Why Red Sox Made ‘Good Call’ With Qualifying Offer To Nick Pivetta

The Boston Red Sox offseason is expected to be full of moves. But the first one they made was a bit of a head-scratcher.

The Red Sox extended a qualifying offer worth a healthy $21.05 million to Nick Pivetta. The veteran right-hander has until Nov. 19 to accept the offer.

While surprising, the decision by the Red Sox regarding Pivetta could end up being very shrewd, as The Boston Globe’s Julian McWilliams explained alongside Jahmai Webster during Monday’s episode of NESN’s “310 To Left” podcast.

“I got a text from an agent, unprompted, who said, ‘I feel pretty good about being bullish on Boston offering Pivetta the QO. Good call on their part. You like both tracks,'” McWilliams said. “I think that in some sense you’re looking at someone who, yes, you know what you’re going to get, right? But you’re also going to get some guy who doesn’t get injured, eats innings. His ERA will probably be above four. That’s just who he is, but he’s very, very durable, particularly toward the latter part of the season.

“And the second piece of that is, I think the industry values Pivetta a lot more than we give him credit for because we see him everyday. And it’s just totally off metrics. I spoke to somebody from the Astros who said that they were interested in getting him at the deadline. That’s a team that’s been able to put together pitching staffs and everything like that.

“I think ultimately Pivetta can get more than that on the open market. I think the Red Sox realize how much he’s been valued. And in turn, if he does get a larger amount of money, the Red Sox get a compensation pick.”

McWilliams referenced how the Red Sox gave a qualifying offer to Xander Bogaerts before the shortstop landed a massive 11-year, $280 million deal in free agency to join the San Diego Padres two years ago. The Red Sox got a compensatory pick in return and turned it into Kristian Campbell, one of the fastest-rising prospects in all of baseball.

So, whether Pivetta comes back to Boston or goes elsewhere, the Red Sox put themselves in a win-win situation.

You can catch the entire conversation between McWilliams and Webster as well as all episodes of “310 To Left” on YouTube and Spotify.