This story originally appeared in the Globe’s Sunday Baseball Notes. Read the rest here.
This should be an eventful offseason for the Red Sox. They’ve already made one smart move by turning Nick Pivetta into a draft pick that will come after the second round.
Pivetta was 6-12 with a 4.14 ERA last season, but the Sox made him a qualifying offer of $21.05 million, correctly guessing that he would turn it down and they would get a compensatory draft pick. Now they get that extra pick, plus lop off $7.5 million from last year’s payroll and should be able to improve their rotation.
Pivetta had 9.7 bWAR during his five seasons with the Sox, the most of any player obtained by former chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom. But Pivetta was largely average the last four seasons, going 35-41 with a 4.33 ERA in 129 games, 105 of them starts.
But these days, average plays for a starting pitcher. Only 41 pitchers started at least 100 games during those four seasons and only 22 pitched more innings than Pivetta’s 623.
That Pivetta has the seventh-highest ERA and fifth-most home runs allowed in that group is incidental. Teams need starts and innings and will pay for them.
So Pivetta declined the qualifying offer knowing he should be able to land a three-year deal in the neighborhood of $40 million. The Sox feel they can replace him with a better pitcher via trade or free agency.
Pivetta is an interesting character. He was a good teammate in the clubhouse and a fierce competitor on the field. But for reasons that were never quite clear, he answered every question from reporters with determinedly bland answers. He also would leave as quickly as he could, even if somebody wanted to ask him another question.
And that was when he pitched well.
Like many teams, the Red Sox have a sponsorship with a drink company that includes product placement for televised news conferences. Pivetta always took the bottle of water and hid it under the table before taking questions. He hated that bottle of water.
A few other observations on the Red Sox:
▪ When Jarren Duran finished eighth in the MVP voting it was the best finish for a Red Sox player since Xander Bogaerts was fifth in 2019.
But Duran was slighted a bit.
Aaron Judge, Bobby Witt Jr., Juan Soto, and Gunnar Henderson were fairly obvious choices for the first four spots. Duran’s 8.7 bWAR was significantly higher than the ones posted by Jose Ramirez (6.8), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (6.2), and Tarik Skubal (6.3), who all finished ahead of him.
Five voters left him off their ballots completely.
The incident in August when Duran was suspended for two games after shouting a homophobic slur at a fan at Fenway Park clearly was a factor.
▪ Bryan Mata was on the 40-man roster for four years and never made it to the major league roster. Now the 25-year-old righthander will get another chance after being designated for assignment, non-tendered, and signed to a minor league contract.
Mata has been with the Sox since 2016 and six times was designated one of their top-10 prospects by Baseball America. But injuries, major and minor, have kept him from progressing. Mata pitched only 22⅔ innings last season.
▪ The Sox signed Seby Zavala to a minor league contract in what was a sneaky good move.
The 31-year-old is an excellent defensive catcher with 194 games of major league experience. That will benefit their pitchers in spring training and in Triple A, if he lands there.
Connor Wong is the only catcher on the 40-man roster for the moment. Utility player Mickey Gasper caught 36 games in the minors last season and will catch some games in Puerto Rico this winter.
It’s likely the Sox will add another catcher or two as the expectation is well-regarded prospect Kyle Teel will not open the season in the majors. He caught only 18 games in Triple A last season.
▪ Turns out the Sox didn’t do very well when they traded Kiké Hernández to the Dodgers in 2023 for righthanders Justin Hagenman and Nick Robertson.
Robertson went to the Cardinals in the deal for Tyler O’Neill and Hagenman signed a major league deal with the Mets after becoming a minor league free agent.
Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him on Bluesky at peteabeglobe.bsky.social.