Baseball has always been a breeding ground for some of the best nicknames in human history, and pitchers often have the best of them.
Randy Johnson was The Big Unit. Tim Lincecum was The Freak. Walter Johnson was The Big Train. Sandy Koufax was The Left Arm of God. Greg Maddox was The Professor. Nolan Ryan was The Ryan Express. On and on.
Each of these pitchers was a unique individual with a distinct, memorable personality. There will never be another Johnson, Lincecum, Koufax, Maddox or Ryan. They became larger than life as they took on their nicknames.
But one of the best, most iconic nicknames among active players is a God-given, parent-administered, government name.
Kutter Crawford had to have been born with a baseball destiny.
I mean come on. He literally has the same name as a pitch, and one of the best ones at that.
Crawford doesn’t know if his parents actually named him after the cutter, but given that the only spelling difference from the pitch is replacing the C with a K, also the notation for a swinging strikeout, I think there’s a pretty good chance that his father, an avid baseball fan, had the national pastime on his mind when brainstorming name ideas for his second son. I bet Neal Crawford would have put a backwards-K on little Kutter’s birth certificate if he could.
As one would hope, Kutter does throw a cutter. He developed it while pitching at Florida Gulf Coast University, and six months after first throwing the pitch there, which helped him dominate his lone season at FGCU, later the Boston Red Sox drafted him in the 16th round.
That career path had destiny written all over it. Crawford was drafted by the Sox at the same time that Chris Sale was the ace of Boston’s rotation. Sale, who is also an FGCU alum, has served as a mentor and friend to Crawford throughout his career. Their relationship has been mutually beneficial to their pitching careers. Crawford has established himself as a mainstay in the Sox rotation, and Sale will likely take home the NL Cy Young for the Atlanta Braves this year.
In 2024, Crawford had perhaps the most confusing season of any pitcher in baseball this season. The title of a Red Sox Reddit page created towards the end of the season sums it up pretty well I think. It’s called “Kutter Crawford - name a better 8-15 pitcher in recent six history.”
I assume six was a typo and the Reddit poster meant Sox. Also, the record isn’t up to date: Crawford finished the season with a 9-16 record. But the sentiment holds.
Crawford was one of the most reliable starters for the Sox all season in 2024, making every single turn in the rotation and setting career-best marks in starts with 33, innings pitched with 183.2, strikeouts with 175, WHIP with 1.12 and opponents batting average with .223.
But he also lost 16 games. That was the most on the Red Sox. He also led the majors with 34 homers surrendered and his 4.36 ERA wasn’t exactly All-World. Crawford has said he wants to improve on locating pitches in 2024 and also build up his velocity.
If he can do that, having a full, effective arsenal with his deceptive, short-arm delivery, he’s a good candidate to start seeing those numbers improve.
And regardless, it will always be a joy to see a dude named Kutter start with his arm coiled up near his head and in the blink of an eye unfurl his arm, flick his wrist and unleash a cutter that makes the batter swing and whiff.
It’s just a perfect representation of what makes the culture of the game of baseball great.