As starting pitchers continue to fly off the shelves, Nick Pivetta is one of the more established starters remaining on the open market. He’s already been linked to the Mets, and today the Reds have emerged as another suitor. The New York Post’s Joel Sherman reported earlier today that the Reds have checked in on Pivetta, implying their interest might have heightened after they missed out on trade target Garrett Crochet.
The Reds have already been active on the starting pitching market this offseason. They extended a qualifying offer to Nick Martinez in November, which he accepted. Not long after, they acquired Brady Singer from the Royals in exchange for Jonathan India. Along with young arms Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, and Andrew Abbott, that gives the Reds five capable big league starters, in addition to top prospect Rhett Lowder. Nonetheless, it’s not hard to understand why president of baseball operations Nick Krall is still pursuing starting pitching.
Abbott and Lodolo both finished the 2024 season on the injured list. Greene came off the IL in time to make two short starts at the end of the year, but he was out from mid-August to late September. All three have shown promise when healthy, but none has pitched a full MLB season. The same is true of the veteran Martinez, who has played a hybrid starter-reliever role for most of his MLB career. If the Reds sign Pivetta, they’d be much better equipped to weather an injury to one of their starters. In a best-case scenario in which everyone is healthy on Opening Day, Martinez can pitch out of the bullpen while Lowder starts the year in the minors. If Lowder forces his way onto the Opening Day roster with a strong spring, new manager Terry Francona could be facing a logjam, but that would be a pretty good problem to have.
That said, it would be slightly surprising to see Cincinnati sign Pivetta given the numerous other areas of need for Krall to address. The Reds finished among the bottom half of teams in runs scored this past season. They ranked 21st in OPS and 26th in wRC+. They recently traded India, one of their better offensive players in 2024, and have not made any additions to the starting lineup. Considering they already have six contenders for five spots in next year’s rotation, one might think the Reds would put most of their remaining resources toward improving the offense. To that end, they have been linked to trade candidates such as Luis Robert Jr., Josh Naylor, and Lane Thomas.
Earlier this offseason, Reds chief operating officer and chief financial officer Doug Healy told Mark Sheldon of MLB.com that his team would “maintain payroll levels at or above 2024.” That’s a vague and noncommittal statement, but it does seem to imply that a major increase in payroll is unlikely. So, it’s fair to wonder if Reds ownership would be willing to spend what it takes to sign Pivetta and bolster the offense. After all, RosterResource estimates that their payroll for 2025 ($101MM) is already slightly higher than their final payroll from 2024 ($100MM).
Pivetta is most likely seeking a multi-year deal similar to those Luis Severino signed with the A’s (three years, $67MM) and Yusei Kikuchi signed with the Angels (three years, $63MM). Meanwhile, Thomas is projected to earn $8.3MM and Naylor $12MM in 2025. Robert will earn $15MM in the final guaranteed year of his contract. All three of those salaries are team-friendly figures; a similarly impactful position player would cost significantly more in free agency. Will Krall have the financial flexibility to offer Pivetta an AAV above $20MM and still acquire an impact bat?
They are replete with starting pitching right now. I don’t get this. Plus, they would lose a draft pick signing 4 ERA Pivetta. They need a bat.
It Strengthens your bullpen and adds depth. He would definitely be top 4 in that rotation.
I love Nick for his durability but man, that’s a lot of balls flying over the fence in Cincinnati should be sign there. This smells more of the agent looking to drum up more interest
Right. And no one is believing it
At first, I wondered if he played for Tito, but I don’t think so.
Pivetta only makes sense if they’re trading a starter
Sounds like something is brewing we’re not seeing.
Chase Burns, hopefully, will also be available some time this summer.
Pivetta is a good 3rd or 4th starter. It be a good signing if he gets 2-3 years at 15 million a year.
He’s def getting way more than that
@ 1999
He’s getting Eovaldi money, at least. He’d get 15 mill if it was 2013.
paxson, o’neill, pivetta
red sox are hemorrhaging canadians
The exodus was on the wall once BIG MAPLE decided to retire rather than continue pitching for them.
Yeah but do they “like-like” him?
I don’t follow the Reds. Would they be interested in Nathaniel Lowe with his price tag?
Probably not.
I hope Pivetta wouldn’t choose to go play half his games in that bandbox of a park. He needs to go to a team with deep fences
I can actually see a Sox-Mariner trade with Castillo going to Boston. The M’s then replace Castillo with Pivetta whose ERA playing 50% of the time in THAT ballpark will finally be under 4.00 at season’s end.
Give up and move to Nashville, cincy will never support a team competitively. This fan base can’t keep up with teams in major markets or on the coast.
The fans show when they put a winner on the field and rightfully so. I follow the reds and baseball daily but I don’t support the ownership. If they sold and moved to Nashville- I’m all for it. If this ownership group took the reds to Nashville that would be extremely disappointing for all of baseball
You keep saying to get rid of baseball in Ohio and keep spam posting this in every article the Reds are mentioned in. We’ve heard you but it’s not going to happen. The Reds will always be in Cincinnati. That whole first professional team thing will always keep them there and Cincinnati isn’t the lowly place you seem to think it is. In fact it’s quickly rising as becoming one of the better mid size cities.
He is a troll. He has one opinion and posts it on every article.
Brain dead take look at FC Cincinnati and the bengals revenue when competitive. The reds problem is poor ownership and a lack of winning teams. No one in Nashville would show up to watch this team the past couple of years either. They screwed themselves on the Bally Sports deal taking a backloaded contract and ultimately never seeing the money because of the bankruptcy. In addition when your majority owner only has a net worth of 400 million it’s also hard to bankroll winning teams in the modern day
100% disagree. Cincinnati is 100% in for the Reds.
The issue is, the ownership has not been willing (financially) or capable (operationally), not sure which, to put a complete and competitive team together. There is always a glaring weakness.
The city will support the team, when the organization does. If you don’t believe me, go check out opening day in the queen city.
The city supports the Reds now. Per capita, they drew better than the Yankees in 2024. They drew more than 2, 000,000 fans last year. See how many fans the Dodgers would draw if they hadn’t won a playoff-off series in 32 years. Cincinnati is a great baseball town. One of the best baseball cities in the country, perhaps the best.
Hey Slim, I see you are still spouting non-sense. The Reds per capita, draws better than the Yankees. New York has a population of 9 million people. The Yankees only drew 3.8 million fans in 2024. Cincinnati has a population of 300,000 people and drew more than 2 million fans last year. So, the Reds drew nearly 650% of their population. The Yankees, on the other hand, drew less than 75% of their population. Perhaps, the Yankees should move to Nashville.
Several articles about who the Reds are interested in. Still no articles about them doing anything. They’ll get cold feet when they realize they actually have to pay for good players.
Typical under this managent. Lots of talk, permanent hand prints on the posterior.
I hope they don’t get him, especially with losing a pick. He doesn’t look that great honestly. I think he’s the worst of the mid-tier guys. I’d rather spend more for Manaea (and a pick) or spend less for Quintana or Buehler.
Agree on buehler, but not really on them signing a pitcher as things stand
The Reds are showing interest in everyone. Hell, I’m interested in a new 2024 Jeep Wrangler but we all know damn well I’m not buying it.
I would pass. I could see a guy like Crochet with them but not this guy.
Get what you really need first.
Mr. 4.00 ERA.
This is the time of year for silly reporting as well as meaningful commentary. Yes, I’m sure Krall was interested in Crochet depending on the cost in prospect capital. It’s also entirely possible Krall checked in on Pivetta. That said, I’m sure he’s checked in on other pitchers as well. Sherman implying heightened interest in Pivetta since they didn’t get Crochet is a big stretch. Now I do accept it’s possible they may need to trade from the rotation if they want to get Naylor and/or Thomas from the Guardians or for other potential trades. So it helps to get as much information as possible on free agents to consider next steps.
Small market teams will never survive these billionaire contracts. Can the reds sign de la cruz when he reaches free agency ? You simply can’t compete , something has to be done to fix this
If reds sign Pivetta, then it means that a package deal involving Lodolo and/or Abbott is on the table to get power hitting rh of