Kutter Crawford Makes Red Sox Opening Day Roster; Rich Hill Named No. 5 Starter
BOSTON (CBS) -- With Opening Day coming up on Thursday, Red Sox manager Alex Cora had some roster announcements to make on Monday. It was good news for righty reliever Kutter Crawford, with the 26-year-old making Boston's Opening Day roster.
Crawford will start the year as one of Boston's long relievers out of the bullpen, following an impressive spring where he's showed off an uptick in velocity. The 6-foot-1 righty has tossed four innings over three appearances, striking out eight while allowing just three hits. Crawford has held opposing hitters to just a .200 batting average against this spring.
A 16th-round pick by Boston in 2017, Crawford made his MLB debut for the Red Sox last season, earning a spot start in a Sept. 5 loss to the Cleveland Indians. He was hit for five runs over his two innings of work in his debut.
But Crawford put together a pretty good campaign in the minors in 2021, making 20 appearances between Worcester and Portland. He was 3-2 with a 3.30 ERA and 0.820 WHIP across 10 starts in Double-A, but was hit a little harder at the Triple-A level with a 5.21 ERA over 10 games (nine starts) with Worcester. He did rack up the strikeouts though, fanning 67 batters over 48.1 innings. He was 6-6 overall with a 4.28 ERA with 131 strikeouts over 94.2 innings in the minors last season.
Crawford will join Garrett Whitlock as one of Boston's long relievers, with Rich Hill slotting in as the No. 5 starter, Cora announced Monday. Hill has been hit hard this spring, allowing nine earned runs off 14 hits over 8.2 innings, so the Sox will likely need a few long options out of the bullpen to start the year. The hope will likely be that between Hill and either Whitlock and Crawford, the Red Sox can get seven innings out of whichever two they go with every fifth day.
Boston will start the season with a rotation of Nathan Eovaldi, Nick Pivetta, Tanner Houck, Michael Wacha and Hill. Whitlock could still slot into the rotation at some point this season, but will start the year in the bullpen.