Red Sox Should Pursue Nick Pivetta Reunion With Pitcher Seemingly Available

The Boston Red Sox, despite swinging trades for Sonny Gray and Johan Oviedo already this offseason, appear intent on continuing to bolster their pitching staff this offseason. The Sox have been linked to a slew of players, and in one scenario, the team could reunite with a former player.

That player would be starting pitcher Nick Pivetta, who spent the 2025 campaign with the San Diego Padres after the Red Sox let him walk in free agency. Pivetta promptly put together the best season of his career, posting a 13-5 record with a 2.87 ERA and 190 strikeouts, and reports have indicated the Padres are now listening to trade offers for him.

Pivetta showed flashes of his dominance during his four-plus seasons with Boston, but he was rarely able to string it together for long stretches of time. Part of the problem was that Pivetta was being treated as one of the team’s top starters when, in reality, he’s best utilized as a No. 3 or No. 4 guy.

If the Red Sox were to add another starting pitcher, adding a guy like Pivetta would make sense. He finally appears to have put all the pieces of the puzzle together, and his familiarity with Boston and the high expectations would allow him to fit right back into the team as he’d never left.

In a perfect world, the Sox’s front office would use its assets to upgrade its lineup, which is currently the bigger area of need. Craig Breslow is fond of stockpiling as much pitching depth as possible, though, and the addition of Pivetta could free the team up to make a blockbuster trade for a guy like Ketel Marte of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Boston has everything it needs to transform itself into a World Series contender this offseason; it just needs to determine which path is the best one to take. Trading for Pivetta probably isn’t the team’s first option, but if things don’t go the team’s way when it comes to its pursuit of guys like Marte or Alex Bregman, it could be a solid fallback plan.