An Ocean Springs product has gone from a late bloomer to a 1st-round MLB Draft pick
Garrett Crochet has gone from a late bloomer at Ocean Springs High School to a first-round selection in the MLB Draft in the span of three years.
The 6-foot-6, 220-pound left-handed pitcher for the Tennessee Volunteers was taken by the Chicago White Sox as the 11th overall selection on Wednesday night.
“I knew kind of going into the draft that they were showing some interest,” Crochet said Wednesday night in a video conference with media. “They liked my profile and what I bring to the table. There’s not much I know about the White Sox, but there’s a lot I’m excited to learn and it’s a culture I’m excited to join.”
Crochet hit 91 miles per hour on a radar gun in June of 2017 after graduating from OSHS, drawing his first interest from Division I programs. A little less than a month later, he verbally committed to Tennessee.
He put on over 30 pounds after arriving in Knoxville and now has a blazing fastball that stays around 96-100.
“When Garrett walked on campus, the first pitch he threw at Tennessee was probably 84, 85 miles an hour,” White Sox scouting director Mike Shirley told media Wednesday night. “Now he’s anywhere from 95-100 miles an hour. It’s a testament to his work at the University of Tennessee.”
In a Baseball America poll of MLB scouts, Crochet was picked as having the best fastball for a draft-eligible pitcher in college baseball.
Crochet pitched in just one game as a junior after the COVID-19 pandemic ended the 2020 campaign early at Tennessee. A bout with arm soreness limited his time on the mound this past season.
Over his three seasons with the Volunteers he was 10-9 with 4.77 ERA in 35 games — 12 starts. He struck out 143 and walked 48 in 132 innings.
The pandemic caused MLB to shrink its draft from 40 to five rounds, but Crochet thinks that move didn’t impact his landing spot in the draft.
“I feel like overall everybody was kind of all hurt by the same thing going on,” he said. “I ended up where I was supposed to end up. I have an organization that believes in me. I have an organization that just wants to see me be as good as I can be.”
This marks the second time that Crochet has been drafted after the Milwaukee Brewers took him in the 34th round of the 2017 MLB Draft.
This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 7:54 PM.
