Red Sox Eyeing Reunion With Free Agent Pitcher

• Updated Jan 30, 2025 at 8:24am

The market for free agent starter Nick Pivetta hasn't materialized.

Free agent starter Nick Pivetta could return to the Boston Red Sox now that his market has all but disappeared. Both The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey and MLB Network’s Jon Morosi have reported that Pivetta and his camp could be getting desperate as the multiple offers they expected this winter have failed to materialize.

“I can’t see Pivetta signing on a short-term deal as a reliever coming off his best year as a starter,” writes McCaffery in her weekly mailbag column, “Both he and the Red Sox expressed interest in a reunion.”

Pivetta notched a 6–12 win-loss record for the Red Sox last year with a 4.14 ERA, striking out 172 batters over 142⅔ innings. Boston extended a one-year, $21.05 million qualifying offer to Pivetta after last season, which he declined, making him a free agent as of November 19, 2024. Any team that signs Pivetta will need to surrender at least one draft pick in the upcoming MLB draft.

He was one of a handful of remaining free agents Morosi discussed on MLB Network’s “Hot Stove” on Wednesday. “The draft pick is the most important consideration here for Nick Pivetta,” Morosi said, “And for that reason, there are those in the industry who believe that the best fit for him, right now, is going back to Boston because, of course, they would not have to give up a pick to sign back their own player.”

The 31-year-old native of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada was selected by the Washington Nationals in the fourth round of the 2013 MLB draft out of New Mexico Junior College.

If he returns, Pivetta would likely compete for a back of the rotation or long relief role with depth options like Kutter Crawford, Cooper Criswell, and Richard Fitts.

Jay Pritchard covers the Boston Red Sox and Major League Baseball for Heavy.com. More about Jay Pritchard