2024 season a step in the right direction for Crawford

BOSTON -- As Kutter Crawford dissects his 2024 season, there will be a lot to unravel.

The righty was the only Red Sox pitcher to make every turn in the rotation, leading the club with career-highs in starts (33), innings (183 2/3), strikeouts (175), WHIP (1.12) and opponents batting average (.223).

Yet he also led the team with 16 losses. And heading into the season finale on Sunday, his 34 homers allowed are a Major League high.

While the journey was uneven, Crawford’s performance in his team’s 7-2 loss to the Rays on Saturday wasn’t what he was looking for. Over 4 1/3 innings, he allowed six runs on five hits while walking four and striking out six.

“I mean, not very good,” said Crawford. “Didn’t have a whole lot of feel for the fastball, so I had to use the cutter a lot. But overall, just not a very good outing.”

Through good and bad this season, Crawford has most often pounded the zone. The four walks on Saturday tied a season-high.

“Command was off today,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “He didn’t have a feel for the four-seamer. A lot of cutters. Just, he’s [usually] very efficient. He attacks the zone. Today, he was erratic.”

How does Crawford assess his season?

“I was good in the sense of staying healthy and being able to make 33 starts and throw a lot of innings,” Crawford said. “Obviously, I'm not happy with the amount of walks and the homers that I've given up. So it's kind of mixed emotions about the season. But, you know, I am grateful that I was able to get through 33 starts. And I think a lot of credit to the strength and training staff. But at the end of the day, we’ve got to get back to work and try to limit some homers next year.”

How does he plan on limiting the longball?

“[Improvement of] location, stuff, and obviously the velo was down a little bit this year,” Crawford said. “So we're just going to focus on getting the velo back up and just execution of pitches.”

If nothing else, 2024 should be a good stepping stone heading into ‘25 -- a season in which Crawford expects he will be stronger from a physical standpoint.

“I've never thrown this many innings, especially the workload of the Major Leagues every five days,” Crawford said. “So yeah, this was a big step forward this year of putting my body through that kind of stuff. The duration of 162 [games] and 30-plus starts. But yeah there's going to be a lot of focus on the lower half and making sure the foundation is strong for the whole duration of the season.”

Cora looks forward to working with the training staff to help formulate Crawford’s battle plan for the winter.

“I mean, obviously, keep getting stronger. That's the most important thing,” Cora said. “He proved that he can start at this level, I mean he’s proved that [before this season]. There's a few things with a fastball and the split and all that. And we'll talk about that, in November, [or] December. But I think if you look at his season overall, it’s solid. That’s a kid that understands how to pitch. He goes both sides of the plate. He goes up, he goes down. He’s a guy that we expect to keep getting better. He’s been good for us.”

More consistency will be Crawford’s key for 2025.

“Kutter was really streaky this year,” said Triston Casas. “He had stretches where he was the best pitcher in baseball, and then some where he was the worst pitcher in baseball. Gerritt Cole led the league in home runs given up in ‘22, like Kutter this year. Cole won the Cy Young Award the next year.

“So it's a combination of attacking the zone, being fearless, and then having the stuff to be able to do that. When you want to go deep into a ballgame, you’ve got to attack the zone. If you want to get through the lineup three times, you have to attack early with the fastball to be able to set up at-bats later in the game, to be able to have an alternate plan to go to offspeed pitches.

“If you start going soft and introducing everything early in the game. It's not a recipe for success and he has the fastball to be a starter and he took a big step in the right direction this year.”