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Wilyer Abreu # of the Boston Red Sox.

Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet dominated in his first season in Boston, winning 18 of his 32 starts while being charged with just five losses and registering a 2.59 ERA, while leading the Majors in strikeouts with 255. But his most important stat may have been another category in which he led the American League — innings pitched.

Crochet threw 205 1/3 innings. Only Logan Webb of the San Francisco Giants logged more, with 207.

For Crochet, that was an average of 6.42 innings per start, and in fact, he started only one game all season in which he lasted less than five innings. That came on August 11 in Houston when the Astros reached Crochet for five earned runs in four innings before manager Alex Cora removed him from the game.

But that game was the outlier in Crochet’s season, as his presence on the mound did more to preserve Boston’s bullpen arms than any other starter.

Minus Crochet, Red Sox starters averaged only 5.06 innings per start.

Reds Can Trade for Bat From ‘Glut of Pitching’

When Boston’s chief of baseball operations Craig Breslow goes shopping for a new starter in the offseason, as he has pledged to do, one of his top priorities is certain to be fiding a pitcher who can pitch reliable innings.

On Friday, the hosts of the Locked on Red Sox and Locked on Reds podcasts proposed a potential offseason trade designed to increase the reliability of Boston’s starting rotation and reduce some of the bullpen’s workload — while also giving the offense-starved Reds a power boost at the plate.

“The Reds have a glut of pitching. They have a need of hitting, so you trade from your glut to get what you need. Trade from strength to fix your weakness,” Locked on Reds host Jeff Carr said on the “crossover” podcast. “I think they trade Brady Singer at some point this offseason. And I think that Brady Singer, while his performance is not near as sexy as Hunter Green, is very, very reliable. Dude’s pitched a ton over the last couple of years and he has remained durable through it all.”

The 29-year-old, six-year veteran Singer was a first-round pick, 18th overall, of the Kansas City Royals out of Florida in 2018. The Royals dealt the former Gator to Cincinnati after the 2024 season, in the deal that brought 2021 National League Rookie the Year Jonathan India to Kansas City.

Red Sox Can Send Prolific Power Bat For Singer

Singer made 32 starts this season, for the second year in a row, throwing 169 2/3 innings in the process — an average of 5.3 per start. That’s not Crochet’s level of durability, but it would have made him the most durable starter on the Boston staff in 2025 other than the lefty ace.

According to Locked on Red Sox host Gabby Maljanian, the most likely candidate to be shipped Cincinnati’s way in exchange for Singer would be third-year right fielder Wilyer Abreu, who belted 22 home runs in 2025 despite bing limited by injuries to just 373 at bats.

Abreu’s rate of one homer every 17 official at-bats would have easily made him the most productive power threat on the Reds this year. Shortstop Elly De La Cruz also hit 22 home runs, but took 629 at-bats to do it.

The Red Sox outfielder’s 3.2 WAR number was only slightly behind De La Cruz’s team-leading 3.6, but again, Abreu did it in 47 fewer games played.

Abreu also won a Gold Glove in 2024 and has been named a finalist in right field this year.

“If the Reds value something like that, if they value having a solidified defender to play right field every day, Wilyer is going to give you that,” Maljanian said on the podcast. “And he’s also going to bring the bat.”

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. He was a sports editor and writer at The Daily Yomiuri in Tokyo, Japan, covering Japan Pro Baseball, boxing, sumo and other sports. More about Jonathan Vankin

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