Perhaps the New York Yankees shouldn’t have just given Adam Ottavino to the Boston Red Sox.
The Yankees sent the veteran reliever — plus prospect Frank German — to the Red Sox this offseason for cash or a player to be named later. It is exceedingly rare for the Red Sox and Yankees to do business together, but New York’s top exec acted like it wasn’t a big deal at the time.
“I thought Chaim Bloom — it was a smart play by him,” Cashman said. “He gets to import a player that’s going to have a bounce-back year, I’m sure, because it’s hard to judge a player on a shortened season. (Ottavino) is better than what his numbers showed last year. Otto was well-liked in our clubhouse, provided full effort, competed to the best of his abilities and had a lot of success Year 1. In a shortened season, not the season he or we all wanted, but he was a good teammate, a good person and did everything he possibly could to help us succeed. Last thing I wanted to do was put him in the hands of our competitors but ultimately I’m not afraid to do business with everybody if it serves what our purposes have to be.”
Cashman then admitted it was a cap dump — sorry, “salary flexibility maneuver.”
Well, Ottavino has since become a pivotal late-inning arm for the Red Sox, who boast one of the top bullpens in baseball.
Fast forward to Saturday, and Ottavino was responsible for closing the door on the Sox’s 4-2 victory at Fenway Park. He entered in the eighth with two outs and the bases loaded, and got Luke Voit to ground out to end the frame. And though he allowed one run in the ninth, he slammed the door shut by striking out Aaron Judge to end the game.
The Yankees, for their part, now sit 5.5 games behind the Red Sox in the American League East, and are desperately trying to avoid getting swept by the Sox in Sunday’s series finale.
