The Red Sox have a minor league deal with reliever Vinny Nittoli, reports Ari Alexander of Boston 7 News. The Gaeta Sports Management client receives a non-roster invitation to MLB Spring Training.
Nittoli is now on the 12th organization of a decade-long professional career. The 35-year-old righty has gotten to the major league level with five of those clubs. His career high in MLB appearances with one team is seven, as he threw eight innings for the Athletics in 2024. Nittoli has had cups of coffee with the Mariners, Phillies, Mets and Orioles as well. He has logged 18 2/3 major league innings, striking out 13 against five walks while allowing five runs.
A former 25th round pick, Nittoli has spent six seasons at the Triple-A level. He owns a 4.76 earned run average in 223 innings despite a strong 28.3% strikeout rate. Nittoli combined for a 4.58 ERA with a 26% strikeout percentage and 8% walk rate between Baltimore’s and Milwaukee’s top affiliates last year. He worked primarily with a cutter that averaged 89 MPH while mixing in a low-90s sinker and low-80s curveball.
Nittoli is out of options, so he’d need to stick on the MLB roster or be exposed to waivers if the Red Sox call him up. He joins Seth Martinez, Hobie Harris, Devin Sweet and Tayron Guerrero as non-roster invites who have MLB experience.
Congratulazioni Vinny! Che Gioia!!
Just a temporary move after clearing two 40 man spots. He’ll soon be designated. Whether he’s claimed is something we’ll then find out.
Minor League Deals dont take up a 40-man spot. He wont need to be designated.
A depth pickup. I still like Seth Martinez the best though.
This obsession with every piece of trash being laundered through the organization is tedious. Please stop.
The number of people moved through Breslow’s 51 trades, and the dozens of these minor league signings of trash fish is laughable.
Easy now, every organization makes a pile of minor league and ST fillout signings every year.
Lol, the Sox have assembled one of the more exciting rosters since 2018 and this is your response?
Seems you’re the only one obsessed with this ‘piece of trash,’ who in all likelihood will not see the majors and will just be minor league depth with ML experience to share with Pawtucket.
dirty – while thats true, that bar is so low that it’s essentially meaningless.
Please stop filling out the AAA roster!
Hey suit – I agree, how many guys on that Worcester roster anyway?!?!?!
LOL
In fact, do away with the WooSox completely.
Joe – obviously its a joke, denoted by the LOL.
As i’ve been saying consistently for years, there is a 25yo somewhere that can go to Fort Myers and get hit around too. We went through this last year with Robert Stock, it doesnt end well……..
My cousin.
Didn’t the Sox just sign Vinny Capra as well? They may have not gotten a viable infielder to replace Bregman, but at least they have plenty of Vinnys now.
Though he wasn’t there long I always thought the Orioles should have given him more of a shot. They didn’t have anything to lose they fell off a cliff in that second half.
Dude has those Meg Foster eyes.
Go Xavier Musketeers!
I’m gonna go ahead and predict he has “elite extension”.
Surprise! I was right. 95 percentile. Pretty wild he’s only 6ft with a 7’2 extension. Lil bugger must spring board off the rubber
I don’t see any drawbacks to pursuing pitchers with elite extension.
Suit – its the Driveline robot army of baseball players……some diversity in the personnel skills will present more challenges to the opponents matchups than to run out the same guy over and over
Do you think Sonny Gray and Ranger Suarez offer diversity? Every pitcher with elite extension is not the same pitcher. Elite extension just starts your stuff closer to the batter, whatever that stuff is, which makes it harder to hit.
Not sure anyone was confused about what elite extension means.
Sean P:
Clearly, some people think pitchers with elite extension all pitch the same way. — “run out the same guy over and over”. — So, a simplified explanation seemed appropriate.
BPF – not sure that you’ve heard, but Driveline espouses a biomechanical pitching philosophy that is heavily reliant on the importance of extension.
In so much as many major league teams, including the Red Sox, use Driveline instructors throughout their systems, pitching across the league is starting to mimic itself in many spots. If you’ve watched any baseball recently, you will notice a proliferation of a brand of high velocity, high extension pitching mechanics that blends into a similar setup, delivery and finish. So, needless to say if you are a fan of Luis Tiant, no need to tryout for your local youth travel team because Driveline now has $500 online youth pitching video lessons. So, the Driveline approach is not going away anytime soon.
It is my assertion that by creating (lets say) a bullpen of similar delivery approach relievers you are creating a lineup that (may) be easier to hit, than say one that has (some) Driveline disciples and some random deiveries that may be seen by MLB hitters less.
Sorry I had to explain that too you. But, its early in the morning. you still have time to go steal some other kid’s lunch money.
Fair enough. It is interesting that their preference is similar body types (6’4 230lbs +) and similar arm slots, along with elite extension. Perhaps the lab has a particular pitch shape it’s found that it’s trying to exploit?
Having said that, and on a side note… “Pitch shape” is my nomination for overused phrase of the year in the baseball analytics community.
Sean P _ hahahahahahahahaha I second your nomination!!!! Finally, something all posters can agree on
Its not simply a Red Sox phenomenon either. Front offices across MLB have these Driveline guys embedded in their systems. They are the hot commodity. They always say the NFL is a copycat league.
Personally, I think that baseball is too long of a grind to have too much of the same, same.
My response was to “run the same guy out over and over” — As it was stated, that pitchers who have great extension are automatically the same type of pitcher..
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Payton Tolle 6’6″ has great extension and relies heavily on his fastball (64%).
Christopher Sanchez 6’6″ has great extension and rarely uses a fastball (0%).
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These two pitchers’ styles are nothing alike and both have great extension. Thinking great extension pitchers are all the same is incorrect. No matter how bad you want to shift the goal posts to a different point.
BPF – everyone is on pins and needles waiting for Spring Training to start already……….
you make a great point, extension isn’t repertoire
Sean P:
Good point. I looked at a few players that meet the criteria, who had improvements since coming under Breslow/Bailey tutorage — Chapman, Crochet, Bello and Whitlock and there doesnt seem to be one common factor (arm slot, extension change, pitch type). Maybe, there’s a slight increase in movement, but nothing earth shattering.
But, they all seem to have improved statistically. Which leads to me wondering why they think they can take Oviedo to the next level, or why they traded for Song (5’10”). Maybe it is “Pitch Shape”. There’s something they’re doing differently, the numbers speak for themselves.
Any ideas, I’d appreciate your thoughts.
BPF – as to your second point about the “shift the goal posts” claim, the Red Sox pattern has been to identify pitchers with high velocity and high extension, i am not making that up, that’s fact.
Now, if you understand what extension brings to the table, it flattens pitches and either directly speeds them up, or gives them the appearance of speed. Thus, fastballs benefit from the added velocity and, in the case of Sanchez, the changeup (which he throws about 37.5% of the time) gets the appearance of the fastball in order to tunnel the pich and make it less perceptible to the batter.
Pitchers that have above average breaking balls tend to extend less in order to get more break. Again, not me, thats science.
If you want to continue to throw out pitchers we can go through each one individually…….the point is the Red Sox have a “type”
beyondthemonster.substack.com/p/ranger-suarez-fits…
BPF – just like every other front office, there are hits and misses
nbcsportsboston.com/mlb/boston-red-sox/ranger-suar…
I’m not ready to give Breslow and Bailey credit for Crochet, or Bello. my question is why haven’t they fixed Kyle Harrison?
Sad Sox:
Im not giving B&B credit for anything other than improving those players numbers. Crochet and Bello had their best ERAs and Whips of their careers in 2025. You really think its a coincidence, that Chapman had his best season of his career at age 37 under their philosophy. That it couldve happened anywhere?
Are far as Kyle Harrison. He’s pitched 12 innings for the Red Sox, and if I remember correctly, he was injured at the time. We have no idea if he’s “fixed” right now.
—–
Youre kidding with that video right? Hendricks Injured, Giolito Injured, Sandoval Injured, GMs cant predict injury or recovery times. Once you take out the three injured players, that group is very good to excellent.
BPF – hmmmmmm, I am not sure about Chapman, maybe Cora had a good effect on him (don’t know if he ever had a native spanish speaking manager before). I will say that he was better and give them credit for that. If he does it again, i will absolutely say they did it
For Bello, again, i’m not sure. In 2024 Bello and Bailey butted heads over pitch selection. Ultimately, Bello was given more leeway in getting “his” pitches more in the mix, so maybe 2025 was a product of some middle ground.
Where i will definitely give Breslow credit is with his drafts of college pitchers. I think that (obviously Tolle, but also Witherspoon, Aita and Phillips can all be major league SPs.
If you really break down the physics involved with pitch shape modeling… expected horizontal and vertical movement based on velocity, spin rate, release points… hell even air density… and gravitational pull lol… the pitchers actual extension is the one variable that would seem to have the biggest impact in the shape of the pitch itself. I’m really hoping our pitching lab is on to something special, a market discrepancy if you will, and we can take advantage of it before the rest of the league catches on/up. It’s going to be very obvious right away if so.
We discussed these things 15 years ago when I was playing college ball in south Florida but obviously there’s an entire science dedicated to it now. It used to just be called making the batter uncomfortable. And late movement was king.
The Rich Hill of the minor leagues.
Baseball fans show their lack of knowledge when they complain about signings like this. There’s absolutely no cost to giving guys opportunities to earn a bullpen role. Cry some more that we didn’t overspend on every free agent possible. Oh and then of course cry that we signed them in the first place in year 2.
Soxfan1 – how is it lack of knowledge to know that a player who is 35, on his 12th team and was originally a 35th round pick isn’t going to be Roy Hobbs? How’d that Robert Stock signing work out last year.
By the way guys, I have been consistent in one thing for years. Inviting a 35 year old to camp isn’t helpful. Somewhere in the world there is a 25yo who can do the same thing. The problem with the Sox is, they can’t find those guys because they so severely cut the scouting department. The needs do however have data on a guy like this and make the recommendation to bring him in because he fits the mold. If you think thats made up ask someone in the Boston scouting field (cause thats what I did).
By the way, no one was conflating major league big ticket free agent signings and this.
Inviting a 35 year old to camp isn’t helpful.
==================
Justin Wilson & Aroldis Chapman say hello. In fact there were 13 RPs with 40+ IPs and an ERA of under 4.00.
And I’ve several RS fans say we should pursue Coulombe.
Joe- COME ON!!!!! There is a deep divide between Justin wilson and another 35yo that has 15 CAREER appearances in their 12 year pro career…………..
There are a lot of things you can say I’m wrong about (and easily accept that) but not sure this is the one……..
How about Rich Hill? Aaron Small? Again, the measure of risk versus reward doesn’t deserve the complaints and groans.
Sox – Most ‘fans’ do not get the math. Aside from being talented enough just to make an MLB team, minimum pay is a pro-rated $780,000 or $4300 pre-DAY. That means just a two week call up would mean $60,000 in addition to what they make in AAA the rest of the season mean players can make over $100,000 per year even if they are only injury replacement depth. That is not bad for playing a game. If I were talented enough to play even a couple weeks per season in the MLB (AAA the rest of the time), and the until 35, I would do it.
It’s looking for efficiencies in business operations, simply put. The player can be let go at any time if a better risk reward option comes up.
Yes, it is interesting to see how many players have been claimed, dfa, claimed, dfa, claimed all in one offseason on the same player. It is just normal business to see if a team can pass through a player to AAA when they do not have options. These fringe players just have to be flexible with short term rentals on whatever city they are in.
These are human beings that have accomplished more than you ever will in professional sports. I still can’t believe how some of you will trash them so cruelly. How can you not give him credit for trying to make it to the majors, and working his way through the minors every year. You should be ashamed of yourselves, you superstars.
Steve – really?
Steve – While I agree with you that trashing fringe MLB players is wrong, the players understand going in that being trashed is part of being a professional athlete. The greatest players in MLB history get trashed too, being a pro athlete requires thick skin. Most athletes have it.
FPG – very diplomatically done!
thanks
Sad – Thanks!
Have you been following Alanna and Carrabis recently? They are telling it like it is, and I love it!
Alanna Rizzo: “The Red Sox don’t have a money problem, they have a decisionmaking problem. They have a ‘lets wait around because we think people want to play for the Red Sox’ problem.. When you trade Raffy Devers less than 2 years into a 10-year contract that tells Alex Bregman even if he signed with the Red Sox he still might be moved at any time. And they saved $200M on Raffy’s contract and didn’t put the money anywhere. What are the Red Sox doing?”
Bless you Alanna, so good to see even NESN employees get it!!! I’ve been saying for years the Red Sox are extremely arrogant, Red Sox Nation knows it too.
And from Carrabis: “The Red Sox came into the offseason needing to address their lack of homeruns in 2025 (self-inflicted fallout from trading Raffy) so they promptly lowballed Alonso and didn’t offer contracts to Schwarber or Eugenio. If the Red Sox don’t spend the money they just saved on the Jordan Hicks trade, then that would mean that they just salary dumped their salary dump. That will make me extremely angry.”
Love it!!! See, not every Sox employee is a programmed soulless suit. Some of them actually care about winning, actually care about how the organization is viewed globally.
The Red Sox payroll has gone up. To imply they are not spending money is ridiculous. Crochet’s salary increased. Roman Anthony’s salary increased. They signed Ranger Suarez. Alana Rizzo is probably still unhappy the Red Sox beat her beloved Dodgers in 2018.
Forgetttt abouttttt
GO TRADE WITH THE METS FOR CHRISTIAN ARROYO TO MAN 2B HE HIT .301 IN 50 GANES IN AAA AND WE KNOW HAS A VERY GOOD GLOVE. CASE CLOSED