The team that signs Nick Pivetta this offseason will be getting a veteran starter who, as my colleague Ben Clemens stated in our 2025 Top 50 Free Agents rundown, has “long been a favorite of pitching models.” The team will also be getting someone who believes in pitching to his strengths. The 31-year-old right-hander is studious about his craft, but with a notable exception. Poring over scouting reports isn’t his cup of tea.
“I think about it not as a specific hitter, but more of, ‘Is he a lefty or a righty?,’” explained Pivetta, whose past four-plus seasons have been with the Boston Red Sox. “I have certain sequences that I do against lefties or righties. I do the same sequences against either side, no matter the hitter.”
That’s not to say he totally ignores weaknesses. As Pivetta told me in our last-weekend-of-the-season conversation, there are certain hitters who struggle with a particular pitch and/or location, so he might vary his “same game plan around a certain spot.” But for the most part, he is “doing the exact same thing over and over again, just trying to execute.”
The extent to which that is optimal is open for debate. As his 50 Free Agents blurb spells out, Pivetta’s numbers suggest that he has never reached — and perhaps not even approached — his full potential. The stuff is unquestionably plus, but the consistency has clearly been lacking.
The Victoria, British Columbia native has pitched more than 1,000 innings over eight big-league seasons, so opposing teams have a pretty good idea of what to expect when he takes the mound. Moreover, certain lineups will present, at least on paper, a greater challenge for his pitch mix and standard attack plan. Might adherence to advance reports be a meaningful advantage add?
“I really just go against guys with my strengths,” reiterated the righty. “That’s why I’m here. I think that’s what pitching is. It’s what you have, and you attack the same way every time, making the adjustments when you need to make the adjustments. You might use your arsenal in a different way, mix it up, but it’s basically the same at the end of the day.
“I’m going to throw a fastball up, or down-and-away, to a righty. I’m going to throw a sweeper to a righty. I might mix in a curveball or a gyro here or there, but it is going to be mostly fastball-sweeper. To a lefty, I’m going to mix in my curveball and go fastball up a little bit more, with maybe a couple of hard downers. I mean, I do look at swings and pay attention to body language during at-bats, and I have an idea from playing against guys in the past, but at the end of the day it is my strengths against their strengths.”
Pivetta received a qualifying offer from the Red Sox and has until 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday to either accept or decline.
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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS
Gleyber Torres is 0 for 15 against Chris Sale.
Jesse Winker is 0 for 15 against Yu Darvish.
Willy Adames is 0 for 16 against Aaron Nola.
Matt Olson is 0 for 21 against Gerrit Cole.
Joey Gallo is 0 for 22 against Charlie Morton.
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Like all teams, the Detroit Tigers will be in the market for arms this winter. Scott Harris was forthright on that desire during the GM Meetings, telling The Detroit Free Press’s Evan Petzold, “We need to add more pitching… we saw what a major league season can do to your pitching depth. In one moment you can feel like you’re really deep, and two weeks later you’re struggling to find more innings.”
As fans are well aware, a good many of the innings that Harris’s club was forced to find in 2024 came via the bullpen, and although the nontraditional usage largely bore fruit, he doesn’t see it as an ideal. The team’s top executive feels it would work again in 2025, but as he told me in San Antonio, “I don’t think we’re going to do that.”
Which brings us to the type of arms he will look to acquire, and what it will cost to bring them on board. The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier asked Harris if he believes there is a convergence of values, specifically in market value, between high-octane, late-innings relievers and traditional starters.
“No,” Harris replied. “I think every winter you’re going to see starters make huge AAVs, because everyone needs starting pitching. And the value of effective starters couldn’t be higher. At the end of the day, you’re just trying to get outs, and given the personnel we have, we’re going to try to deploy them in a sequence that gives us the best chance of getting the most outs and winning the game. In terms of pure value, the market will tell you that starters have higher value than relievers. I’m not saying I endorse that, but the market bears that out year over year.”
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A quiz:
Which pitcher holds the Seattle Mariners franchise record for most wins in a single season?
The answer can be found below.
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NEWS NOTES
Cole Irvin has reportedly signed with the KBO’s Doosan Bears. The 30-year-old left-hander had a 511 ERA over 111 innings this season, pitching for the Baltimore Orioles and the Minnesota Twins.
Dave Sims is leaving Seattle after 18 seasons to become the new radio voice of the New York Yankees. The 71-year-old Philadelphia native is a 2025 Ford C. Frick finalist.
Don Ferrarese, a left-hander who took the mound for five teams during an MLB career that spanned the 1955-1962 seasons, died earlier this month at age 95. Ferrarese went 19-36 with a 4.00 ERA over 183 appearances, the best of his outings being a two-hit shutout of the Mickey Mantle–Yogi Berra Yankees while playing for the Baltimore Orioles in 1956.
Al Ferrara, an outfielder who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, and Cincinnati Reds across the 1963-1971 seasons, died this week at age 84. A Brooklyn native who logged a 121 wRC+ over 574 games, Ferrara was an accomplished pianist who also dabbled in acting. He appeared in episodes of Gilligan’s Island and Batman.
The San Francisco Giants have hired Randy Winn to the newly created role of Vice President of Player Development; he will work alongside Andy Haines, who will remain as Senior Director of Player Development.
The Toronto Blue Jays have hired David Bell as their Vice President of Baseball Operations and Assistant General Manager. The former Cincinnati Reds manager’s duties will include will overseeing player development and physical & mental performance.
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SOME RECENT COACHING CHANGES
The Pittsburgh Pirates have hired Brent Strom, most recently with the Arizona Diamondbacks, as an assistant pitching coach. he will work alongside returning pitching coach Oscar Marin.
The Diamondbacks have hired Brian Kaplan as their new pitching coach. A co-founder of Cressey Sports Performance’s Florida facility, Kaplan spent the past three seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies as an assistant pitching coach and director of pitching,
The Cleveland Guardians have promoted Grant Fink, who had been the minor league hitting coordinator, to hitting coach. Other promotions are Jason Esposito to assistant hitting coach and Craig Albernaz to assistant manager.
The Boston Red Sox have hired Chris Holt, formerly with the Baltimore Orioles, as their bullpen coach.
The Chicago White Sox have hired Ryan Fuller, formerly with the Orioles, to the newly-created position of director of hitting.
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The answer to the quiz is Jamie Moyer, who was credited with 21 wins in 2003. If you guessed Randy Johnson, his highest win total as a Mariner was 20. Félix Hernández and Mark Langston topped out at 19.
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Baltimore’s recent changes in the coaching department included promoting Cody Asche, who had been the team’s offensive strategy coach, to hitting coach, while Tommy Joseph is coming on board as an assistant hitting coach after serving in that role with the Seattle Mariners. Rounding out the staff will be Sherman Johnson, who has been a minor league hitting coordinator in the Orioles organization. Departing along with the aforementioned Fuller is Matt Borgschulte, who was co-hitting coach, and is now with the Minnesota Twins.
Mike Elias was asked about the changes on Friday when he met with the media over Zoom to announce the forthcoming modifications of Camden Yards, which include both moving in and lowering the fences.
“Overall, we have an offensive philosophy, and a group of hitting coaches throughout the organization that are at the top of their field,” Elias told reporters. “We had a top-five offense his year [the Orioles were fourth in runs scored and tied for third in wRC+ among MLB clubs], despite the funk that the lineup went into in the second half. But it still rated among the top offenses, and as you can see, there are teams very eager to hire hitting coaches from us.
“We’re always improving, modifying, adjusting,” added Elias. “This is a game of evolution. I think there are areas we can emphasize better, and we can find a better blend. We’re going to have discussions and meetings throughout the organization all winter on ways in which we can retain the best aspects of our current program, but refine and tweak areas where we think we can be a little bit smarter and a little bit better.”
As Orioles fans know all too well, the offense was less productive over the final two months, with a lack of timely hits often one of the issues. As Elias suggested, striking a better balance between mechanics and mental approach was in order.
“A theme for baseball right now is that there is so much knowledge and science that goes into hitters’ perfecting their swings,” he said. ‘Sort of meeting that with ways to adjust approach in certain game situations, certain counts, certain scores. Just refining the whole program.”
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Japan beat Korea 4-2 on Friday in a Premier 12 matchup that featured two of Asia’s brightest young stars. Twenty-two-year-old NPB right-hander Hiroto Takahashi fanned 21-year-old KBO third baseman Do Yeong Kim twice. At 3-0, Japan is the lone undefeated team in the tourney.
Six pitchers combined for a one-hit shutout on Friday as Australia surprised the Dominican Republic 5-0 in Premier 12 action. Robbie Perkins, a Canberra native who played in the Colorado Rockies system from 2013-2018, had a home run and four RBIs.
The Australian Baseball League got underway on Friday, with the Sydney Blue Sox beating the defending champion Adelaide Giants 5-4 behind strong efforts by a 22-year-old Japanese outfielder and a 28-year-old right-hander from Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. Daito Yamamoto went 3-for-5 and scored twice, while Landen Bourassa allowed one hit over six scoreless innings.
Young Woo Shin supplied the ABL’s other stellar pitching performance on opening day. The 20-year-old Korean right-handed threw four hitless innings with eight strikeouts as the Perth Heat beat the Brisbane Bandits 5-0.
Also in Australia, Greg Bird homered three times for the Melbourne Aces as they beat the Canberra Cavalry 5-1 on Saturday. The 32-year-old former MLB first baseman played for the Mexican League’s Charros de Jalisco earlier this year.
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A random obscure former player snapshot:
It was Andy Karl’s record that was broken when Mike Marshall pitched 179 relief innings for the Montreal Expos in 1973 (Marshall then broke his own record the following year when he threw an incredible 208-and-a-third relief innings for the Los Angeles Dodgers). Karl — long forgotten if not obscure in baseball’s annals — had thrown 163-and-two-thirds innings out of the Philadelphia Phillies bullpen in 1945. The right-hander from Mount Vernon, New York did so over a league-leading 65 appearances, recording eight wins, 15 saves, and a 3.02 ERA along the way. He also started a pair of games, losing both while allowing eight runs, five of them earned, over 14 innings.
The rest of Karl’s career was relatively unremarkable. All told, he went 18-23 with a 3.51 ERA over five seasons, seeing action with the Phillies, Boston Braves, and Boston Red Sox.
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FARM NOTES
The Arizona Fall League championship game was played last night with the Salt River Rafters topping the Surprise Saguaros 3-2. Kansas City Royals first base prospect Jac Caglianone, the sixth-overall pick in this year’s draft, had three hits for the losing side.
Josue Briceño led the AFL in batting average, slugging percentage, and OPS while slashing .442/.515/.884 over 101 plate appearances with the Scottsdale Scorpions. The 20-year-old catcher/first baseman also led in home runs [10] and RBIs [27], making him the first Triple Crown winner in the AFL’s 32-year history. Briceño had 123 wRC+ this season with Low-A Lakeland.
Caleb Durbin set the AFL’s single-season stolen base record by swiping 29 bags (in 30 attempts) while also slashing .312/.427/.548 over 117 plate appearances with the Salt River Rafters. The 24-year-old infielder, whom the Yankees need to add to their 40-man roster lest he be available in December’s Rule-5 draft, had 10 home runs, 29 steals, and a 129 wRC+ this season in Triple-A.
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The St. Louis Cardinals should have a solid starting staff going into next season, but it won’t be particularly young. Four members of the projected rotation will be 32 or older on opening day, while the fifth is 26. With that in mind, I asked John Mozeliak how close some of the organization’s top pitching prospects are to joining the mix.
“If you’re asking about Quinn Mathews, he’s very close,” the president of baseball operations said of the 24-year-old southpaw. “He finished the season at Triple-A. The one thing we have right now is starting pitching, so how we integrate that, or what the next steps to that are, is really just going to key on what kind of opportunities they will have.”
Mathews, a 2023 fourth-round pick out of Stanford who began this past season in Low-A before steadily rising in the ranks, is one of the the organization’s two top pitching prospects along with 22-year-old right-hander Tink Hence. Rated by our friends at Baseball America as having the system’s best fastball and best slider, Hence had a 2.71 ERA, a 2.51 FIP, and 109 strikeouts over 79-and-two-thirds inning in Double-A.
Hence’s proximity to St. Louis?
“I think Tink, given the year he had… there is still some development ahead for him,” said Mozeliak. “But both of those guys [will be] knocking on the door pretty soon.”
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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE
At Sportico, Barry Bloom wrote about the A’s and the Rays gearing down to play a season in minor league parks.
The Miami Marlins hired Clayton McCullough, who spent the last three seasons as the first base coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers, as their new manager. Isaac Azout has the story, which includes who reportedly did and didn’t interview for the job, at Fish on First.
Kyle Hendricks is now a Los Angeles Angel after spending his first 11 MLB seasons as a Chicago Cub. Maddie Lee has the story at The Chicago Sun Times.
The Athletic’s Katie Woo wrote about how the St. Louis Cardinals are planning to emphasize youth in 2025 (subscription required).
At The Japan Times, Jason Coskrey wrote about how posting Roki Sasaki leaves the Chiba Lotte Marines in an awkward position.
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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS
Ken Boyer averaged 24 home runs over his first 10 MLB seasons (1955-1964). The St. Louis Cardinals third baseman homered 24 times in each of the 1961, 1962, 1963, and 1964 seasons.
Steve Garvey slashed .338/.361/.550 with 11 home runs and a 155 wRC+ in 232 postseason plate appearances. Bryce Harper has slashed .280/.394/.622 with 17 home runs and a 171 wRC+ in 232 postseason plate appearances
Red Barrett won a National League-best 23 games while pitching for both the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Braves in 1945. That same season, Philadelphia Phillies right-hander “Kewpie Dick” Barrett lost an NL-worst 20 games and Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Johnny Barrett was caught stealing an NL-worst 13 times (Boston’s Carden Gillenwater was also caught 13 times). None of the Barretts were related.
Frank Thomas signed as a free agent with the Toronto Blue Jays on today’s date in 2006.. The “Big Hurt” went on to hit 26 of his 521 career home runs while logging a 127 wRC+ in his one full season north of the border.
On today’s date in 1947, the Boston Red Sox acquired right-hander Jack Kramer and shortstop Vern Stephens from the St. Louis Browns in exchange for six comparably-nondescript players. Kramer went 18-5 with Boston in 1948 before tailing off in subsequent seasons. Stephens slugged 98 home runs and had an MLB-best 440 RBIs while
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