3 doomsday Garrett Crochet trades that would ruin the Phillies postseason chances

The Philadelphia Phillies are one of several teams that have been linked to Chicago White Sox ace Garrett Crochet. The fit with Philadelphia makes a lot of sense. They were heavily linked to the southpaw at the trade deadline and they could use another starter to replace Taijuan Walker in the rotation. Plus, what team wouldn't jump at the possibility of landing a 25-year-old with Cy Young upside?

Crochet joining the Phillies would make arguably the best rotation in the National League (sans Walker) just that much better. Seriously, who is going to beat a trio of Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, and Crochet? That's not even counting the likes of Ranger Suarez and Cristopher Sanchez rounding out the staff.

The Phillies have the assets and the spot for Crochet, but again, they're one of several teams that have been linked to him. Given how good Crochet is and how cheap his contract is for the next two seasons, it's going to take a ton for the White Sox to give him up. The Phillies should get him, but it's far from a slam dunk that they will get him.

If the Phillies miss out on acquiring Crochet, it isn't the end of the world. Their rotation would still be quite good. It would hurt a whole lot more, though, if he ended up in any of these three landing spots.

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3) The Mets just ended the Phillies season without Garrett Crochet

What looked like such a promising season for the Phillies ended in catastrophe as they lost in the NLDS to their division rivals, the New York Mets. Philadelphia finished six games ahead of New York in the NL East standings, but when the season was on the line, the Mets were the team that pulled off the upset.

Losing to the Mets is bad enough, but there's every reason to believe that New York will be even tougher to beat in 2025. The Mets are very in on the Juan Soto sweepstakes, and have the prospect capital to land Crochet if they wanted, too.

Guys like Sean Manaea, Luis Severino, and Jose Quintana pitched well against the Phillies, but let's be real. Crochet's ceiling is a whole lot higher than all three of those guys. If the Phillies couldn't do much against the Mets pitching last season, it'd be a whole lot tougher with Crochet in the mix.

2) The Dodgers might be unstoppable if they acquire Garrett Crochet

The Los Angeles Dodgers just won the World Series with three healthy starting pitchers. How they pulled that off I still don't know, but it happened, and it happened in convincing fashion. Considering just how beaten up they were during the postseason, the idea of them adding a pitcher like Crochet is pretty frightening.

When healthy, the Dodgers would roll out any of Crochet, Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Tony Gonsolin, Bobby Miller, or Dustin May. That isn't even mentioning the possibility of them spending big on a free agent starter or landing Roki Sasaki. Yes, most of the pitchers they have do have an extensive injury history, but they only need four or five in October.

What makes the Dodgers such a scary landing spot is that they have the prospect capital to get a deal done, and have done business with the White Sox before. It would not be surprising at all to see Crochet end up in Los Angeles and dominate. Sure, the Dodgers aren't in the NL East, but for the Phillies to win the NL Pennant, they'd likely have to go through the Dodgers. Doing so with Crochet would be even tougher than the job of doing so without him.

1) A healthy Braves team with Garrett Crochet would be really tough to beat

The 2024 season was a rough one for the Atlanta Braves, but injuries played a huge role. Virtually every one of their star players with a couple of exceptions missed substantial time due to injuries. Even despite that, they were able to make it to the postseason.

Ronald Acuña Jr. and Spencer Strider might begin the 2025 campaign on the IL, but they're expected to return at some point. Players who ended the season injured like Chris Sale and Austin Riley are expected to be fully healthy come Opening Day. This Braves team should be mostly healthy very soon, and have a ton of money to spend this offseason as well.

Max Fried might be departing, but replacing him with Crochet doesn't feel like much of a loss at all. In fact, Crochet's upside might be even higher than that of Fried's even with more risk. We already know what a healthy Braves lineup can do, but can you imagine a postseason rotation consisting of Sale, Crochet, Reynaldo Lopez, and Spencer Schwellenbach? That might make Atlanta favorites to win the World Series.

Yes, the Phillies have had a ton of recent success in October against Atlanta, but Fried making a couple of lackluster starts against Philadelphia in the postseason is a huge reason why. Replacing Fried with Crochet would help mitigate that and could give Atlanta the edge it needs.