Are Red Sox really an ‘obvious fit’ to re-sign unsigned free agent righty?

With closer Kenley Jansen having agreed to a one-year, $10 million deal with the Angels on Tuesday, only one key member of the 2024 Red Sox pitching staff remains unsigned. As spring training camps open in Florida and Arizona this week, Nick Pivetta remains without a team and is perhaps the top free agent starter remaining.

Nick Pivetta remains unsigned as camps open throughout Florida and Arizona. (Photo by Paul Rutherford/Getty Images)Getty Images

On paper, the Red Sox don’t seem like a great fit for Pivetta in terms of opportunity after adding Garrett Crochet and Walker Buehler to a rotation that features returnees Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, Lucas Giolito and Tanner Houck. Talks about a potential six-man rotation are already underway and Boston is slated to have Cooper Criswell, Richard Fitts and Quinn Priester as readily available depth options at Triple-A. In terms of rotation options, the Red Sox don’t seem to have much room.

Yet as long as Pivetta remains out there, there will be at least a small chance he returns. On Tuesday, ESPN’s Jeff Passan listed the Red Sox, along with the Guardians and Padres, as “obvious fits” for the 32-year-old righty. The possibility really only makes sense in the context of the factors Pivetta is dealing with in his first time through the free-agent process.

Boston can’t offer Pivetta as good of an opportunity as other clubs and the Sox almost certainly won’t outbid a team banking on upside and offering a lucrative multi-year deal. The Red Sox do have a slight advantage because as Pivetta’s incumbent team, they would not have to sacrifice a draft pick to sign him. His market has surely been suppressed by the fact that after declining Boston’s one-year, $21.05 million qualifying offer, he’s attached to a pick (or multiple picks, depending on the signing club).

With that situation as the backdrop, Pivetta could settle for a one-year deal in Boston and look to head back out on the free agent market again next year. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow remains in the market for relief help and might be interested in signing the righty as a reliever. Pivetta had a 3.07 ERA and 78 strikeouts in 55 ⅔ innings as a versatile bullpen option after being taken out of the rotation in the middle of the 2023, doing everything from following an opener for long outings to pitching in one-inning spurts. A similar role in 2025 could attract the Red Sox at the right price.

Doing so, of course, would mean the Red Sox sacrifice the chance to pick up a draft pick (likely at or around No. 77 overall) if Pivetta signs elsewhere. On Tuesday, Breslow said that wouldn’t be a consideration if he had a chance to make the 2025 team markedly better.

“Given where we are and like I said, the importance that we based on winning in 2025, we’re going to making moves in line with that,” Breslow said. “I think there is a time where the needle is pointed more towards building for the future. And often my role is to balance both of those things. But there’s no question that we’re more calibrated toward winning in 2025 than we have been in the past.”

Pivetta could also remove the draft pick compensation from the equation by waiting until after the mid-July draft to sign with a club but Passan characterized that possibility as “minimal” on Tuesday.