{"id":395788,"date":"2026-01-06T18:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T18:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395788\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T18:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T18:08:09","slug":"red-sox-kutter-crawford-avoid-arbitration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395788\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox, Kutter Crawford Avoid Arbitration"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Red Sox announced they\u2019ve avoided arbitration with right-hander\u00a0Kutter Crawford<\/a>. Although the team did not disclose salary figures, Chris Cotillo of MassLive<\/a> reports that it\u2019s a $2.75MM deal. That matches last year\u2019s salary and the projection<\/a> from MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz.<\/p>\n

Crawford\u2019s salary was easy to predict. Arbitration prices generally climb each season, but that doesn\u2019t often happen when a player misses an entire year. In those situations, they\u2019ll typically sign for the same amount they made year before. Crawford follows that path and gets an easy bit of business complete before teams and players exchange filing figures on Thursday.<\/p>\n

A swingman over his first couple seasons, Crawford made 25 starts three years ago and took all 33 turns through the rotation during his last healthy season. He turned in a 4.36 earned run average over a team-leading 183 2\/3 innings in 2024. He posted better than average strikeout and walk numbers but was undone to an extent by a late-season home run spike. Crawford carried a flat 3.00 ERA into the All-Star Break but was tagged for 6.59 earned runs per nine in the second half. He would up leading the majors with 34 homers surrendered overall.<\/p>\n

Despite the shaky finish, Crawford was a lock for a season-opening rotation job had he gotten through Spring Training healthy. The Sox revealed that he had been pitching through right knee discomfort for most of the \u201924 campaign. Crawford entered camp behind schedule and started the season on the injured list. While working back from the knee issue in June, he sustained a right wrist injury that proved even more serious. Crawford underwent surgery that shut him down for the year.<\/p>\n

The salary is modest, so there was no doubt the Sox would tender him a contract. He may need to compete for a rotation spot in camp this time around. Garrett Crochet<\/a>,\u00a0Sonny Gray<\/a> and\u00a0Brayan Bello<\/a> are locked into the top three spots. The final two jobs are up for grabs among a number of pitchers.<\/p>\n

Patrick Sandoval<\/a> will be back after missing last season rehabbing elbow surgery. Boston liked Johan Oviedo<\/a> enough as a back-end arm to part with well-regarded rookie outfielder\u00a0Jhostynxon Garcia<\/a>. Top prospects Payton Tolle<\/a> and Connelly Early<\/a> debuted late in the season.\u00a0Kyle Harrison<\/a> is still in the mix after coming over in the\u00a0Rafael Devers<\/a> trade. Most of those pitchers, Crawford included, have minor league options remaining. He could head to Triple-A Worcester or begin the season in long relief if he doesn\u2019t win a rotation spot. Injuries are inevitable, so there\u2019ll be opportunity at some point.<\/p>\n

The Red Sox avoided arbitration with\u00a0Jarren Duran<\/a> and\u00a0Connor Wong<\/a> earlier in the offseason. They\u2019re awaiting resolution on\u00a0Tanner Houck<\/a>, Triston Casas<\/a>,\u00a0Romy Gonzalez<\/a>, and Oviedo. There\u2019ll be plenty of settlements over the next two days as teams and players look to avoid filing for hearings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Red Sox announced they\u2019ve avoided arbitration with right-hander\u00a0Kutter Crawford. Although the team did not disclose salary figures,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,211170,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-395788","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-kutter-crawford","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}