Nathan Eovaldi won’t be taking Chris Sale’s spot in the Boston Red Sox’s rotation anytime soon. But at least one of his new teammates thinks Boston is getting something special in the former Tampa Bay Rays right-hander.
“I immediately thought, ‘I hope that’s the same Eovaldi who was pitching for the Rays. That’s going to be great,’ ” Red Sox first baseman Steve Pearce recently told WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford about his reaction to Boston acquiring Eovaldi in a trade with Tampa on Wednesday.
Pearce was right, considering the veteran pitcher is the only player with the last name “Eovaldi” in the history of Major League Baseball. But there was a reason for Pearce’s enthusiastic reaction: The journeyman infielder faced Eovaldi in 2016 while he was on the Rays and the pitcher was on the New York Yankees.
And Eovaldi left quite the impression.
“I had faced him a couple of times before, but I remember he struck me out and walking back to the dugout, thinking in my head, ‘That is an electric fastball. That is a big league, electric fastball,’ ” Pearce told Bradford. “I thought that was amazing. That was one of the best fastballs I had ever seen.”
Pearce has been around the block a few times — he has 12 years of MLB service and 2,335 plate appearances under his belt — so this is pretty high praise. Eovaldi indeed throws one of the hardest fastballs in the majors, but Pearce says it’s not just the velocity that makes it effective.
“It just explodes out of his hand,” he added. “Some guys can throw 100 mph, but it explodes out of his hand. It really sets up his other pitches, especially if he’s locating in and out. You can’t just sit back, see it and react to it.”
Pearce doesn’t have terrible career numbers against Eovaldi — 2-for-7 with a walk and a strikeout — but apparently he’s glad the 28-year-old is on his side now. And the Red Sox are hoping Eovaldi strikes a similar fear into opposing hitters.
