Lefty Garrett Crochet, who the Red Sox acquired in a trade Wednesday, wore No. 45 with the White Sox. He obviously won’t be able to wear it with Boston.
The No. 45, which Pedro Martinez wore, is one of 11 Red Sox retired numbers on the right field façade at Fenway Park.
“That was one of the first things that I realized after the trade went through,” said Crochet during a Zoom call with the media Friday. “And then I wore 34 in college and so that one was retired.”
Crochet will wear No. 35 with Boston.
The three previous numbers he wore are all retired. Not only did he wear No. 34 (David Ortiz) in college but he also wore No. 14 (Jim Rice) in high school.
“So it was just funny the way that it all worked out,” Crochet said.
On the possibility of meeting and talking pitching with Martinez during spring training, Crochet said, “I think having any sort of conversation with Pedro would be my ideal world.”
The lefty posted a 3.58 ERA, 2.69 FIP, 209 strikeouts and 33 walks in 32 starts (146 innings) in 2024 for Chicago. He was in the 98th percentile in strikeout percentage (35.1%) and 93rd percentile in both whiff percentage (33.1%) and chase percentage (33.5%). His fastball averaged 97.2 mph.
