There once was an apartment belonging to Garrett Crochet, located near the University of Tennessee campus in Knoxville, which featured a list of goals the left-handed hurler placed on the back of a door.

The word "Commitment" resided at the top for the member of the Volunteers, followed by personal, baseball-related targets, team-related baseball targets and then personal, off the field targets. That list did not travel to the professional baseball ranks with Crochet, who is now working in his fourth season as a 24-year-old White Sox veteran.

But that commitment to success only has intensified for Crochet during his first season as a starting pitcher. It¡¯s a move made following 72 career relief appearances and a base of just 73 innings after an offseason talk with general manager Chris Getz and manager Pedro Grifol where Crochet expressed his rotation desire.

¡°I thought I would have to do some convincing for sure,¡± Crochet told MLB.com of the initial talk with Getz, rating the possibility for change in responsibility at ¡°50/50¡± at the time. ¡°I didn¡¯t view it as convincing because it was something I was very convicted in. I had three years to think about it, so the fact that Getz was even willing to have that conversation with me fired me up even more.

¡°This idea was well respected on both sides, so that meant a lot to me. I don¡¯t want to dive in too much to the conversation, but a snippet was I was not expecting for us to leave this conversation and [Getz] say ¡®OK, you¡¯re a starter now.¡¯ I just wanted to go into Spring Training with the opportunity to try and start, and if I can¡¯t do it, then tell me I can¡¯t do it and then we¡¯ll be done. This will be done.¡±

Getz never had that thought. Crochet put in countless offseason hours in preparation for this change, and not only did that focus and work result in the hard-throwing southpaw breaking camp as part of the rotation but as the team¡¯s Opening Day starter.

Here¡¯s the kicker to this particular accomplishment: Crochet wasn¡¯t even sure at the time if he would be a starter, or possibly be starting with Triple-A Charlotte to build up innings, until receiving the Opening Day news.

¡°When they said, ¡®Opening Day starter,¡¯ I said, ¡®Sweet, I made the rotation,¡¯¡± a smiling Crochet said. ¡°Personally, I felt like I belonged here the whole time.

¡°From the point of view of how I thought things would shake out, I never knew until that conversation. It¡¯s kind of uncharted territory for me and for Chris. I really didn¡¯t know kind of what direction he wanted to go.¡±

Through the first three 2024 mound trips against the Tigers, Braves and Royals, Crochet posted as one of the American League¡¯s top starters with a 2.00 ERA. He topped the Majors with 31 strikeouts after four starts.

Rough moments are bound to happen in the pantheon of 32 or 33 starts across a season, a number where the White Sox hope Crochet annually reaches. Those moments came for Crochet came after his first three starts in his ensuing three outings against the Reds, Phillies, and Twins when he allowed 17 earned runs over 11 2/3 innings.

His quest for improvement was only heightened, immediately trying to figure out how he could adjust to the adjustments made by opposing teams. That quest produced more impressive results, as Crochet enters his first All-Star appearance with a Major League-best 150 strikeouts against just 23 walks over 20 starts and 107 1/3 innings, to go with a 3.02 ERA.

Failure still is not something Crochet enjoys dealing with or acknowledges.

¡°It¡¯s more so just accepting that it already happened, and I can¡¯t change it. That¡¯s what I tell myself. It¡¯s a constant battle,¡± Crochet said. ¡°There¡¯s ebbs and flows throughout the process.

¡°Even the night after the start, it¡¯s like I¡¯ll go through phases where I¡¯m about to go to bed, it¡¯s flushed and then as soon as I tell myself it¡¯s flushed, I follow myself up with some curse words about being soft and stuff like that. You never want to let yourself think that¡¯s it OK, but acceptance is the only way.¡±

Crochet¡¯s four-seam fastball averages 97 mph, according to Statcast, and he has added and featured a cutter to go with a wipeout slider. When asked about the word ace, Crochet mentioned Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, Gerrit Cole, Dylan Cease and Chris Sale as pitchers who immediately came to mind.

They have overpowering stuff, but also have a different sort of presence, a presence quickly featured by Crochet, but remains a work in progress. That sort of role is on Crochet¡¯s mind, but only because you¡¯ve got to see it in your head before you can do it.

¡°It¡¯s kind of just something that happens naturally, and it¡¯s out of my hands,¡± Crochet said. ¡°I¡¯m just focused on being the best me I can be.¡±

That overall approach has impressed the White Sox since Crochet made his move.

¡°You have to have the right frame of mind, the right body, the work capacity, the stamina, the health,¡± Grifol said. ¡°When he brought it up that he wanted to start, I¡¯ve always been under the impression, or under the tutelage of try to find starters somewhere. And we might have found one.¡±