Boston Red Sox: Revisiting the Nathan Eovaldi extension
By Ben Fadden
The Boston Red Sox made a controversial decision to re-sign Nathan Eovaldi last offseason, so let’s see how it has played out so far.
The Boston Red Sox won the 2018 World Series, and Nathan Eovaldi was a huge part of that, and Boston decided to compensate him very heavily in the winter, which was one of their worst moves they could have made.
Nathan Eovaldi has had a history of arm injuries, as he has undergone multiple Tommy John surgeries and throwing over 90 pitches out of the bullpen in Game 3 of the Fall Classic did not help his arm.
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With that said, Dave Dombrowski and John Henry decided to still give him a big payday because they believed that he was going to be able to produce in the starting rotation behind Chris Sale and David Price, but that did not happen in 2019.
He nearly had a 6 ERA in just 23 games and 12 starts in part to his three-month stint on the Il after being placed on it in April with loose bodies in his right elbow.
Now after his poor performance in 2019 due to yet another injury, the 4 year-$67.5 million contract the Red Sox gave him is looking pretty bad because Eovaldi might end up being a reliever again next season if they can’t rely on him to give them 6 innings due to his arm worries.
I think Red Sox fans would love to have saved that money to use on other things like keeping Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez, but instead, it seems unlikely both will be on the roster next season.
Next. Shohei Ohtani getting closer to mound work. dark
Nathan Eovaldi still has three more years left on his deal to prove that he was worthy of that big contract, but right now I think Boston would want a redo if they had a chance to do so.