When the Rangers and Red Sox face off at Globe Life Field on March 27 at 4:05 p.m. ET/3:05 p.m. CT, it¡¯ll be the matchup of a former Boston ace against the current one.
Rangers Opening Day starter Nathan Eovaldi made three Game 1 starts for the Red Sox from 2020-22. The newly acquired southpaw Garrett Crochet will be making his second career Opening Day start in 2025, but his first since joining the Red Sox in a trade this offseason.
¡°It's a huge honor to be able to take the ball in the first game of the season, right?¡± Eovaldi said. ¡°It's the first game, and baseball's back. It's what we work for the entire offseason, Spring Training, leading up to it and everything. There's a lot of meaning behind it. I take a lot of pride in going out there. To have that first one, it means a lot to me.¡±
LHP Garrett Crochet
Previous Opening Day starts: 2024
2024 season: 6-12, 3.58 ERA
The Red Sox kicked off their most aggressive offseason in years by making a blockbuster trade with the White Sox for an emerging, 25-year-old ace in Crochet. This spring, Crochet has been as advertised, both with his dominant repertoire of pitches and his work ethic.
While Crochet was brilliant in the first half of last season to earn a trip to the All-Star Game, it¡¯s quite possible he has another level to go to. Remember, 2024 was Crochet¡¯s first season as a Major League starter. He had made a total of 72 relief appearances from 2020-23 -- missing all of ¡®22 in his recovery from Tommy John surgery.
It will be interesting to see how Crochet will elevate while playing for a team as talented as this year¡¯s Red Sox. He spent last season with a White Sox club that set an all-time record with 121 losses. Crochet didn¡¯t let his team¡¯s performance bring him down, as he had 209 strikeouts and a 1.07 WHIP in 146 innings.
While Red Sox manager Alex Cora could have gone with last year¡¯s ace Tanner Houck or two-time World Series champion Walker Buehler on Opening Day, he went with Crochet. Why?
"It¡¯s just who [Crochet is] -- his stuff is big,¡± said Cora. ¡°There¡¯s a reason we got him here. We envision him as a true No. 1. To be determined, right? ¡ But we truly believe with where we are as an organization and what he represents, it will be good for him to make the first pitch of the season.¡±
RHP Nathan Eovaldi
Previous Opening Day starts: 2020-22 (Boston), 2024 (Texas)
2024 season: 12-8, 3.80 ERA, 170 2/3 IP
Eovaldi becomes just the seventh pitcher in franchise history (since 1972) to make consecutive Opening Day starts.
The right-hander said he was told he would probably get the nod shortly after he re-signed with the Rangers this offseason. Manager Bruce Bochy announced earlier in spring that ace Jacob deGrom would start the season at the back of the rotation due to a slow-played build up in his first full season post-Tommy John surgery.
But Eovaldi deserves the nod regardless of deGrom availability.
With deGrom down for much of the past two seasons, Eovaldi has been the de facto ace of the staff, a run that included a handful of heroic performances in the 2023 postseason. He posted a 3.72 ERA in his first two years with Texas, while also going 5-0 with a 2.95 ERA in his six postseason outings in 2023 en route to his second career World Series ring.
He elevates the team both on and off the field.
¡°We talk about intangibles that he brings, he¡¯s just such a great teammate,¡± Bochy said. ¡°He's just so positive in everything he does, and it rubs off on everybody. He¡¯s always smiling when you see him out there. He's got that maniacal focus you love from the pitchers, from pitch to pitch. When he's not playing, he's around, he's talking to the players, even in their bullpens. That's why we worked really hard to get him back here, not just because of the talent, but because of the person. He's the type of player that we want.¡±