospect package at the deadline to potentially land the star 25-year-old left-hander in the midst of a playoff run. Despite their strong pursuit of Crochet, a deal never ended up happening. It was later revealed that the Phillies refused to include top pitching prospect Andrew Painter (subscription required), which the White Sox demanded in the return package, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.
Now, during the offseason, the competition for his services has become more fierce, so what Philadelphia has been offering up wasn’t cutting it for the White Sox. Recently, MLB insider Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported that the Phillies had actually offered up Alec Bohm along with top outfield prospect Justin Crawford in a package for Crochet that was ultimately declined by Chicago due to their concerns about Bohm’s second-half struggles.
So it has become obvious now that whichever team was going to be seriously interested in the young pitching phenom will likely need to pony it up big time to actually even get talks started.
For a pitching stud like Crochet, it might just as well be worth it, given what he has been able to put up so far in his young MLB career. This past season, he posted a solid 3.58 ERA and 1.07 WHIP with an astounding 209 strikeouts in just 146 innings pitched over 32 starts. Pitchers with a greater than 35 percent strikeout rate don’t come very often anymore, not to mention one who hasn’t even started to enter his prime just yet.
So if the Phillies indeed want to have any chance at Crochet, they might need to revisit the idea of including Painter to get it done. Otherwise, they may have to just resort to Plan B for the rest of the offseason for any starting pitching upgrades.