Nick Pivetta declined the Red Sox’ $21.05 million qualifying offer on Tuesday, making the righthander a free agent.
The decision came as no surprise. Although Pivetta’s success has largely positioned him as a fringe starter, his stuff intrigues teams, fueling hopes of developing him into an elite starter, even as he enters his age-32 season.
Pivetta began to find his stride in the middle of the 2023 season after he was demoted to the bullpen, but the Sox brought him back as a starter at the end of the year with the hope of him pounding the strike zone. Pivetta carried that over into this past season, with his walk rate decreasing from 8.5 to 6.1 percent. He did that while maintaining a 28.9 percent strikeout rate.
“We definitely saw stretches of him just being dominant,” Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said recently during the GM meetings in San Antonio. “He’s a guy that has performed well in this market, has all of the underlying metrics. He gets a ton of swing and miss. He doesn’t walk guys. He can get guys out pitching in the strike zone. So as you think about what a major league starting pitcher needs to be able to do to be successful, he has a lot of those ingredients.”
Pivetta made 26 starts in 2024, going 6-12 with a 4.14 ERA and 1.126 WHIP in 145⅔ innings. Pivetta experienced the first significant injured list stint of his career because of a flexor strain in his pitching elbow. His only previous time on the IL came in 2021 because of COVID-19.
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Pivetta has proven to be a workhorse, compiling back-to-back seasons of 30-plus starts in 2021-22. Pivetta made 107 starts with the Red Sox, which is more than both David Price and Curt Schilling. Pivetta pitched the most innings for the Sox since the team won the World Series in 2018. The righthander logged 633 innings during his five-year run with the Sox, with a 4.29 ERA and 1.243 WHIP.
“He’s strong. He can carry the workload. He wants more,” said manager Alex Cora. “The stuff keeps getting better throughout the year. He makes adjustments throughout. He’s very thoughtful about it. He knows his mechanics, and he knows how to use his stuff.”
The Sox had a gauge on the market and what Pivetta would command, which likely led to them extending the qualifying offer. Had Pivetta’s value been lower, the Sox likely would have just let the righthander walk in free agency. But with Pivetta declining the qualifying offer, the Sox will receive a compensatory draft pick after the second round if he signs elsewhere.
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Top prospect Kristian Campbell, for example, was the compensatory pick for Xander Bogaerts, who was extended a qualifying offer by the Red Sox in 2022, declined it, then signed with the Padres in free agency.
Ruling out Pivetta returning to the Sox, though unlikely, would be premature. The Sox are focused on adding two starters, with Max Fried, Corbin Burnes, and Blake Snell among the top free agent options. The White Sox’ Garrett Crochet has been linked to the Red Sox, though acquiring him would require a trade.
Julian McWilliams can be reached atjulian.mcwilliams@globe.com. Follow him@byJulianMack.