Red Sox reach one-year deal with Kutter Crawford to avoid arbitration
The deadline for MLB clubs and arbitration-eligible players to exchange salary figures is this Thursday, and heading into the week the Red Sox had five players under team control who remained unsigned.
Tuesday morning the Red Sox were able to take care of business with one of those players with a couple of days to spare.
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The Red Sox announced they have reached a one-year deal with right-hander Kutter Crawford to avoid arbitration. A source confirmed the deal is for $2.75 million, which is the same as what Crawford was paid in 2025.
The club’s four remaining unsigned players are right-handers Tanner Houck and Johan Oviedo, utility player Romy Gonzalez and first baseman Triston Casas. If any of those players and the Red Sox don’t reach a deal by Thursday, the two sides will submit salary proposals to an arbitrator, who will determine the player’s salary for 2026.
Crawford is coming off a lost season in which he missed the entire year due to a series of injuries. The 29-year-old started the season on the injured list due to right patellar tendinopathy, which stemmed from a knee injury he pitched through for the majority of 2024 and aggravated during the offseason.
While rehabbing that injury, Crawford later suffered an unrelated right wrist injury that he said occurred while performing maintenance around his house. Crawford underwent season-ending surgery to reconstruct the stabilizing sheath of the extensor carpi ulnaris in early July and finished the year on the 60-day IL.
Prior to those injuries, Crawford enjoyed the best season of his MLB career, making a career-high 33 starts with 183.2 innings while posting a 4.36 ERA in 2024. Crawford is expected to be fully healthy in time for spring training and will be among those competing for one of the last spots in the Red Sox’s starting rotation.
