Adam Ottavino and the Red Sox have agreed to a minor league contract, as first reported by Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Unsurprisingly, the deal comes with an invitation to big league spring training. Indeed, according to Nick O’Malley and Chris Cotillo of MassLive, the veteran reliever has already reported to camp. He will earn a $2MM salary in 2025 if he makes the MLB roster. Conversely, if Ottavino fails to make the 40-man roster out of camp, he will have the freedom to opt out of his contract and return to free agency (per O’Malley and Cotillo). This is Ottavino’s second stint in the Red Sox organization.
Ottavino, 39, made his MLB debut as a starter for the Cardinals in 2010. However, the Rockies converted him to a relief role after claiming him on waivers in 2012, and the right-hander has been one of the most prolific relievers in the game ever since. Over the past 13 seasons with the Rockies (2012-18), Yankees (2019-20), Red Sox (2021), and Mets (2022-24), Ottavino has pitched 720 2/3 innings with a 3.33 ERA. In that time, he ranks fifth among all relievers in appearances and third in innings pitched. He has remained durable into his late thirties, making at least 60 appearances in each of the past four years. Even more impressive, he has not been on the injured list since 2018.
With all that in mind, it’s easy to see why an MLB team would still be interested in Ottavino, despite his advanced age. His 4.34 ERA this past season wasn’t particularly impressive, but he is only one year removed from a 3.21 ERA season in 2023 and only two years removed from producing an incredible 2.06 ERA in 2022. Moreover, his underlying numbers in 2024 suggest he can still be a back-end bullpen weapon. He pitched to a 3.19 xERA and 3.27 SIERA thanks to a deep arsenal of pitches that helped him thrive as both a strikeout arm and a weak contact artist; his strikeout rate and hard-hit rate both ranked above the 80th percentile, according to Baseball Savant.
On the flip side, it’s worth pointing out that Ottavino struggled with his control down the stretch last season. While his 3.86 ERA in August and September was actually lower than his 4.54 ERA over the first four months of the season, his walk rate shot up from 7.6% to 13.5% over the final two months of the year. Even worse, his strikeout rate dropped from 29.8% from April to July to 25.7% in August and September. That could explain why the Mets did not use him at all in the NL Wild Card Series or the NLDS, and why they left him off of their NLCS roster entirely. It might also explain why the veteran was forced to sign a non-guaranteed contract this winter.
Still, with a strong spring, Ottavino has a good chance to earn a job in Boston’s bullpen. Aside from free agent signing Aroldis Chapman and 2024 breakout arm Justin Slaten, the Red Sox have plenty of uncertainty in their arm barn. Liam Hendriks and Garrett Whitlock are coming off of major injuries, while buy-low free agent signing Justin Wilson has not been an effective bullpen arm for several years (5.34 ERA from 2021-24). Meanwhile, names like Greg Weissert, Josh Winckowski, Brennan Bernardino, and Luis Guerrero are hardly locks to make the Opening Day roster. After signing Wilson and Chapman, Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told reporters that upgrading the bullpen remained a priority. If Ottavino continues to pitch the way he has for most of his career, he should certainly qualify as an upgrade for Boston’s ’pen.
Low risk decent reward type of signing. More than willing to see how he does in ST. Given the return-from-injury concerns of the rotation, and cora’s bullpen patterns, anything that spares the higher leverage arms from burnout earlier in the season is good, even if he only has a decent first half then fades and needs to be let go
agreed. one of the few signings they’ve made this off season that I’m good with.
smk – Same here, I liked the guy even though the timing for his homerless streak ending couldn’t have been any worse.
I really want to see Adam and Casas together, they are like two colorful peas in a pod … now Casas can have an earthing/grounding partner!
I’m also fine but he needs to have control of that sweeper for him to be effective.
And this troll just keeps trolling !! Ignore him he is KD17 under a different handle.
Having watched O the past few seasons in NY, his inability to throw strikes consistently, penchant for walking the first batter he faced, and slo-mo delivery allowing the l baserunner to steal (walk to 2B) drive me $&@!!! crazy. Nice guy but hated watching him pitch for the Mets.
Yeah he’s scary, man. I watched him in 2024 quite a bit and I saw the sinker lacking the bite he used to have and whipping scary sliders right down the pipe over and over. Looked like a softball guy at times
As a fellow Met fan, he will not be missed
@Skip Church, I agree 100%.
Skip – agreed. Milk, bread, tomatoes…. are all great before the expiration date, but sour, moldy, and rotten after. I am not so sure Ottavino has not reached his expiration date.
That said it is a minor league deal, so no loss. I am guessing he never sees Fenway as a Red Sox unless it is for a few days then gets a DFA.
I don’t know. Breslow and Bloom seem very similar with relief pitching acquisitions. It’s been a revolving door.
It always seemed that a single against Ottovino would become a double even if Bench or Molina were behind the plate because his windup is so slow. Not the kind of late inning arm you’d hope for. At least not last year.
I like this too. This is the type of spot where I’m fully on board with looking for a bargain.
O has always been wild so I can’t say for sure if last year was a sign he’s losing it or if it was just a year that really didn’t go his way, but to add him to a team that’s already got a pretty solid bullpen mix he will either provide quality depth for the late inning mix, or he won’t make the roster.
On a cheap nonguaranteed deal, I’ll roll those dice all day.
Can never have too much pitching. Definitely worth evaluating in spring training to see if he can help the team. Would have really liked to see them get someone for the bullpen who is young and at the top of their game, rather than just getting pitchers that are well past their prime. Looking forward to seeing how Whitlock and Hendriks do as they could put the Sox in a great place with the bullpen if they pitch like they did before injuries.
So many players have to settle on a minor league deal because teams don’t have space on a 40-man roster. Why has MLB refused to increase rosters to 45 to help with flexibility??
The players union would have to agree to lower the league minimum salary, or agree that five designated players could be paid below major league minimum, or some other give back that balanced out the increased salary cost to clubs.
They don’t pay the league min salary to players on the forty man roster who aren’t in the majors now. They make 67k a year min in the minors if on the forty man roster. Not exactly hurting any major league club.
@ Mets – I was thinking the active roster given the reference to veterans settling for minor league deals. Obviously, the goal for these players is ideally to get added to the major league roster and, if not, find a team that is willing to add them to the major league roster.
A NYer
@ Mets – I was thinking the active roster given the reference to veterans settling for minor league deals.
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They’re either good enough to make the team, or they are in the minors. The 40-man is only for control purposes and is not good for the players.
40-45 is probably too big a jump anyway. But when the active roster went from 25-26 a corresponding addition to the protected roster should have happened. Maybe 42 instead of 40 to allow for a little more non-active roster space.
Big picture, once the As actually finish building their stadium, and the rays are… settled somehow…
At that point I think we might see 2 expansion clubs and a realignment to 4 divisions of 4 teams. And at that point you’re talking 52 new full time mlb jobs which takes up that slack.
If you were unable to land a spot on the 26-man roster, you are going to be in the minors no matter how big the 40-man roster is.
Superb.
I didn’t realize Ottavino was 39, huh.
I didn’t realize he’s already pitched for BOS
Piazza – I didn’t realize I could’ve had a V8!
I understood that reference, is it because I’m old?
I didn’t realize he struck out Babe Ruth every time he faced him.
Piazza – Let’s just say we’ve recently seen the same reruns on Youtube ;O)
YBC – He actually struck out David Wells, who was wearing Babe’s $35K hat and resembled him from a distance.
According to this article, 39 is an “advanced age.” Apparently the old man has one foot in the grave already. I wonder if he can pitch while using his walker.
Excellent signing, Low cost bullpen depth and experience.
That pen is a disaster. Whatever package they get from the Giants for Devers better include a mlb ready pen arm. Devers for Hicks and Eldridge makes sense
Speaking of Youjustmadethatup… Devers is not going anywhere, lol. This 3B/DH thing is completely overblown.
He already has one foot out the door dude. They really screwed him around by not being transparent and involving him on the Bergman move. They’re notorious for that. Sale, O’Neil, and now Devers. Wake up
Multiple people have said that this translator made Dever’s message to be more than it was. He’s supposed to say he’s a 3B, but he never said he would refuse to DH. He will be here opening day, if I’m wrong, I’ll come back and apologize and say you were right. But he’s not going anywhere.
2nd year of a ten year extension…. “one foot out the door”. LOL.
Ok I’ll bite. How the hell was the team not transparent in their dealings with Sale or O’Neill?
Wait! Are you saying that translators aren’t trustworthy???
Ignore this troll that’s how we “disappeared ” KD17
The bad penny returns.
Since this is a baseball site, can’t we call this the “Brad Penny Returns”?
Good risk-free depth signing. Hopefully his late season fade was just being spent. At the very least, he should be able to provide early season filler for any injuries or slow starts.
I imagine he has roster based opt outs come the start of the season.
56 innings with a 3.67 fip and he only can secure an invite to spring training? WTF was his agent doing? Or was he injured?
As the article above states, he faded last August and September with dips in his strikeout-rate and an increase in walks. Mets didn’t even want to use him in the playoffs. I’m also surprised he only got a NRI but it’s likely he held out too long for a better contract with a preferred destination.
Otto was good in his earlier stint with Boston. He could have value but I would also look to younger alternatives that had saves last year like Hector Neris (18 saves). A lot is riding on Liam Hendricks returning to form as a dominant closer. If that falters….. Ottavino could have value overall and in that situation but is unlikely to be the “closer”. (The Mets didn’t use him like a “go to” high leverage arm late last year….). I think they should take a good look at Hector Neris, if he is healthy, as a more likely high leverage situation arm. He also knows Bregman pretty well from 2 years in Houston.
He had a horrible May but outside of that, he was servicable as long as it was in low leverage situations. That being said, I hated watching him pitch for the Mets, especially last season. His body language is awful and he looks annoyed to even be out there. Lots of walks, too.
Ottavino was solid a few years ago for the Sox. If he has any of that left he could be a nice addition
A’s should of went after Adam.
162 games and if you’re starters average 5-6 innings, that’s 500-600 innings out of your bullpen. That’s 10 guys pitching 50-60 innings each. As we know from past history (and Yankees failures), it’s best to limit your top bullpen arms to about 60ish innings for a long postseason run. Then, it’s nice to have some multi-innings guys to throw 80-90 innings apiece. So you MUST have multiple relievers pitching innings where you don’t need them to be perfect. That’s where you stow your new young untested arms and your veteran innings eaters.
Great teams still lose 60ish games. They know enough to not try to win every game and burn out their best bullpen arms (see Yankees note above – they are idiots). Getting some guys who can pitch in games that you easily win by soaking up innings is another plus. But the real trick is having those guys who can pitch innings in games that you lose. Team ERA kind of becomes meaningless because it doesn’t matter whether you lose 10-5 or 15-5.
Aggregate statistics tell a story but not the whole story. The team with the best pitching doesn’t always have the best stats, in fact they might carry some clunkers on their staff the whole season. Fans scratch their heads at the fact that these guys have jobs. Fact is they’re saving the innings for the real talent that gets you to the promised land.
Good signing for Mets fans.He won’t be back in Queens.
Red Sox sign Ohtani! Oh wait
If he can regain any of his old form it will be a great signing. Hope for the best on this one.