The Red Sox have reportedly offered All-Star starter Nathan Eovaldi a multi-year contract, per Rob Bradford of WEEI. However, Bradford notes that a deal between the two parties is not imminent. News of talks between Boston and Eovaldi comes only a few days after the Red Sox issued the righty a qualifying offer (one-year, $19.65MM) that tied draft compensation to the veteran if he signs with a different team.
After making a career-high 32 starts (182 1/3 innings) in 2021, Eovaldi dealt with lower back inflammation and right shoulder inflammation, the latter of which limited him to only seven starts in the second half of the season. When healthy, Eovaldi pitched to a strong 3.87 ERA, striking out 22.4% of batters while limiting walks (4.4%). The 22.4% strikeout rate represented a drop from his 2020 (26.1%) and 2021 (25.5%) rates but was accompanied by an increase in his ground ball rate, 47.3% compared to 42.1% in 2021.
Eovaldi had originally joined the Red Sox in 2018, being flipped in late July by the Rays for Jalen Beeks. He quickly earned his worth, helping the franchise win the 2018 World Series before re-signing with Boston on a four-year, $68MM deal that offseason. Over the course of that contract, Eovaldi made 53 starts, pitching 281 1/3 innings of 4.25 ERA baseball with strong strikeout (24.4%) and walk (5.6%) rates.
As seen in our 2022-23 Top 50 Free Agent With Predictions list, MLBTR expected Eovaldi to receive a shorter deal (2-year, $34MM) after missing part of the season with injuries.
Interesting
2/$35m
3 years $1 billion.
Did Elon Musk buy the team?
Don’t joke. There’s an 8-year old kid in the Dominican who’s lined up for that deal someday.
Maybe an 8-year-old kids grandkid.
And he’s probably already using what they call supplements
Regardless of anything else, Boras is his agent so he wants the market to set the price. $1B offer rejected.
3 years at $19.65M
Why would be accept 6.55 mill a season? Joke Right?
3/19.65 is probably the closest guess to the real offer
I would assume he meant ‘3 years at 19.65 per season’.
I’m saying that bloom most likely lowballed him
He got offered a qualifying offer for $19m why would he take a 3 year deal at the same total value?
I was talking about ‘formerpick’s comment and ‘jockstrap’s followup. You could tell was sarcasm.
knowing the Sox, you’re probably right. they’d rather lose their current players to sign broken down reclamation projects that mostly don’t work out. same when it comes to free agents also. don’t pay for quality when you can sign three used to be players instead of the one definite guy who can still play
This was a joke saying that the Red Sox would low ball him.
formerpick: You need work on your sarcasm.
Cracking up on posts making ownership seem cheap. I dislike ownership but one thing they’re not is cheap. They may not spend that additional amount fans expect but they’re not cheap. In the years that Henry has been the majority owner, what team has more championships? Also, how many have had a total higher payroll?
Historically they certainly are not cheap and we all appreciate those championships. It’s the direction they’re trending in, beginning with the hiring of bloom, that they are becoming more concerned about profits than putting a winning team on the field. bloom’s actions thus far have backed up that concern.
Didn’t Bloom say he failed last season with the lack of rotation? Soooo! hes attempting to bring back last years team? How will they be any better next season?
Yeah! Houston brought back Justin Verlander after missing most of 2 seasons due to injuries. Those dummies.
Verlander was very good this year
This site’s forecast is that he’ll get a two years deal for $34MM. That would keep him at his 2022 salary level and that feels about right. Some other team might go three years, or a few million more per year, but I doubt that the Red Sox would.
The Angels are a team I could see being aggressive for his services due to their woeful pitching.
We had the 9th best ERA in all of baseball last year.
What we need is a stable arm to round out the rotation. I doubt Eovaldi is it.
If they are going to take a flyer in a rebound I can see Clevinger as the guy.
Interesting. I didn’t know their 2022 pitching was that respectable. Must be a lot of young arms I’m guessing.
Yes. Patrick Sandoval made a nice step forward at age 25. Detmers was really nice after May, and Jose Suarez made a nice progression.
If he resigns does this effect the prediction contest? I saw that Miguel Montero resigned with Astros already so if he removed from the contest?
That’s one pick I won’t have to change if he signs. I want a bonus point. Waaaaaa!
No, it doesn’t change anything about the contest. Montero stays on the list and you get to “predict” him going to Houston. If you have submitted your 50 picks already and you don’t have HOU for Montero, then you now have your first incorrect selection.
My mistake! You can edit your picks until 11 p.m. ET Wednesday night, so, even if you have already submitted your slate of 50, you can alter Montero to show HOU.
11 p.m. Central Time. I give up.
My guess is that they offered a QO because they are hoping for a draft pick. I think they will offer a multi year deal that he won’t accept, but a good enough one to leverage other teams offers. I can see Baltimore as a serious bidder. They said they would spend this offseason. With Nate’s experience in the AL east he may do well $$
Incorrect. No one else giving him a multi year deal and losing draft picks for this overrated pitcher. Back to Boston which will immediately regret it
Orioles are loaded next year, Heston Kjersted is awesome, Red Sox will finish last in a tough division
Jack Buckley;
Baseball is a young man’s game.
Most of the posters here don’t believe that. They’d rather give a multi-year contract to a guy over 30 that’s regressing for more money then 3-4 controlled quality players will be paid in the same amount of time. Of course, when the veteran gets hurt and doesn’t heal for 2 months the same posters will note at the end of the season that his team would have done better but for injuries.
Happens every year.
And yet the Astros had the second oldest team.. at 29.35 years old
Hello, Newman;
How about that!
Exception that proves the rule is a staple on MLBTR’s comment board – same as it is on TV news.
Sam – With all due respect, 11 MLB teams had an average age of between 29-31 and the Red Sox were just below at 28.88
Furthermore, it made me laugh when you wrote players over 30 such as Eovaldi have more injuries and are already regressing.
He had his TJS at Age 17 and Age 26, and he had BY FAR his best year at Age 31.
Four of Verlander’s six best years were between Age 33 and 39.
Scherzer’s best years were at Age 30, Age 32, and Age 33.
Schilling’s six best years were between Age 30-Age 37
And ELEVEN of Rich Hill’s 13 best years were between Age 35-Age 42
You can find plenty more examples of “old” pitchers performing their best in their 30’s.
Just asking for a friend, how can you have 11 years between ages 35-42 in Rich Hill?
Thank you
pepenas – You’re right, I screwed up and didn’t catch the error until after the editing window was closed. Should be 8 best years, my bad.
The years he pitched for multiple teams I accidentally counted twice.
Those young pitchers are probably likely to lose a couple of those controllable years to TJ surgery, so there is that to consider…
vt – You are 100% correct. Pitchers and position players in their 20’s get injured and require surgery just as much as players over 30.
Part of the reason is when they are in their 20’s they don’t know their body as well as they do in their 30’s and they don’t have the wisdom to know what it takes to increase their chances of good health.
3/60 is what he will get..sone of these early contracts are wild
New CBA in place and the first normal offseason in several years. History says there is a spike in contract values at the start of a new CBA.
If it isn’t DeGrom or Rodon, it might as well be Eovaldi for the Red Sox.
Put me down for 4/60 – if not Sox then his ultimate contract. At 33 next year he wants that 4th year of pitching guaranteed and will take a little less AAV to get it to make sure he gets the 4th year of 15 mil salary and chance to lee playing the game.
I think he gets 3 years for $48m. He has “ace-ish” potential, but has huge health concerns. He won’t be an ace of an elite team, but he could lead a pitching staff of a team that is trying to sneak into the playoffs. Seems like he’s been around forever, but he isn’t even 33 yet.
Eovaldi’s career high in starts was 33 in 2014.
25 starts is the new 35 these days.
Only when you’ve got an aging pitcher, or one coming off a serious injury….LOL 25 is the new 35…..that’s a good one…..tell management that when a pitchers agent is negotiating the next contract……LOL
Eovoldi led the league in starts in 2021, finished 4 behind the leader in 2020. We all know he was banged up in 2022 and still had 20.
This guy is the epitome of boom or bust…..will he stay healthy or slip in his shower shoes and be on the shelf for 2 months or longer……
I’ve never quite understood? This guy is always hurt
Hippyripper;
See….
If a team gives a guy a multi-year contract they have to expect that at the end of those years he’ll suck. But that’s OK. And if he gets hurt before then…that’s OK. Because, see – they “tried to win”. (Spending money foolishly is “trying to win”.)
Now take the Red Sox – the 6th highest MLB payroll in 2022, and they finished in last / 5th place in their division. Know what the problem is?……They didn’t spend enough money! They’re “cheap”. Red Sox (and Yankee) fans are entitled to win.
I love following and watching the smart small market teams play. They make fools of the station-to-station, large market, 3 outcome teams that don’t have a clue about how to play winning baseball. Those big spenders beat the tar out of the crummy teams – run up their stats……yet always come up a buck short.
Astros aren’t a small market team, but they’re put together fine and play smart, winning baseball. If they were like the Yankees, Red Sox. Padres, etc., they would have given up on Kyle Tucker 2 years ago and overpaid some lug that would hit some HR’s, peter out, and stick them with a bad contract. Look at the pitchers the Astros stayed with and how they became the best starting staff in MLB.
When the Red Sox were healthy in the starting staff for about a quarter of the season, they were a .700 team!
The problem was injuries. And that’s on them.
The year before they had a shot at the World Series until an umpire forgot the strike zone. And so it goes.
They need guys who can stay healthy.
I hope this isn’t a typical Bloom signing: Boston’s 2022 version of an ace (well, as a Yankee fan I hope it is). The sooner Boston moves on from Bloom and reverts back to Boston the better for them, imho. The New England Rays just aren’t meant to be…..
That said, Eovaldi has been a soldier for the Sox in some critical moments. As long as the contract isn’t too crazy expensive, or crazy long, can’t hurt.
Thanks for seeing the madness some of us Sox fans are seeing, clipper.
Eovaldi will be a good signing, IF he’s not the best pitcher they sign.
vt – Hate to break it to you, but if they sign Nate they will likely be done acquiring starting pitchers. They already said Whitlock will be a starter all season, and with Sale/Paxton/Pivetta assumed to be healthy they’ve got their starting five right there. They would also likely have Bello & Hill waiting in the wings to fill in when needed.
Eovoldi, Sale and Price were DD signings. Thats 59M of the 2022 pitching payroll tied in up in just 21 starts.
Don’t see why Bloom’s to blame for that.
He’s not, but who has he signed to help them out?
Keep in mind, DD won a WS….
Pivetta, Wacha, Hill, Wincowick and Paxton were brought in by Bloom.
They amounted to 96 starts for 25M. Bloom wins.
That’s *exactly* my point. Go back and reread those names…. Precisely Bloom-type acquisitions, which would be in line with Eovaldi signing as an ace.
It’s my opinion that it’s running the Sox like the Rays, and it’s failing. Those wins also secured the Sox a last place finish under Bloom.
Honestly, if you’re happy with that as a Sox fan, I’m not one to criticize that, I’m just saying what it looks like from your rival’s POV. I could very well be wrong though.
And thats Exactly my point. You have 59M tied up in bad pitching, how much more can a team spend on just 5 positions.
I know youre Yankee fan, so you may not get this, but, most teams have a budget. Since the Red Sox were already at 240M and over the cap, how much more did you want the “New England Rays” to spend? Should the payroll have been 275M, 300M? Wouldn’t the owners, not the VP of Operations, make that decision?
Yes, and the Yankees have a budget, btw, so I do get it. $59MM tied up in SP is a lot of money, I agree, but it’s not quite that cut and dry *if the truly want to be competitive. There’s other money coming off the books, plus there’s ways to eat/move money that your team doesn’t need. It’s the same argument I have for the left side of the Yankees IF.
Like I said man, if you’re cool with it, I’m fine with that. It doesn’t change the fact that Bloom isn’t doing a good job, imho.
But again, I could be wrong about that. Perhaps this starting rotation is great, letting XB go is the right move, and not re-signing Devers is a blessing in disguise.
The “59 Million” is just the money tied up in those 3 pitchers, who gave you 21 starts all season. That leaves 141 more games to find starters for.
What “other money coming off the books”? The Salary Cap figure was at 246M, the majority of which Bloom didn’t spend. The way they figure that number is really straight forward. This isnt corporate accounting, you can’t make that number magically shrink.
He was pretty much stuck with that. So he rolled the dice, hoping those guys and others could stay/get healthy. Some overproduced, others underproduced, but the biggest hurt to finding better/more SPs came from DD’s guys getting paid too much, doing too little and consuming too much of the payroll.
Okay, so your assessment, if understand correctly, is that John Henry limits Bloom to a first tier hard cap of $246M. If so, and $59M is tied up in pitching, I get it. Although, part of the money to which I was referring was insurance money for which they get reimbursed for their injured guys, which at this point should be quite a bit of that total.
Nonetheless, that’s an ownership issue then because the RSox can afford to eat some losses (ie, go over the CBT threshold), and the fans should make it known to them, imho. RSox fans should not have to deal with last place finishes and stars walking away (if retaining them is the right move) for a market/fanbase like Boston. I mean, the Orioles finished higher with a $65M payroll. That’s embarrassing.
“hard cap”
The ‘hard cap’ was actually 247M, Bloom tried to sign Verlander to a 1M contract, to which he said “hell no!”
Seriously, to do things differently, you have to know Eovoldi was going to breakdown (he led the league in starts in 2021), know Sale and Paxton were going to give you nothing. Then you have to spend A LOT MORE money. Quality Starting Pitching is real expensive to sign. And even more expensive to pay for in prospects.
Ultimately that kind of expenditure would come from the owners not the VP. What he did at the end of the day was gambled on players health. Little did he know the Red Sox would lead the league in 2022, in money spent on injured starting pitchers. ( link below)
spotrac.com/mlb/injured-list/2022/cumulative-team/…
So: in hindsight, you are saying that BoSox should have spent more money on pitching. Um, who are you suggesting they have acquired and how much more should they have spent?
Also, why are you praising the Orioles for a low payroll? Seems odd considering they could’ve been spending money on pitching to get out of last place.
I’m doing neither of those, if that response was to me. I was specifically speaking to this year’s moves, which I said I hope, for Boston’s sake, weren’t like Bloom’s pattern, or my perception thereof.
I was *not* praising the O’s at all. Their spending is laughable (should be criminal). And I was not going off of hindsight, although the conversation naturally gravitated to his past moves (because we are speaking to whether Bloom’s moves are his fault or that of ownership). His prior acquisitions, and the money they’re costing, is a natural indicator of spending this offseason. But, since we are there, uh, Rodon? Tyler Anderson? Martin Perez? Keep going or should I stop?
Yankee Clipper:
“Boston. I mean, the Orioles finished higher with a $65M payroll. That’s embarrassing.”
———————————————————
Red Sox have finished last a couple of times. in recent years, yet they still have 4 Championships in the past 20. Thats one every 5 years. I’ll take a couple of last place finishes surrounded by parades any day.
Isnt it more embarrassing to outspend everyone, almost every year and still find a way to go 15 years without a championship. And right now, the Yankees future is looking worse by the day.—-Glass houses, throwing stones . . .you know the rest.
So, we are devolving from talking about Bloom to talking about finishes before Bloom and how that compare to Yankees finishes? Okay, we have 27 you have….? Someone’s late to the conversation or just looking to be an idiot.
Bloom won how many of those four? Waiting……
Unlike your comment mine wasn’t intended to be a negative commentary against Red Sox, but an assessment as to how they’re operated by Bloom.
Just giving it back. Red Sox fans are not “embarrassed” about anything. I think its funny that the new Yankee fan ‘Standard Of Quality’ is how many times you stay out of last place. Really its sad, it used to be about how many championships. But that was last century.
Oh and Blooms been in Boston for 3 years, and has just as many championships as Cashman does the past 10. Now thats “embarrassing”.
That’s the point you’re missing, I wasn’t “giving” anything. Let me explain: you are taking it as a shot {at} Red Sox fans. I was explaining the feeling of Red Sox fans (certainly the perception) when they were bested by the O’s in the division. So you’re essentially taking a shot for no reason.
And, I don’t disagree about Cashman, FYI. Although I think he’s better than Bloom, at least so far, he needs to go. His track record isn’t that great. He develops playoff teams that can’t win in postseason play. And we are downright embarrassed each and every time we play the Astros, but especially this year because we were swept. More so, Cashman & Boone still say we are “championship caliber” which is laughable, because outside of a streak of pure luck, there’s no way we are winning.
So, I guess my overarching points about Bloom stem from the fact that Yankees fans can relate to the not-fully-committed to winning mentality by ownership/front office. But it wasn’t intended to be an insult, or whatever, on the Red Sox fans.
Clipper, I’ve been a diehard Sox fan for over 45 years and I 100% agree with you and am certainly not insulted at all. I think it’s embarrassing how both Cashman and bloom are running their teams, it really is pathetic and bloom isn’t far the bigger embarrassment.
MLB just isn’t the same without competitive Boston-New York games.
York – Agreed, 2003-2004 was the height of the rivalry but it continued (for the most part) right through 2018 and we had one final taste of it last year.
2004 doesn’t exist FPG. Where did you find it?
Next year will be my 60th following the Red Sox every day. I was hooked at the end of 1963 when that YAZ guy won his first batting title.
I take the good with the bad. Bloom is neither the best nor the worst I’ve seen. I’m being patient with him to see what he does over a five year period. He needs to win the next two years, get into the postseason. Or bring in the next guy. But give him a chance and stop judging him to be bad. Maybe he is, maybe not.
And if he wins, don’t be saying you knew it all along. There’s no one here saying that.
That’s cool, Hayzee. I think you’re in the minority. Five years is a long time, depending of course how they finish this year, with the rest of the division getting stronger. Mark P just posted on the chat that if it doesn’t turn around in ‘23 that may be it for Bloom. I tend to agree.
Clip – It will forever be in the end of my Fever Pitch movie, just like Wakefield giving up the Boone homerun will forever be in 50 First Dates.
BTW – I seriously own 8 of the ’04 World Champion Hats, they should last longer than me. You never forget your first ….
FPG: I know of the 50-First Dates reference, the Boone HR, but what’s this Fever Pitch movie you speak of?
Wait, is this some type of witchcraft stuff again?
‘04 World Champions? I could’ve sworn (checking calendar from ‘04)……Yep! Baseball was on a strike that year. Never happened. I knew it!
Clip – I think Bloom’s fate hinges on whether or not Henry views 2023 as yet another “building” year. If he does, Bloom is safe. If not, Bloom better produce at least a playoff team.
One of the articles here mentioned the Sox being in “win now” mode. I’d be really curious to know why they wrote that, as nothing I’ve seen indicates it. So many holes to fill, but I know it’s early.
Clip – I like your approach! I sometimes do the same with regard to my first marriage … never happened, just a dream …. like when Al Bundy thought Peg was pregnant.
Seems like a guy who’s worth like 1 WAR in the regular season but in the post season he’s borderline god tier and that’s where he really earns his salary.
2 years/$34M, I would guess. Possibly 2 years/$37M.
Trill – Nate had a 1.5 WAR this year in only 20 starts, and a 4.5 WAR last year.
He would have to miss more than half the season to produce just a 1 WAR.
Going forward I mean.
I looked up his previous salaries. Shocked Boston paid him 17mil a year, so no wonder they gave him a QO. He’s not a guy with a good long track record unless you want to attach #4 type starter lines. He’s aging, there’s really not a big market of teams who sign QO players to begin with. Is he even an upgrade for those teams?+ cost of draft pick? And not that draft picks are anywhere close to being but a near miracle to make it productively in the bigs, that pick has slot money allotment tied to it. You can take that money and spend nearly all of it on a different pick.
All that said, Boston offer will be best offer he gets-2yrs 36mil with 3rd yr option of 18mil or 4mil buyout. So 16mil each first two seasons.
It probably wouldn’t kill the team to bring Nate back for 2 years if the price is right. He’s not blocking anyone and we need starting pitching anyway. Sale/Eovaldi/Pivetta/Crawford and then a competition between Paxton/Bello/Houck/Whitlock/free agent yet to be signed would be a nice start (assuming Sale can finally get healthy), though i do thing Houck and Whitlock should stay in the bullpen
Haven’t seen a decline in production to suggest he’s not worth it. BoSox has the qualifier to get some compensation at least. BoSox could use the money elsewhere but even terrible SPs get paid these days. Although I like Bello and Crawford, and some of the talented guys, I don’t think the farm system is capable of overcoming the deficits of losing all their veterans would incur. It would be best for at least one to two years.
CSE:
I agree. Also, we have to assume the Red Sox medical staff has the best information on his current injury and his health moving forward. After all they got to evaluated him for the past 4 years.
Hopefully it’s not a lot. The guy is too injured.
Big Bloom move. So much for attempting to retain Bogaerts
This post is about Eovoldi, Bogaerts is discussed ad-nauseam in an earlier post today.
Yes I know that, my point is it seems money is more willing to be spent on mediocre pieces, such as Eovaldi
3yrs/45m with 1 and 5 million kickers for reaching 20 and 25 starts.
I’m thinking along those lines, Tippin. I have it at 2 years at 30 million with a 3rd year option for $15 million with a $5 million buyout. So, it would be $17.5 mil AAV over 2 years if they buyout the 3rd year (or) $15 million AAV over 3 years if the option is exercised. I also think some of those performance metrics you’ve included could be added due to Eovaldi’s past health issues.