With Garrett Crochet taking the mound yesterday, I used to be reminded of how thrilling it was to have two new stars on the 2025 Crimson Sox. Attending to know a brand new star — notably an ace pitcher — is without doubt one of the most fun issues baseball followers get to do over the course of 162 video games.
The Crimson Sox have introduced in quite a lot of new expertise for 2026. However I’m undecided the time period “thrilling” is an efficient match for any of Sonny Grey, Ranger Suárez, or Willson Contreras. All of them fall nearer to the “superb” bucket than the “nice” one, they usually’ve all been round for therefore lengthy that the majority Sox followers are already fairly aware of them. For a participant to be really “thrilling” I feel there needs to be a component of the unknown, a way that watching that participant carries the opportunity of discovery.
So the query of the day is: which participant are you most excited to look at on the 2026 Crimson Sox?
The simple reply might be the man most of us anticipate to be the perfect participant on the 2026 Crimson Sox: Roman Anthony. And on this case, the straightforward might be the suitable reply. Nevertheless it’s price contemplating that we did already get an prolonged take a look at Roman final 12 months, and we already received an inexpensive thought at simply how good he already is. He’s not essentially an unknown. There’s arguably extra room for the opportunity of discovery in guys like Marcelo Mayer, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Wilyer Abreu, all of whom have extra query marks of their recreation than Anthony.
Possibly the reply is, as soon as once more, Garrett Crochet. There’s much less to find with him, however he additionally has the potential to be the only finest pitcher on the planet, which is what made Pedro essentially the most thrilling participant on the Crimson Sox for years.
However for me, I’m going with this man:
Payton Tolle’s debut in opposition to Paul Skenes final 12 months was simply my favourite recreation of the season. And whereas his subsequent struggles present that he’s not fairly able to be penciled into the highest half of a giant league rotation — and certain received’t even begin with the large league workforce — I’ll be glued to each pitch he throws in hopes that we’ll see extra of that magic from him. That is the man I need to watch greater than anybody else.
Discuss that and no matter else you need and, as all the time, be good to 1 one other.
