So what does 2025 have in store?
2024 in one sentence
A groundball pitcher who somehow wasn’t negatively impacted by Boston’s infield defense, Cooper Criswell had some decent stretches last year and potentially set himself for an important middle-reliever role in 2025.
The Positives
The one thing I can say about the Big Crisper himself is: by God he’s going to show up when you call on him! Will he show up with a great performance in tow? Not usually. But you bet he’ll be there, on that mound in Boston, or wherever the game may take him, ready to stand on that mound and throw some pitches. Need him to start a game at Coors Field in the middle of a season-ending skid in late July? You can count on him. Oh, you want to throw him in the bullpen coming right off the best start of his career? Sure thing!
Courtesy of Baseball Reference
There were plenty of positives for Criswell in his first full Major League year, and he adapted to role changes as Boston evolved over the course of the season and fought through a demotion or two to return to the big-league club. His cutter and sweeper played off of each other rather effectively as his two best put-away and swing-and-miss generating pitches, but his slider and sinker left something to be desired.
Hopefully this offseason gives Criswell a chance to refine this, even if just by ditching the slider (which he only threw for 1.9% of his total pitches) and tightening up his sinker location. He was a good middle-of-the-pack spot starter and mid-innings reliever for a Sox rotation and bullpen that saw a vast rotation of supporting cast members throughout the season.
The Negatives
One of the most similar pitchers compared to 2024 Cooper Criswell, according to Baseball Savant, is 2023 Julio Teheran… which is a comparison that absolutely no one wants to draw. I personally like to think of him as Dallas Keuchel somewhere in the middle of his incredible fall-off between 2019 and 2021. Both of them have terribly abysmal numbers on their breaking ball run values, both rely heavily on ground balls, and both cannot strike out a man or generate whiffs to save their lives. Basically, Criswell is Max Fried fell off a cliff and climbed about halfway back up (which may just be another way to describe Teheran, at this point, though he’s just forgotten how to throw a fastball over the past four years).
Courtesy of Baseball Savant
Courtesy of Baseball Savant
Courtesy of Baseball Savant
Will Criswell force people to swing and miss? You bet not. Will he limit exit velocity with his 49.5% GB%? Nope! But will he have an average fastball velocity in the bottom two percentile of the league? Hell yes, he will.
I can’t really dog on the guy too much because he was a form of comedic relief for me after the Red Sox completely fell off the map following his gem of an outing at Coors Field, but his Savant page sure is something to behold.
I will just be hoping and praying that he drops that weird slider over the offseason and that he uses the guidance of Andrew Bailey to develop that cutter/sweeper duo that played well together. I really don’t see Criswell regressing too terribly next season as he enters his second big league season with a whole offseason to prepare.
Best Moment
Hands down the best Cooper Criswell moment to ever exist is one that I was actually in attendance for! That July night in Denver, in the midst of the worst Red Sox stretch of the year, he saved the season for just one night.
NOTICE HOW HE DIDN’T USE HIS SLIDER AT ALL!!!!!!!! (Okay I’ll shut up now). It was a beautiful Denver night as I stood above the Red Sox bullpen as he warmed up, so really if you think about it, I probably gave him all the confidence to go out there and throw seven shutout innings. I saw Tyler O’Neill hit a home run that landed in the Rockies’ outfield forest right in front of me before I moved to my seats in left field, watched the sun set over the mountains, and listened to the guy next to me heckle Kris Bryant for the entirety of the game. It was really a great night.
Then I made the immense mistake of testing my undefeated streak of Red Sox at Rockies games by going to the Nick Pivetta day game following the nightcap. We won’t talk about what I experienced that day.
The Big Question
Can he be a reliable middle-inning reliever for a team that desperately needs a group to step up in 2025 and give them solid stints between Boston’s starters and late-game relievers?
2025 and Beyond
Similarly to Justin Slaten, Criswell’s role in 2025 will just be to develop on what he showed in his first full major league season. With guidance from Andrew Bailey, I think it’s genuinely appropriate to expect an improvement from Criswell in the upcoming season, even if it’s likely his spot-starting role will go away with increasing team options. He’s still in the pre-arbitration period of his career and won’t even start arbitration until 2027. Even though he’s already 28, the Red Sox have great upside with these automatic years of control and certainly will be able to develop him if wanted. I think he could be a key middle reliever in this upcoming season and beyond, especially considering whatever goes on with Garrett Whitlock and his health during this period. Even though his starting role will most likely disappear in 2025 (well, I’m currently praying that Boston signs another arm and doesn’t leave Criswell or Richard Fitts slotted as important members of the rotation), the versatility that Criswell showed this season increases his value and will most likely give him the opportunity for spot starts or roles as an opener for a bullpen game to be grabbed in the future. He’s nothing flashy, he’s sometimes frustrating, and he’s not very consistent performance-wise, but like I said in my introduction, he will be wherever the Red Sox need him to be, and that’s a big plus for a Boston team that has been lacking reliable personnel as of late.