Craig Breslow meets with the media at the GM Meetings
SAN ANTONIO - Craig Breslow sitting up in his suite on the first day of the GM Meetings explaining why he decided to offer Nick Pivetta a qualifying offer was not what many expected.
But there Breslow was, articulating the reasoning behind committing to a one-year, $21.05 million deal for Pivetta, a pitcher who was thought by many to be heading into the free agent market without such a tag affixed to him.
"We had a bunch of internal conversations and without getting too far into the specifics, we have been pretty outspoken about our need for pitching," Breslow said regarding the decision involving the 31-year-old. "Obviously, we know Nick really well. This is ultimately where we landed. We’ll see how it plays out from here.
"I think we definitely saw stretches of him just being dominant. We can dissect the performance to a greater degree, but he’s a guy who has performed well in this market. Has kind of all the underlying metrics. He gets a ton of swing and miss. He doesn’t walk guys. He can get guys out pitching in the strike zone. So as you think about what a major league starting pitcher needs to be able to do in order to be successful I think he has a lot of those ingredients."
Pivetta is coming off a season in which he made 26 starts, totaling a record of 6-12 with a 4.14 ERA. The righty also was perceived as a popular target for some teams because of his underlying metrics and pitch movement, which led to a strikeout percentage in the 88th percentile.
So, where does this leave Pivetta and the Red Sox?
Any team other than the Red Sox that signs the starter this offseason must forfeit a draft pick, with the Sox getting compensation if that scenario plays out.
As for the Sox' starting rotation, it currently now has five members under contract for next season - Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Brayan Bello, Lucas Giolito and Pivetta. The commitment to Pivetta might only mean that Breslow is better positioned to use one of his starters to secure another need.
"I am not going to be the guy who goes on record saying you can have too much pitching. Those things don’t exist," said Breslow, who is currently without a lefty in the rotation. "This was a decision we obviously made, but what remains is that we will continue to explore all path to improve the team. I said it, Sam said it, Alex said it at the end of the season press conference. Our goal is to build a team that can contend for the division and we are going to have to be aggressive and decisive to do that."
As for the decision not to extend a qualifying offer to outfielder Tyler O'Neill, Breslow would only say, "We gave a ton of consideration to all decisions and without getting into too far into specifics, this is where we landed."
In all, 13 free agents received qualifying offers: Juan Soto, Corbin Burnes, Alex Bregman, Max Fried, Willy Adames, Teoscar Hernandez, Christian Walker, Sean Manaea, Luis Severino, Anthony Santander, Pete Alonso and Nick Martinez.