Head Go Boom: Red Sox Get Ottavino From Yankees
A Red Sox/Yankees trade? For serious?
Last night (Sunday) I wrote a whole bunch of words about the Red Sox off-season and what they had left to do. The most obvious move, according to me, was to add a reliever, but I didn’t anticipate which one. Right now, as I write this, heads are exploding all over New England as people learn that the Red Sox made a trade with the Yankees for reliever Adam Ottavino.
If scarcity does indeed make something more valuable, this might be the greatest trade the Red Sox have ever made. Since 1998, the Red Sox have made exactly one trade with the Yankees.
One!
That was Stephen Drew, who was sent to New York for Kelly Johnson for bad-mouthing John Farrell’s jawline. You don’t do that. I mean, you just don’t DO that. That’s it, though. Before that, the last Boston/New York trade was Mike Stanley to the Yankees for Tony Armas in 1997. 1997! Do you know how much gas cost in 1997? I looked it up and gas was free. 1997 was so long ago they gave gas to you for free. Pull your Model T up to the service station and honk impatiently while the attendant washed the windows and gave you your free gas.
But I’m off track here.
Adam Ottavino is good. But here’s why trading for him is great:
Yes, the Red Sox not only got Adam Ottavino, but for taking on $8 million of his $9 million salary, the Yankees sent over prospect Frank German as a thank you gift. This is, in effect, buying a prospect and a good reliever for $8 million. That’s big-C Creative!
Ottavino throws a sinker and a slider. The sinker, like all sinkers, is a fastball that drops a bit, making it harder to put into the air. Not a bad pitch, but not an exciting one either. His slider though, that can be a thing of beauty. Check this out:
How are you supposed to hit that? It’s close to unhittable when it’s on, and that’s because of the crazy horizontal movement he gets on the pitch. When I think about a slider, I tend to think of a pitch that moves diagonally from 1:30 on a clock to 7:30 (from a right-handed pitcher), and that’s probably relatively normal slider movement. But as you can see, Ottavino’s slider goes something like 3:00 to 9:00, or like 8:45. It doesn’t drop so much as it slides away from the hitter. It’s a tremendously fun pitch, and the reason I had hoped the Red Sox would sign Ottavino when he became a free agent a few seasons ago.
Ottavino struggled a bit last year, walking nine in 18.1 innings, and putting up a 5.89 ERA and a 1.58 WHIP, though he struck out 25 and gave up just two homers (not bad for pitching in Yankee Stadium). There are other things in his profile we could dissect, but probably most importantly the horizontal movement on his slider was still elite. Beyond that, I’m going to adhere to my policy on 2020 season stats and say it was a very short season, a very small sample of very stressful, very weird baseball, and we shouldn’t put too much stock in it. On the whole, there’s not much reason to think Ottavino won’t be an above average reliever for the Red Sox in 2021.
But that’s not all! The Red Sox also got a prospect from the Yankees, Frank German, New York’s 2018 fourth round pick. At first I assumed Boston had also traded for Domingo German, but no, this is Frank German, a totally different person and not Domingo German in Groucho glasses, nope, nope, not at all.
Truth be told, I had never heard of Frank German before today, so I’ll pass the baton to Ian Cundall of Sox Prospects on this one:
It sounds like long term German is probably a reliever who has some promise if he focuses on his fastball and changeup. He’s 23 and spent the 2019 season at New York’s High-A affiliate so he’ll probably start the 2021 season somewhere in the high minors, meaning we should see how he looks against good competition this year. Welcome to Boston, Frank! Or should I say, welcome to Portland, Maine! Don’t forget your jacket.
What did the Red Sox give up for all this bounty? According to MLB Trade Rumors, they dealt “a player to be named later or cash” which essentially means “basically nothing.” This was a salary dump by the Yankees. They didn’t want to pay Ottavino’s salary, likely because of how close to the luxury tax it put them, and they were willing to give German to Boston as incentive to take Ottavino. Oh, and New York also sent $850K along as well. So gentlemanly of them.
This is one of those ‘creative’ moves that we’ve been hearing about since the Red Sox hired Chaim Bloom. It’s one of the moves that front offices helmed by Dave Dombrowski don’t make. There’s a Mookie Betts-themed comeback here, but I won’t entertain that now. Mostly, this move makes me happy. The Red Sox are trying to get better, they got a prospect, and they got a fun pitcher. That’s a good day’s work.
One final note: Adam Ottavino wears the number 0 on his jersey. If he does that with the Red Sox, which he presumably will, he’ll become the second Red Sox player to ever do so. Can you name the first? No cheating! Drop your answers and your take on this trade in the comments!
You don't think the Sox need an OF for next year?
The great Brandon Phillips who will always live forever in Red Sox Nation hearts by hitting the only 9th inning or later home run in a Sox debut in a wild comeback win against the Braves in 2018. Nice way to wrap up a solid career.