Amid contract changes, injured ace Garrett Crochet hopes reverse engineer a playoff return to Red Sox

Amid the Red Sox’ revival, injured ace Garrett Crochet approached the training staff Tuesday to make a pitch: Come up with a plan that would get him back on the mound in time for the playoffs.

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Working backward off a specific goal like that is a dangerous game to play, Crochet conceded. That was what he tried to do in May, without publicly revealing his target date; it backfired when he suffered a setback.

Lately, though, Crochet has wondered: If not now, when?

Already, he is three months into a left shoulder saga that he and the Sox initially thought was a mere blip. There are no guarantees that he will pitch again this year. The clock is ticking.

“We’re trying to kind of, I suppose, reverse-engineer it,” Crochet said in an interview with the Globe, referencing the creation of a schedule by deciding on the end date first. “I’m a goal-driven guy. If I see a deadline, I’m going to [expletive] meet it. It is tough to operate like that, especially after the setback that has already occurred. So there is, I guess, trepidation there.”

He feels compelled to try, though. Otherwise, these weeks of behind-the-scenes work would be for naught.

“Then it kind of goes into the realm of, what the [expletive] is the point of building up the strength now?” Crochet said. “I intend on having further conversations with the training staff, whether it be today or this week, in terms of firming up a plan.”

That these are the terms with which Crochet is wrestling in his attempted comeback is jarring. In late April, when sidelined with what he called “just some fatigue” and the Red Sox described as shoulder inflammation, he thought he would miss a couple of weeks. In late May, when he dealt with a related lat issue, he said he “doesn’t feel like it even deserves that title” of a setback.

In the nearly two months since, Crochet has made little tangible progress. For a while, he was throwing plyometric weighted balls — “plyos,” in baseball shorthand — which is a prelude to throwing actual baseballs.

But in early July, the Red Sox had him stop doing even that so he could focus on strengthening his shoulder, specifically the rotator cuff.

The rotator cuff supports the shoulder capsule, which is what is injured, Crochet said. He has a history of capsule issues — he dealt with it in 2023, as he worked his way back to the White Sox staff after Tommy John surgery — so he and the club have been ultra-careful.

“I know-ish what to expect [because of that background],” Crochet said. “But I was building up to throw one inning [as a reliever at the time], so it was a little bit different. We weren’t shooting for the playoffs, so it was a lot different.”

The playoffs are the major marker on Crochet’s mental calendar because of the runway required. Once he is cleared to throw — not imminent — he’ll need a spring training-esque six weeks or so, maybe longer. If he started now, he’d be looking at early September.

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That is why the mind wanders to October, should the Red Sox get there.

“Just kind of playing it by ear, which sucks to say on the record, but right now that’s kind of all we have to go off of,” he said.

The postseason aspirations raise plenty of other questions.

Would he need to pitch in a regular-season game first, to avoid the dramatic shift from minor-league ball to the sport’s biggest stage?

Would the Sox feel comfortable putting him out there, given what would be a five-month layoff?

Would he be effective in that setting after sitting out so long?

“The questions that you’re asking are questions that are swirling in my brain that I’m trying to find the answer to as well,” Crochet said. “Obviously, confidence in myself. But it’s not going to be up to me when the time comes.

“Worst-case scenario, I’m not ready. Second-worst-case scenario is I’m throwing, but it’s dog [expletive], like it was at the beginning of the year. I don’t want to be out there to be a warm body, especially with the way that the guys, the whole staff, has been performing.”

Another thread of all this: Crochet’s injury is about to change his contract.

Included in the six-year, $170 million deal he signed last year, and which started this year, is a clause intended to protect the Red Sox against a scenario such as the current one.

If Crochet spends 120 consecutive days on the injured list because of an arm problem, his ability to opt out following the 2030 season would be erased, and instead the Sox would get a $15 million team option for 2032.

Crochet will reach 120 days on Aug. 23. Returning before then would “probably be impossible,” he said.

“It sucks, but I mean, what’s the worst thing that happens? I’m in Boston for another year? Which is pretty good. This is a place that I wanted to be,” Crochet said. “That was a clause that was kind of helping the team mitigate the risk, I suppose. And they knew that there was risk. I knew that there was risk. Last year, it’s like, am I outperforming [his salary]? Or does it matter? And now I get hurt, and it’s like, I’m glad that I secured the protection.

“What I felt when I signed the contract was that I wanted to outperform the deal. So it sucks, but there’s still time.”

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