Garrett Crochet's trade deadline surprise is the closest thing baseball has to a holdout

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Chicago White Sox ace, Garrett Crochet has been one of the hottest names on the trade market this season. He's a 25-year-old ace with two additional years of team control on his contract. In a market that is so desperate for pitching, somebody like Crochet is a dream come true.

But it can never be that simple. In fact, with days remaining before the July 30th trade deadline, Crochet and his management dropped a bombshell of an announcement to any team that's interested in acquiring him. Before the announcement, there were quite a bit of teams who wanted his services.

Teams may opt to avoid Garrett Crochet as he could potentially hold out of the postseason

ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan ($) touched on Crochet, his plan, and the public reaction to it:

"The news that Crochet, one of the breakout stars of the 2024 season, plans to pitch through the end of the regular season and skip a potential playoff run with a new team unless he receives a contract extension stunned GMs around the game who had expressed interest in acquiring him from the White Sox."

Before you hop on the train of calling Crochet soft or explaining how selfish he is, take a minute to listen and put yourself in his shoes.

The risk of injury in pitchers is higher now than ever. A few things that increase the risk of injury, especially Tommy John surgery, is having been injured before, throwing hard and throwing more in a season than your arm is used to.

Given those risk factors, it seems as though Crochet continuing to pitch this year is a complete death sentence for his arm.

The lefty has already had Tommy John surgery before. After having the surgery once, the odds of tearing the UCL again skyrocket. Crochet is also amongst the hardest throwers in the league, utilizing nothing but hard, firm pitches in his arsenal. That further increases his risk of injury.

Crochet was also a reliever for his entire career, totaling just 73 career big-league innings before this year. The most he had thrown in a single season was 54.1. He has more than doubled that already in 2024 with a few months to go.

The White Sox lefty is making just over the league minimum. If he gets an extension, he would be paid substantially more, while also being paid less than his value in order to buy out his arbitration years. The idea here is that Crochet can't afford to keep pitching without the security of having an extension under his belt. The risk of injury is too high.

He's not saying that he's unwilling to invest in his team. He's just saying that he needs his team to invest in him first before he goes and puts his elbow on the line in an attempt to win the World Series. This has caused his market to cool off quite a bit, but for the teams with cap flexibility, they may be able to acquire Crochet for a bit cheaper than we once thought.