For Garrett Crochet, a change of Sox was all it took to change everything

The grass looked greener. The air smelled sweeter.

A change of Sox was all it took to change everything for young All-Star pitcher Garrett Crochet.

From Day 1 of Red Sox spring training in Fort Myers, Florida, Crochet palpably sensed the differences from his overall experience with the White Sox. Winning aspirations and a sense of urgency could be felt in the clubhouse and on the practice fields. Camp abounded with veterans, among them a pair of big-name newcomers — starting pitcher Walker Buehler and third baseman Alex Bregman — with multiple World Series rings.

A pretty big-time guy himself, Crochet was where he belonged.

‘‘It felt like the big leagues, you know?’’ he said Friday, back at Rate Field with his new team and lined up to face his old one Sunday.

If that statement was, in part, a backhanded swipe at the White Sox, Crochet delivered it ever so subtly.

But his 6-6, 245-pound, 100-mph-throwing presence on the South Side at a time when the sad-sack Sox staggered home from a winless road trip with a pathetic 2-10 record spoke loudly.

And here’s what it was saying:

In White Sox world, inhabitants are supposed to be excited because infielder Chase Meidroth — one of the prospects received in the December trade of Crochet — was called up Friday to make his major-league debut. Try to contain yourselves if you can. These Sox are expert at only one thing, and that’s kicking the can down the road. An organization that shamefully never has signed a player to a contract larger than Andrew Benintendi’s $75 million deal is stuck on the Rebuild-o-Meter somewhere between ‘‘oblivion’’ and ‘‘the eternal abyss.’’

But the Red Sox — ‘‘the big leagues,’’ remember — aren’t about that small-time life. They gave Crochet the six-year, $170 million extension the White Sox wouldn’t after the first start of his debut season in Boston. They saw a 2020 first-round draft pick blowing up into a straight-up superstar and didn’t need to ask any more questions.

‘‘We know the type of pitcher he is and what he’s going to grow into,’’ Red Sox manager Alex Cora said.

‘‘There’s not too many [young lefty starters] in our league like him. There’s [Tarik Skubal] in Detroit, and the other one is right here.’’

Crochet’s second start made him the talk of Boston, not that Jayson Tatum and the Celtics are going to let that stand with the NBA playoffs almost here. In Baltimore, Crochet tore through the Orioles for eight scoreless innings, striking out eight and walking only one. Buehler, a former Dodger and a two-time All-Star himself, watched from the dugout with something close to wonder.

‘‘I thought, ‘franchise cornerstone,’ ’’ Buehler said. ‘‘We did a really great job of locking him up. He’s going to be great here for a long time.’’

But he was supposed to be great in Chicago, a reporter pointed out. Hard to imagine letting go of a rising talent like that?

‘‘You don’t get to pick who drafts you, right?’’ Buehler said. ‘‘Some of us get lucky that way. Some of us don’t.’’

Extension talks in Chicago ‘‘never really got off the ground,’’ according to Crochet. Not that anyone expected they would. The tanking Sox lost a modern-record 121 games last season. The torn-down-to-the-studs roster this season might fare even worse.

Let’s just say it didn’t break Crochet’s heart to leave.

‘‘Our playoff run was four years ago,’’ he said, referring to the 2021 postseason. ‘‘For me, it was not very hard to move on, honestly.’’

After the All-Star Game last season in Arlington, Texas, Crochet was one of the last American Leaguers to leave the stadium. With most teammates showered, dressed and gone, Crochet — still in his game pants — hung around outside the clubhouse with family and friends, celebrating. There weren’t enough pictures in the world to mark the occasion.

A lurking scribe asked him in that special moment if the prospect of playing for a better team before long was a light at the end of the tunnel.

‘‘It is,’’ he admitted.

Fast-forward to the home opener at Fenway Park, started and won by Buehler.

‘‘Nothing against Chicago,’’ Crochet said, ‘‘but that home opener was electric. That was one of the coolest games I’ve been a part of.’’

Given the chance, he’ll say good things about his time with the White Sox.

‘‘It was great; I loved it,’’ he said. ‘‘The organization that drafts you, people say, typically treats you the best.’’

That’s nice.

‘‘But being over here in Boston,’’ he added, ‘‘the love is the exact same.’’

A backhanded swipe again? No, no. Just a guy who’s where he belongs.

‘‘Happy to be a Boston Red Sock,’’ he said.

The change that changed everything.