Rarely do the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox make a trade with one another, but the Adam Ottavino deal earlier this offseason was essentially a salary dump move by the Bronx Bombers.
David Ortiz feels a little differently about it, though.
Big Papi could not believe that the Yankees would send the right-handed reliever to their division rival.
“I was happy they got Ottavino from the Yankees,” Ortiz told the Boston Globe. “I couldn’t believe the Yankees did that. He can be nasty. We’ll see how the young talent comes around. But [the Red Sox] have more talent now.”
Ottavino, 35, is coming off a disastrous second season in New York — allowing 12 earned runs in 18.1 innings pitched for a 5.89 ERA and 1.582 WHIP. He was used just once in the postseason, allowing a run in 2/3 of an inning in Game 2 of the ALDS against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Yankees had signed the Brooklyn native, who had boasted he’d strike out Babe Ruth every single time, to a three-year, $27 million contract in an effort to bolster their bullpen.
He posted a 1.90 ERA in his first season but began to show cracks in the postseason when he allowed three earned runs in 2.1 innings across five games in the ALCS against the Houston Astros.
The Yankees sent Ottavino and RHP Frank German to Boston as the Red Sox picked up all but $850,000 of the reliever’s remaining contract while the Yankees received a player to be named later in return.
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