Garrett Crochetmade his Red Sox spring debut Thursday afternoon — but unless you were at JetBlue Park, you missed it. The matchup was one of the few Grapefruit League games not televised.
Crochet faced division rival the Tampa Bay Rays and tossed two scoreless frames, allowing one hit and no runs while failing to record a strikeout (23 pitches).
“I don’t know the last time I had an outing without a strikeout,” Crochet said. “It’s probably been four or five years. So I’m going to not probably sleep that well tonight.”
Even in a spring setting, it was Crochet’s first appearance without a strikeout since Sept. 27, 2023, with the White Sox—and his first in a spring outing since 2021 against the Brewers.
The left-hander leaned on soft contact, recording four ground-ball outs—one of them a double play—along with a pop-up.
“All’s well that ends well. Good outing, feel good,” Crochet said. “That’s really the main thing.”
A swing and a miss might be “the sexy thing,” as he put it, but it wasn’t what he was chasing in this one.
Garrett Crochet was up to 96.9 in his first inning of the spring. pic.twitter.com/9WUECmK4pQ— Tyler Milliken (@tylermilliken_) February 26, 2026
“Right now it’s all about timing, tempo and competing,” Crochet said. “Just trying to treat it as game-like as I can and just go ahead and get in that mind space of collecting outs efficiently, however those come. Obviously the four-pitch walk sucked. Kind of fell out of my rhythm there. I was able to get it back and had a pretty efficient second.”
Crochet expanded his repertoire over the offseason, adding a splitter to his pitch mix.
“I feel like right now it’s throwing it at game speed with fastball intensity and maintaining arm speed, maintaining hand speed. ... When I’m adding a new pitch, it tends to be a little bit robotic,” he said. “Kind of just like point A to point B. And I felt like I was able to stay fluid with my arm. So, yeah, it’s a net positive.”
His new pitch is similar to a sweeper but is a work in progress.
“The hitter’s going to tell you everything you need to know and whether I’m able to be competitive around the zone with it,” Crochet said. “For me, it’s a lot like the sweeper. Like I’m just trying to win below the zone. That’s, in my mind, executed. So with that being said, I ... guess that the one today wasn’t executed. But it felt good out my hand. Like I said, right now it’s very entry level. .... It’s not a pitch that I want to throw when I’m behind in the count by any means. It’s not going to be something that I feel like I fully rely on. But when I’m facing fairly right-handed heavy lineups, I think it’s a good weapon for me.”
Tolle’s World and We’re Just Living In It
Payton Tolle lit up social media on Thursday after the Red Sox shared a video of him doing a presentation about the United States.
“He did a better job in his presentation than on the diamond,” Alex Cora joked to reporters.
Tolle surrendered two runs on three hits, including a pair of doubles, and also uncorked a wild pitch while hitting two batters in Boston’s 7–5 win over Tampa Bay.
His pre-game clubhouse performance was impressive.
“I’ve done this before. No. 1 on my list,” Cora said. “We learned a lot about the United States of America today.”
Alex Corahas used this exercise before, previously asking Alex Verdugo to give a presentation on Mexico a few years back.
And now a presentation from Payton Tolle: pic.twitter.com/hHgEUeLtLR— Red Sox (@RedSox) February 26, 2026
“You’re here for two months, and trust me, there’s certain days that I’m like, ‘Man, what are we gonna do today?’” Cora said. “So we decided a few days ago that he was gonna give us a lesson on the United States of America.”
Given just a week to prepare, Tolle even secured a cameo from Joey Chestnut, the 17-time Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest champion, for his presentation.
“It was pretty electric,” Tolle said.
Tolle even shaved “USA” into his chest and presented part of it shirtless in front of teammates and staff.
While Noah Song (U.S. Naval Academy), Connelly Early(Army), and Eaton (Virginia Military Institute) may have seemed like obvious picks, Cora chose Tolle instead—confident he was “gonna kill it.”
Mayer Making Spring Debut
Marcelo Mayerbegins his push for an Opening Day roster spot Friday afternoon when he makes his spring debut.
Mayer missed the first week of Grapefruit League play while working his way back from wrist surgery last August. He’ll bat sixth against former Sox ace Chris Sale.
Against left-handed pitching, the 23-year-old managed just a .154 average with a .416 OPS across 27 plate appearances—a split that could factor into how he’s deployed this spring.
Mayer is competing for time at both second and third base and has taken reps at each position in camp. Caleb Durbinhas already seen Grapefruit League action and will rotate between the two spots as the Sox sort through their infield options.
If Mayer breaks camp with the club, he likely slots into a platoon role against southpaws alongside Andruw Monasterio and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Romy Gonzalezhad been the early frontrunner to split time at second base, but a sore shoulder now clouds his availability for the start of the season.
Marcelo Mayer destroys his first Major League home run 💥 pic.twitter.com/pPpL2TvfGd— MLB (@MLB) June 7, 2025
Cora made it clear Mayer’s roster spot won’t be gifted—he'll have to earn it.
“With Marcelo,” said Cora, “like I said yesterday or two days ago, we’ll give him the baton, but he has to run. You know, if he wants to be the starting second baseman in Cincinnati (on Opening Day), there’s a lot of work to do. It’s not a given that he’s a second baseman or third baseman for this team.
“There’s a lot of things that he needs to show us this spring, and we expect him to do that because he’s that talented, but at the same time, there’s a lot of guys here that can do the job.”
Through three spring games, Durbin is 2-for-7 (.286) with three RBI and a walk while splitting his defensive time between third (10 innings) and second base (five innings).
Cora hasn’t yet said who will start at third base and who will be at second when the season opens, but it’s notable that Durbin has mostly played third while Mayer has primarily worked at second so far this spring.
While Cora has made it clear Mayer must earn his spot, it would take a surprise to keep him off the roster. The projected infield includes Willson Contreras at first base, Trevor Storyat shortstop, Mayer, and Durbin, with matchup-based adjustments likely against left-handers.
Ailing Red Sox’ Players
Second baseman Brendan Rodgersunderwent an MRI on his right shoulder Thursday after injuring it on a diving play Wednesday afternoon. Rodgers, a former Gold Glove winner attempting to make the team as a non-roster invitee, said initial tests were promising. He noted his shoulder showed good stability and strength but was “pretty sore,” which prompted the imaging. Prior to the injury, Rodgers went 1-for-1 with a two-run single.
Signed to provide additional infield depth, Rodgers has played seven big-league seasons, most recently with the Houston Astros in 2025.
He missed significant time last year due to injury, first landing on the injured list with an oblique strain before suffering a severe concussion and multiple other injuries following a violent collision at second base during a rehab assignment. When healthy enough to play, Rodgers batted .191 with a .544 OPS in 43 games.
Patrick Sandoval and Kutter Crawfordare scheduled to throw live batting practice Friday—Sandoval for the third time this spring and Crawford for the first time since injuring his wrist last summer.
