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
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
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.
====================
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.