The Red Sox just further bolstered their starting pitching depth with the acquisition of Johan Oviedo from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Jeff Passan had the news earlier this evening:
One of the first things you’ll notice about Oviedo is his size. At 6′6″ and 275 pounds, he becomes the largest player on the team, clocking in as tall, but even heavier than Garrett Crochet and Payton Tolle.
If you’re not familiar with Oviedo, that may be because he’s only started nine games over the last two seasons. He had Tommy John in December 2023, and then had a right lat strain this spring that kept him out until August. Upon return, he made nine starts and posted a 3.57 ERA.
The general book on Oviedo is he has a good fastball, great extension, but control issues have kept him from going to the next level. In his last full season of baseball in 2023, he led all of MLB in hit batters with 13.
So the question now of course is can the Red Sox fix the command issues? Well, at least one of our authors here at Over The Monster seems to think it’s possible. The first three words sent from Jacob Roy in our Slack room after hearing of the trade were “This is awesome.” So stay tuned for more of his thoughts in the next handful of days.
Now while fans will probably like Oviedo because of his upside, John Henry will probably like him because he’s cheap. He made just $850,000 last season as the Tommy John delayed any sort of salary bump in arbitration, and he still has two years of control left (through the end of the 2027 season). It’s also worth noting that Oviedo only further bolsters the pitching depth, which was already further established with the trade for Sonny Gray last week.
The great thing for narrative pushers is that this move will bolster whichever side of the No. 2 starter debate you’d like to push. If you don’t think they getting a legit No. 2 starter, the extra depth being aquired clearly points to that. But if you do think they’re going to get a No. 2 starter, the extra pitching depth clearly allows them to trade some of it and end up with more quality instead of quantity in the end. This is a real win for everybody!
In addition to Oviedo, the Red Sox will also be getting Tyler Samaniego and catcher Adonys Guzman. Samaniego, a left-handed reliever, was already on the 40-man roster for Pittsburgh, which created a domino effect and meant the Red Sox had to DFA Cooper Criswell to make room. There’s still a chance he could fall through and find his was back to Worcester if no other team files a claim.
Headed further west on the Mass Pike will be Jhostynxon Garcia (The Password) and Jesus Travieso from A-ball. Garcia’s departure seems very appropriate with the current outfield logjam. And considering that logjam might only get worse if Kristian Campbell ends up better suited there than in the infield, there’s just no way the man known as The Password was going to unlock many at bats from the outfield this season.
Interestingly enough, this also marks another trade where Craig Breslow sent a bat to Pittsburgh in exchange for a pitcher. The other recent example being in the summer of 2024 when they acquired Quinn Priester for Nick Yorke.
