Nathan Eovaldi returned to free agency when he declined a $20MM player option with the Rangers. Reports quickly tied him to the Braves, but Atlanta is one of a number of teams involved. Rob Bradford of WEEI tweets that Eovaldi’s camp has heard from roughly a dozen teams, the Red Sox among them.
Eovaldi spent five seasons with the Sox, totaling 461 2/3 innings of 4.05 ERA ball. He had a fantastic postseason in 2018 to help Boston win the World Series. Eovaldi returned on a $68MM free agent deal on the heels of the championship. He generally lived up to the contract, most notably finishing fourth in AL Cy Young balloting in 2021. Eovaldi departed after the ’22 season, declining a qualifying offer before accepting a two-year, $34MM guarantee with the Rangers.
That positioned the righty to win a second ring. Eovaldi made 25 starts with a 3.63 ERA as Texas won the World Series in 2023. The Rangers disappointed this year, though that wasn’t any fault of his. Eovaldi fired 170 2/3 innings across 29 starts, working to a 3.80 earned run average with solid peripherals. He punched out nearly 24% of batters faced while issuing free passes at just a 6% rate. His fastball still checked in around 95-96 MPH on average, while he picked up swinging strikes on an excellent 13% of his pitches.
There aren’t many better free agent starting pitchers in the short term. Eovaldi turns 35 in February. He’ll be limited to two or at most three years, but he’s well positioned to cash in on annual basis. The previous qualifying offer made him ineligible for one this time around. There’s no draft compensation weighing down his market. Eovaldi should land behind Sean Manaea and Yusei Kikuchi, both of whom are two years younger, among high-AAV starters available for relatively short terms.
Boston probably has some level of interest in all the top starters. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow spoke at the GM Meetings about the need to “raise the ceiling” in the rotation. Boston has solid depth with Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, a returning Lucas Giolito, and the likes of Richard Fitts and Cooper Criswell. They’re awaiting word from Nick Pivetta on the $21.05MM qualifying offer, though he’s seemingly leaning against the QO as he looks for multiple years.
The Sox are among the most obvious fits for the Corbin Burnes, Blake Snell and Max Fried tier in free agency. Bradford suggests that the true top-of-the-market arms remain the Sox’s biggest focus, but Eovaldi represents one of the biggest available upgrades among the middle tier of free agents.
He’d be an excellent fit in Atlanta working alongside Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez, Spencer Schwellenbach, and either Griffin Canning or AJ Smith-Shawver until Spencer Strider comes back into the fold.
Sale, Strider, Eovaldi, Lopez, and Schwellenbach would be an excellent starting five for the Braves, and they’d have plenty of starting depth to help limit some of these guys innings with Canning, AJSS, Elder, Waldrep, Holmes, R.Salinas, Vines, Winans, Dodd, etc.
Canning is most likely being non-tendered and I doubt Strider pitches at all in 2025. I agree that Eovaldi would be a nice pickup for them but they really need 2 durable SP.
Rich – He would be a great fit on any contender.
So Strider is going to miss all of 2025 after getting UCL surgery in early 2024?
Brother, he’s expected back in the first half of 2025. What are you talking about? Also, why would the Braves non-tender him when they could have just given up Soler for nothing? AA likes depth.
As much as i liked Eovaldi and he was a horse for them in the ’18 Championship run, Pivetta to Eovaldi seems to be a lateral moves
lateral move if the best way to describe that and at least Pivetta doesn’t get hurt nearly as much as Eovaldi
The stats are similar but Eovaldi not only has postseason success he has postseason success on the Red Sox.
And eovaldi doesn’t have the same durability history as Pivetta. They both could still get injured but one has a much higher propensity for it.
What good did Pivettas durability do you in 2024? The Red Sox should be trying to get better not stay the same.
Signing Eovaldi is staying the same. that doesn’t help the sox get better and may actually make them worse.
Eovaldi help the Red Sox win a championship and then helped the Rangers do the same. He might make them worse but he might make them better. Pivetta is meh.
Of course at this point the Sox have interest. A lot depends on whether Pivetta accepts the QO. Neither will stop them from pursuing a #1,
Sure he helped the sox 5 years ago. While it might not stop them from pursing an ace it’s still not a good use of resources
It’s not like he’s getting a five year deal. Money well spent in my view (either Pivetta one year QO of Eovaldu two year $45m deal
The Red Sox should be trying to get better not stay the same.
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Eovaldi is better than Pivetta by at least a decent margin. But the main idea is the trickle down theory. Assuming that we still plan on signing a #1, adding Eovaldi pushes probably Criswell to the BP. And if Pivetta stays, then that pushes Crawford to the BP.
If either Eovaldi or Pivetta become our #5, that’s money in the bank.
Respectfully disagree Joe. Pivetta’s numbers and Eovaldi’s numbers aren’t all that dissimilar and what helps close the gap for Pivetta is his durability. Frankly the red sox can and should do better than both even if one gets bounced to the five spot.
You aren’t counting on Giolito pitching?
I forgot about Giolito.
Assuming you just spent 21 million dollars on your 5th starter is a bold assumption, one that will probably lead to disappointment
Acell10 = Since the start of 2021 Eovaldi is ahead 106 to 105 in games started. Both are fairly durable starters in today’s world. Your comments about Eovaldi really applied more to the years before he came to Boston.
What puts Eovaldi ahead of Pivetta for me is the clutch gene. In a big game, I’ll take Eovaldi but both would be excellent choices if we were looking for a SP3 but I think we need a SP1 and SP2 so Breslow should aim higher and hope the owners are willing to pay more for a better resume.
Rsox – Nate is a big game pitcher, that’s the difference between him and Nick … no offense to Nick.
Two points : firstly any team that is supposedly contending will check in on the top tier and second tier FAs. Simply to judge AAV and wants . As each year is different . Secondly , in this modern baseball , where pitchers who do 30 plus starts and 200 IP are NO LONGER the norm…you can’t rely on 5 or even 6 starters – so signing him would only strengthen the team whatever Pivetta decides.
There are other intangibles such as veteran presence for the this very young rotation ,knowledge of the club (Fenway, fans and media) and Post season success which non of the young kids have “really” had .
Would it be a bad sign ? No, not on paper . A Great one ? No , he is too old to build around . A Good one. ? In my opinion, yes for the reasons mentioned above .
If Pivetta coming back means the Red Sox don’t sign a starter like Snell is it still a good signing?
That’s what I thought…….
If Pivetta takes the QO my guess is the interest in Eovaldi drops and all the focus shifts to top of the rotation pitchers and the pen. As things stand it looks like the team is interested in signing 2 starters, a top level guy and someone in the second tier which could be retaining Pivetta or could be guys like Eovaldi, Buehler, Bieber etc. I don’t think on any “drawing board” is the team’s plan to be content with 2 guys from that second tier.
What if Pivetta is the top tier guy? Then it doesn’t seem like such a good idea to give him the qualifying offer does it.
This is why teams don’t give guys like Pivetta 21 million. Because they have a budget and guys like Pivetta aren’t worth 21 million……
Again, Pivetta is in the second tier level, not a top tier guy. There’s no way anyone in the Sox FO is delusional enough to consider Pivetta a top tier pitcher.
They just offered him 21 million. So they obviously think highly of him. Sonny Gray was runner up in the 2023 Cy Young award and got a backloaded 3 year 75 million dollar deal last offseason. Thats barely more than Pivetta will make in 2025 if he accepts the offer.
You can say giving Pivetta the qualifying offer makes sense but the moment you realize the team has a budget it doesn’t make sense.
You have no idea what the Red Sox budget is for next season.
And neither do you. But I do know that Nick Pivetta isn’t worth 21 million a year.
We have yet to see what the market says he is worth. We do know that teams usually need to pay extra for a one-year deal. So, $21M for a one-year contract is not that outrageous in my opinion.
Who is better Sonny Gray or Nick Pivetta?
It’s not even close. A 1 year deal is nice because it keeps you from having an albatross of a contract for years and years. But its bad because it’s 21 million and that’s money that could be spent elsewhere.
If Marcus Stroman can get a 2 year/$37M contract which is $18.5M per year, then $21M is not outrageous for one year of Pivetta. We can play this all day.
3 year 75 million dollar deal last offseason. Thats barely more than Pivetta will make in 2025 if he accepts the offer.
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I actually think $75M is a lot more than $21M. Duration counts heavily with pitchers. To me, it is the same as Christian Walker. I’d prefer to pay him $25M/1 than $60M/3.
$21M is mid-tier money these days, especially on a one year deal.
KingKen – While I agree they shouldn’t consider them a top tier guy, we really never hear from them as to which tier they are. That’s the scary part. Who was the last top tier SP contracted by Boston? Most would say Sale but that may not be what the front office thinks since they have done so many incredibly bizarre and illogical contracts.
You have more faith in the front office than I do. I’ve watched them sign everything from Perez to Kluber to Giolito coming off two bad years. I find it hard to guess their next move.
All – I’m guessing you don’t either. Is that fair? I put it at something below the CAP but there is about $100Million dollar range of possibilities. I think we all wish we knew. Many hope for a bigger number than recent years and many are pessimistic that it will be less than last year. Only time will tell.
Blackpink – I second your comment even though I like Pivetta. We need a SP1 and SP2 so discussions about Pivetta should be off the table considering what is needed. The unfortunate fact is that these are the discussions happening rather than focusing on our real needs. This is the same story we’ve gotten for four years. A promise of change and no change.
All – Why take your shot at a guy below what you need? That’s a terrible front office strategy and it’s a sign that improvement from new contracts doesn’t seem likely.
Correct. I don’t know the Red Sox budget for next season. I think it will be somewhere over $200M as it has been. How far over? We need to wait and see.
Blackpink – I completely agree with what you are saying but I do have one issue with Sonny Gray. Sonny came to NY and choked. It could be the pitching coaches in NY that caused the problem many pitchers have had in NY or some guys just don’t play well on a big stage. My question is Boston still a big stage or has the quality of play in Boston since Dombrowski left dropped so dramatically that Sonny wouldn’t feel the pressure he felt in NY? That’s the ONLY issue I have with Sonny. He’s a great pitcher.
They can still sign two good pitchers. Crawford can move to the bullpen or be traded. Actually, Pivetta could move to the bullpen where he has done very well.
Stroman was coming off a better year and has had much more career success than Pivetta.
Do you think Pivetta is worth 21 million? Weird how you didn’t mention that.
Gray didn’t like New York and he does like St Louis. So no i don’t think Gray specifically makes sense for Boston. Jordan Montgomery might but he’s risky. I would take Montgomery over Pivetta though.
So now he’s a 21 million dollar arm for the pen? Dude come on.
Incorrect. In 2023, before Stroman signed his 2 year/$37M deal, he had a 3.95 ERA over 136.2 IP with 119 K’s. Pivetta is now coming off a year where he had a 4.14 ERA over 145.2 IP with 172 K’s. These are very similar years.
$21M may be a bit of an overpay for Pivetta, but it is only one year and not the big problem you are making it out to be. One year deals often involve a bit of an overpay.
He had a better year and LIKE I SAID had much more career success.
I think Pivetta is worth roughly $20M/1yr or $45M/3yrs. The first year is generally more valuable than the out years on a free agent signing, partly because the player has less time to get injured/decline and partly because you can know the team needs with greater certainty.
I also believe Pivetta would be the #3 pitcher in the rotation, moving down to #4 if a true ace is signed. I don’t have much confidence in the two guys behind him.
Over the last two years, Pivetta and Stroman are very similar in ERA, innings pitched and FIP. Also, Pivetta is almost 2 years younger than Stroman.
hard hard hard pass on Eovaldi for the sox. They don’t need a pitcher who misses a third to half of his starts almost every year.
He made 29 starts last season and 25 in the season prior. He made all 32 starts in 2021 for Sox
I noticed you left off the other two full years he was with the sox. He misses time every year and often significant portions. And as someone said above he’d be at best a lateral move from pivettta.
WHen he pitches like Clemens for 75% of the season, you do need the pitcher.
the next time he does that will be the first time he does that.
Time to play Boston bingo with Free agents! Players Boston is showing an interest in. Who has Evoldi on their card?
Will go well with the Red Sox’ upcoming Soto signing. Soto will destroy Fenway. Also don’t be surprised if he’s effectively patrolling CF in 2-3 years once he’s finally allowed some time to work on his defense a little bit (already arguably underrated)
Heard it here first.
Soto is already on a plane to Toronto.
Lol
Why does Soto brag that he has been working on his knuckleball and can come out of the bullpen occasionally to increase his value.
600+ M how is he supposed to feed his family on that paltry sum. Geez. Poor Guy. Let’s start a GoFund Me on his behalf.
Here’s an Idea Why doesn’t MLB try an open auction to get all FAs signed before Thanksgiving.
Pay per View?
And then they can use the rest of the offseason to make trades
Hot Stove Disruptors Climb Aboard the Crazy Train.
Editing – Should have been – – –
Why ___doesn’t ___ Soto brag ….
Fwiw soto hit 182 in fenway this year
the only thing upcoming is your next meal when you read the Yankees sign Soto.
Will the Yankees pay Soto more than Judge? And will Judge be ok with that?
I know he will state all is hunky-dory, publicly.
If you believe the Red Sox are going to sign Juan Soto, then you’re a bigger troll than I am.
Eovaldi is a great signing IF it’s coupled with a TOR pitcher. Looks like Pivetta will be walking away from his QO so this is his replacement potentially. So it’s a 2 part deal for me. Get Burnes, Eovaldi, a right handed hitting 3B and tell Whitlock he’s the permanent closer. That’s a really good off-season right there….
TOR is definitely a need. But SP 2 thru 5 there’s team options already in place for the next couple of years. Love Eovaldi but he’s not a TOR and he’s gonna get a couple of year deal. For 2025, if looking for SP depth get someone on a one year deal. Looks like a Morton type could be that guy.
The thing GMs can’t really be sure about is does the player have a location preference, interest on not having negotiations drag on as long as you get fairly close to the total $ they are looking for. Total years, front loaded, backloaded, extra incentives for hitting certain goals like IPs.,
The GM might be able to sort of read between the lines talking to the player and agent and get a sense if interest is strong or they just kicking the tires, slow walk negotiation to drive up the price of another team. Neither side wants to get played and/or leave $ on the table. A player may have a short list of 3 or so teams they have a preference for
I bet many players have short memories about how some Boras clients may have outsmarted themselves last offseason.
Love the Natester!!! A true big game pitcher but for what it’s worth Nick was solid vs Tampa/ excellent vs Houston and again vs Washington to get into the dance.. back in 21 I believe… small sample but still no slouch…
olm – Absolutely! It’s no knock on Nick, it’s just Nasty Nate is one of the best big game pitchers in MLB.
Not that the Sox have been in many big games over the past 6 years. LOL!!
Plus he seems to do well vs Yankees… or At least when Nate was with us he did…
olm – Yeah who could forget the 2021 ALWC when Nate shined and Cole flopped.
Orioles
Too many Injuries…. No thanks
Sox need two arms. A TOR starter and a durable lefty, regardless of Pivetta’s choice (he’s a long guy and depth starter at best). Ownership is never going to give 5-7 yrs (at any market price) to Burnes or Fried.
My problem with Analytics Guys (not the spreadsheets themselves) is the lack of creativity in their team building beyond reclamation projects..
Want to solve the pitching problem and OF glut at the same time? Jarren Duran and non-Top Four prospect to Mariners for Luis Castillo. The Mariners can dump salary, and keep their 5 best young controllable arms. Castillo has 3yrs at $24mm per left. now, thats a bargain
Sad – Good post, but hard no on Castillo. Look at his H/R splits, he gives up 1.10 more RPG on the road than at home.
Remember Seattle is the most pitcher-friendly stadium in MLB.
Talking about a guy that is your #1 SP this year for essentially the same price as Pivetta. He’s on a 3yr deal, a gamer who goes deep into games, which saves on bullpen.
Also saves room to pursue Crochet…….
Fortune favors the Bold!
Fever agreed and I’m not trading Duran for him. Duran is to valuable for this offense.
I am concerned most about his declining ground ball rate its a precipitous drop. He’s still a good pitcher but take him out of Seattle and into Fenway with his dropping ground ball rate and increasing fly ball rate. He’s going to be 32 at the start of next season but imo he’s risky too risky to trade Duran for.
I’m in the camp of sell high on Duran and even I think trading Duran strait up for Castillo is ridiculous let alone adding another prospect. If it’s Gilbert thats another story.
Independent of whether you want Castillo or not, I am just curious now…..
1) In my opinion, Sox are not signing Burnes or Fried, where are we getting pitching?
2) if (as stated by Breslow earlier) trade market is where the Sox will look, what #1 is available, that you want?
3) If Dylan Cease trade is more or less the bar for top end starter, outside of Top Four who are we trading?
So you think Gilbert will turn into Trevor Story, interesting…..
acell10 = One question….. Did we sell high on Mookie? Many thought he wasn’t worth $36Million per year and that he wasn’t durable. 5 years later they couldn’t have been more wrong. He’s the last home grown all-star traded away. Do we want to be repeating history when it comes to huge mistakes?
Duran is the real deal. I consider him far more valuable than Devers because he’s young, fast, healthy, fine balance of power and speed and a guy who knows how to use a baseball glove. Devers is a player with a build that won’t last, who can’t play defense and refuses to stop hurting the defense with roughly 1/3 of the errors each year (even when the score keepers only count half the errors).
I would focus more energy on trading Devers than Duran. Sure Devers hits well in his 20s but will he in his 30s as the weight continues to grow?
Fun facts about Devers defense
2017 – 56 games 14 errors 149 total chances (.906 FLD PCT)
Boston had 107 errors so Devers produced 13% of the errors in just 56 games!!!
2018 – 116 games 24 errors 326 total chances (.926 FLD PCT)
Boston had 77 errors so Devers produced 31.2% of the errors
2019 – 152 games 22 errors 431 total chances (.949 FLD PCT)
Boston had 88 errors so Devers produced 25% of the errors
2020 – 57 games 14 errors 128 total chances (.891 FLD PCT)
Boston had 45 errors so Devers produced 31.1% of the errors
2021 – 151 games 22 errors 439 total chances (.950 FLD PCT)
Boston had 108 errors so Devers produced 20.4% of the errors
2022 – 138 games 14 errors 393 total chances (.964 FLD PCT)
Boston had 85 errors so Devers produced 16.5% of the errors
2023 – 151 games 19 errors 370 total chances (.949 FLD PCT)
Boston had 102 errors so Devers produced 18.6% of the errors
2024 – 130 games 12 errors 299 total chances (.960 FLD PCT)
Boston had 115 errors so Devers produced 10.4% of the errors
So Devers has played parts of 8 seasons. His game total is
951 at 3B and his error total is officially 141 while the Boston Red Sox during that time period had 727 errors so in a little over 7 seasons with Boston Devers has made 141 of the 727 errors recorded on the Boston books or 19.4% of the errors. Yes, for his entire career he makes 1 of every 5 errors by Boston that are counted by the score keepers. Obviously, there are 9 players on the field so his percentage far exceeds the expected errors by ONE individual whether you are evaluating by total chances or simply dividing by 9.
Duran has played in 341 games and made 8 errors in 726 total chances. The ONLY way Devers comes close to being as valuable as Duran is if he moves to DH and he refuses to do so which is a huge ding on his character. Now consider the fact that Devers costs more than $25Million more dollars than Duran, it’s pretty easy to understand why the Red Sox should trade Devers long before considering to trade Duran.
The problem is nobody wants a $29Million DH for the next 9 years when he will spend a good portion of that time hurting the team defense.
Nope, I disagree with the idea of trading Duran before you trade Devers.
When you say “outside of top four”, are you asking who the secondary parts of the trade would be? If you’re saying the top four are untouchable, there won’t be a trade.
KD17/sage/Trolled: Duran isn’t young by baseball standards. He’s entering his age 28 season. Also comparing him to Mookie is a bit silly. At similar points in their careers Mookie was significantly much more accomplished. By his forth season Mookie was a two time all star, MVP runner up and a two time silver slugger recipient. Lastly saying Duran is “real deal” based off one season is incredibly premature. The sox have a lot of positionally redundancy and it makes the most sense to trade a player who isn’t young and would net the highest return for a pitcher.
Stymeedone I wouldn’t trade Duran straight up for Castillo let alone Duran and another prospect.
I don’t trust Seattle pitchers look at their home road splits they benefit from that stadium and the damp northwest air. I look at them a bit like Colorado hitters huge splits. If Pivetta pitched in Seattle he would be a stud. A lot of his homers just die harmlessly in Seattle. They can keep their pitchers unless we start looking at how they did on the road and price accordingly.
acell10 = So you are back to insults? I thought you said you didn’t do that to me and yet here is another one. And why?
You said you wanted to sell high on Duran. That suggests that you don’t think he’s as good as he has played in 2024 or 2023. The reason I asked about Mookie is that many, many fans said it was ok to let him go because he couldn’t maintain the numbers he put up in Boston. I was asking if you thought that because those people were all wrong and I wouldn’t want Duran to be the next mistake. He’s the first home grown all star hitter since Devers and to suggest we dump him sure seems like a bad move since he rose to greatness much like Mookie did. Duran is older than Mookie because he played in college.so he arrived in Boston at age 24 rather than 21. Mookie in his first full season had a WAR of 6.1 and Duran had a WAR of 8.7. Yes Mookie was 3 years younger at that point thanks to no college but the whole point is Mookie broke out and became a star and Duran is the closest thing to another farm system player breaking out and being a star. So why would we trade him? What if he repeats and grows as a star like Mookie? We would have made the same mistake twice!!
So I don’t know why the cheap shot for my comment but it proves that you have issues with people who don’t agree with you and I was right about you taking cheap shots at me on a regular basis.
People are allowed to disagree with your opinions without being insulted. I asked you a legitimate question because I remember how many fans thought it was perfectly fine to see Mookie go and took cheap shots at him for not having a huge future. I hope people have learned their lesson and carry more respect for what Duran accomplished. He was treated like crap by Cora and it sure seems like you are on board with the same low ball evaluation of him despite what he’s proven the last two years with the odds and Cora against him.
Duran is the real deal and the only question now is how high is his upside. He may not have the upside of Mookie but he’s already more valuable than Devers as I showed in my response. We have seen four break out farm players in the last decade with Bogey, Betts, Devers and now Duran. Jumping to the conclusion we should trade him seems like a comment a Yankee fan would make not a diehard Boston fan.
Trade cases to twins for ober, sign fried and bregman.
Also, Boston has a history of dishing large contracts to pitching. Big market fans are so spoiled lol
Had a history*
The last time they dished out a big deal to a FA SP (so excluding sales extension), they won a WS soon after (Price).
How many large pitching contexts have been dished out since then ? And what kind of payroll restrictions was Boston faces with ? Have some Perspective bro
I also firmly believe Boston is willing to pay enough to land Soto. I just don’t think Soto will choose Boston.
You mean “his favorite team” (allegedly)?
Not since Dave Dombrowski left…..
Sad Sox – What you said which is the equivalent of saying the last time Boston was good.
FYI… Sale’s original deal that led to the ring was very team friendly and it worked well until Cora became manager and he created the TJ situation. GMs can’t predict how bad Cora is at his job so they need to seriously review any trade or free agent contract for a stud pitcher. Cora in six years has never been successful with a good pitcher let alone a great pitcher.
Sad Sox
Jarren Duran and non-Top Four prospect to Mariners for Luis Castillo.
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So the close to minimum wage, 8.7 bWAR Duran, for the $24M 1.8 bWAR Castillo?
Unfortunately, I am saddled with being in the trade high on Duran camp. Roman Anthony, Yoshida, Abreu, Raffaele, Right Handed Power Bat all have to play somewhere as well.
The Sox problem is: Houck and Bello are nice mid-rotation pieces for the next five years. Where do you foresee a #1 SP coming from?
Would you rather trade Mayer, Teel or Campbell?
If you want to sell high on Duran, okay. But Castillo is pretty pedestrian now. His stats are heavily influenced by pitching in Seattle. If I wanted someone with Castillo’s stats, I buy Eovaldi, not trade for Castillo.
I’m in the sell high camp too but getting castillo is not selling high.
Selling high either means you are selling a player while his value is above what he projects to be in the future or you are selling high because you are receiving more value than the player currently provides.
That’s not the same thing. Duran should be untouchable but like Cora many fans don’t respect what he’s accomplished. Yet those same fans think players like Anthony, Teel and Mayer are sure things. hahaha Some folks simply don’t get player evaluations.
You build a roster on facts not hope. Duran has proven himself to be an all-star player. So has Houck. Anthony has done nothing and is all potential just like Campbell and Teel. Mayer has proven to be injury prone and has disappointed every season except 2024 which ended in injury again.
Duran isn’t in the same category as these future players. He’s an all-star right now along with Houck yet they don’t get the respect of the fans. That’s crazy, especially when you consider the money spent on a 3B who can’t field, a foreign outfielder who has to be a DH since he can’t field and a former excellent SS who has NOT been excellent for half a decade.
There are a lot of folks who have very strange player evaluations going on. I guess that makes sense considering how the front office evaluates talent. It’s unfortunate because it’s impeding the actual growth of talent in the organization. Many teams improve by both developing their players and trading the over-rated ones for quality players at positions needed by the team. If Boston did that the go list would be:
1 – Devers (unless he DHs)
2 – Yoshida
3 – Story
4 – Abreu (platoon hitter in a left handed dominated OF)
5 – Giolito
The acquire list would be simple:
1 – SP1
2 – SP2 (either SP1 or SP2 needs to be lefty)
3 – Right handed power hitting 3B
4 – Left handed set-up man for the bullpen to back up Hendriks as closer
That’s it. Breslow, if effective, could fill that before Christmas with the tons of money hoarded by the owners.
Too bad what makes sense is NOT going to happen so mediocrity will continue several more years.
Would love to have him back in Boston. Don’t see it as this Owner is a clown. Nathan is everything you want in a leader and pitcher.
Don’t see it as this Owner is a clown.
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The clown owner with four World Series Championships.
Joe – Is this really the same owner? I’m not talking physical body I’m talking state of mind. I see no similarities with the post Dombrowski owners and the owners that won 4 rings.
I’ll give you that they live in the same body but their thinking doesn’t seem to match up with their original thinking when it comes to being a successful owner of a baseball franchise.
I truly believe something significant happened to the owner group if 2019 that created such extreme decisions about the future of the ball club. I don’t think we will ever know the full story but there is a huge disconnect between the first 15 years and the post Dombrowski years.
Not an unfair question. If I had to write a defense of Henry, I’d say he was waiting for the farm to develop.
Or it could be something as simple as the fact that he no longer has the financial muscle he use to. Way back when, it was usually only the NYY or the RS signing the top guys. Now there are a lot of teams with higher payrolls than the RS.
Yes long time ago…. Trending way away from it….
You have to look at time and mentalities. Look at the Cowboys and Jerry championships then obvious mentality change we all see it. Redsox are the same…. Bothe tourist attractions living on the past…. Hopefully Redsox don’t get as far removers but they are trending that way.
Use the money and sign a Number 1 starter
IMHO, Eovaldi on a two-year deal looks way more valuable than the rest of the second tier SPs (Manaea, Severino, Kikuchi) and imho, every bit as good Flaherty.
Add Eovaldi plus a #1, and we are about done for the winter.
I wouldn’t even bother looking a the second tier. That’s why a trade seems the better way to go
Agreed with that conclusion, though I see Pivetta as being fairly close to Eovaldi at this stage in his career. Either way, need a true ace, and I prefer either to throwing money at Flaherty.
TFF17 – I agree with Joe in that Eovaldi is the best alternative to not getting 2 #1 SPs. I agree with accell10 that we shouldn’t be looking at Eovaldi if we want to win in the near future. We need two SP1 pitchers. So if we really shouldn’t be going for Nate it’s fair to say we really shouldn’t be going after Pivetta. While both would be quality pitchers for Boston, we already have quality 3, 4 and 5 SPs. We really need to focus on our needs and not just add players like the last four years.
I doubt they get two #1 pitchers this year. Not inconceivable that they could get one this year and a second in a year or two.
TFF17 – I understand the logic of hoping for one this year and one next year but I would think some massive amount of money would need to roll off to justify not getting them both this year since we are so far below the CAP and the team is making money hand over fist.
There are really only 3 player with concerning contracts:
1 – Devers ridiculous $30Million over pay for 9 more years
2 – Story’s over pay of $23.3 Million for 3 more years
3 – Yoshida’s over pay of $18 Million for 3 more years.
So the next window for a lot of money to roll off is the end of 2027. That might be the time frame to get a top of the rotation set of pitchers or a power hitting 3B. At that point we still have $30Million for another 6 years for Devers who is likely to be obsolete at that point.
So how do you build a championship roster with only home grown players when everyone wants to trade the best one each time a now one becomes an all-star? It’s a self abusive set of thinking that fans have. You don’t dump Duran our latest all-star so we can push winning further into the future. The idea should be the opposite. Bring the future in by buying missing talent. The front office doesn’t seem to get how to win, they simply know how to make huge amounts of money at the cost of the fans.
I fall in the camp of I prefer none and would rather they spend their money elsewhere
I have no problem signing Eovaldi as a guy being signed as the third starter picked up. Not a 1st or even second option.
I agree with most people that at this point he is a more fragile version of the improved Pivetta, and I never wanted Pivetta. If you are breaking even with a bad rotation, why bother? The Sox need to sign or trade for a true 1 and 1b if possible. I can’t stress enough what signing two elite pitchers would do to the entire organizational pitching.
You knock two pitchers into the bullpen out of the rotation with the added comfort of starting depth. You knock the two worst shlubs out of the pen and place them in the “who gives a crap.” You end up making the rotation formidable, the pen would be way better by default by simply removing two guys that shouldn’t be there to begin with. You add a guy like Tanner Scott and you have a top 5 staff top to bottom.
Pick up the right-handed slugger and hope for the best from youth but rely on the youth and not journeymen replacement level players. It is time to start the clock for these guys. Sink or swim, but we NEED to know what we really have.
Redsox will have best staff in AL next year. Bank on it
lmao Wake up kid, you’re dreaming
Could have actually paid the man in the first place! I swear the Kluber signing took 2 years off my life
The Red Sox rotation was horrible last year. The bullpen was truly horrible in the second half.
The Red Sox do need a high end starter like Fried, Burnes, or Snell. They need “ that guy “ to front the rotation then even if Pivetta accepts the QO, he won’t, but if he does the he can slide back in the middle. Snell, Houck, Bello, Pivetta, and Crawford is a pretty decent starting rotation. This is especially true if Bello and Crawford take steps forward and mature into better versions of themselves from 2024. The Red Sox can then go get Tanner Scott maybe resign Martin and add another impact bullpen arm. Revamp the bullpen. The starters pitched more innings this season than in 2023 and I expect they will pitch more this season.
If as I suspect Pivetta signs elsewhere the adding a guy like Nate would be potentially in the cards. The Red Sox need to get that ace to front the staff that’s a must to compete next season.
“ wasn’t horrible”
I’m not sure I’m ready to continue to call Snell high end;. out of the three you mentioned he makes me the most nervous.
of those three I like Freid the most
Before the last two seasons I might have agreed with you but the fact is he’s been one of the best pitchers in baseball and in the second half he probably was the best pitcher in baseball. He’s a high end pitcher and he comes with no draft pick compensation. He’s been healthy lately and when healthy he’s fantastic and he seems to be getting better as he matures and he’s flat nasty.
Good luck with that. Snell barely eclipses 140 innings each season. He’s reached 180 on two rare occasions and only pitched just over 100 in 2024. We don’t need another half show. Get us a horse
Bruin: as others have said he’s never really been a high IP guy. I worry that he won’t maintain that health.
Between the strikeouts and the walks, he throws a ton of pitches for the innings, more than the league leader with qualifying innings.
It’s hard to quibble about a guy with two Cy Young awards when you’ve been picking up pitchers like Martin Perez, Kluber and others the last five seasons.
The money won’t be spent but if they do spend money it needs to be on people like Snell, Burnes, Bieber and Fried because they are a cut above what’s available to most teams. Boston needs a SP1 like Sale. Too bad they weren’t smart enough to dump Cora and let Breslow bring in pitching coaches to do what ATL did. Too bad they weren’t smart enough to hang onto Eovaldi. Too bad they weren’t smart enough to not dumpster dive and come up short every year since COVID.
This is an incredibly weak front office as far as decision making goes whether it’s because they have hand cuffs on by the owners or not. If not for a couple of new all-stars left by their last smart GM, this team’s talent would still be trending downward. Hopefully, more recent pick-ups will keep the farm system graduates trending upward but without an infusion of talent for the needed positions, the future seasons will resemble the most recent seasons. A lot of mediocrity.
I see the arguments on both sides between Pivetta and Eovaldi, and honestly, I don’t think either one is the answer at this point. Breslow won’t sign them anyway at the price they are asking.
Eovaldi’s statistics only paint half the picture. By the numbers he’s a pretty good starter. But he’s a winner. He’s a competitor. He’s a team player. He’s a mentor. He’s a leader. He deserves a solid commitment for a decent salary. I’d give him $68/4 to come back to Boston.