Red Sox Extend $21 Million Offer To Middling Hurler Over Key Outfielder

Monday, Nov. 4 marked the deadline for Major League Baseball teams to extend any and all Qualifying Offers they wished to offer.

The Qualifying Offer is a varying figure year-to-year, calculated as the average salary among MLB’s top 125 highest-paid players. This year, that figure is $21.05 million.

In a surprising move, the Boston Red Sox elected to extend a qualifying offer to right-hander Nick Pivetta, exceeding what he was projected to fetch on the open market in terms of average annual value.

Pivetta first arrived in Boston via trade in 2020 that sent him from the Philadelphia Phillies to Boston along with Connor Seabold, in exchange for relievers Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree. In his four full seasons in Boston, the righty has posted a 4.33 ERA with a 705-to-224 strikeout-to-walk ratio, .233 batting average against and a 1.242 WHIP in 623 innings for the Red Sox.

Although he reached the 30-start threshold in both 2021 and 2022, Pivetta found himself in the Red Sox’s bullpen in 2023 after starting the year with a 6.30 ERA through his first eight starts.

The decision comes as a shock to some as it is coupled with the Red Sox’s decision to not extend the same Qualifying Offer to outfielder Tyler O’Neill.

Boston’s two biggest needs are starting pitching and right-handed hitting, but in extending the Qualifying Offer to Pivetta and not O’Neill, it seems as though the Red Sox’s front office could be signaling that they are willing to externally acquire the right-handed power they so desperately need.

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