Ahead of the trade deadline the Red Sox made a move to acquire righty starter Nathan Eovaldi, 28, from the Rays in exchange for minor leaguer Jalen Beeks.
Eovaldi, who missed the 2017 season after his second Tommy John surgery (the first came while he was a junior in high school), is 3-4 with a 4.26 ERA in 10 starts with Tampa this season. He’s the 32nd player to pitch again the majors after two Tommy John surgeries and only the 12th to start in an MLB game after doing so, joining Chris Capuano, Tyler Chatwood, Kris Medlen, Hung-Chih Kuo, Randy Wolf, Darren Dreifort, Victor Zambrano, Shawn Hill, Brandon Beachy, Daniel Hudson, and Cory Luebke.
Eovaldi’s most recent outing was Friday against the Marlins, allowing one run on six hits with no walks and eight strikeouts over 6.0 IP. He’s gone at least six innings in seven of his ten outings of 2018.
Opponents this season are 24-for-116 (.207) with 7 home runs from the right and 24-for-97 (.247) with 4 home runs from the left against Eovaldi, who has not issued an unintentional walk to any of his last 119 right-handed hitters faced. Among pitchers with 50.0 or more innings pitched in 2018, Eovaldi owns the third-highest strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.63) in the American League after Indians Corey Kluber (7.44) and Astros Justin Verlander (7.04).
Eovaldi debuted in 2011. Over his seven big league seasons, the Houston, Texas native has gone 41-50 with a 4.22 ERA and 3.88 FIP in 144 total games (137 starts) with the Dodgers (2011-12), Marlins (2012-14), Yankees (2015-16), and Rays (2018). With New York, Eovaldi was 14-3 in 2015, the club’s best record that season.
Eovaldi’s deal with the Rays for $2 million this season was set to expire at the end of 2018, so there’s little salary impact to the Red Sox. Beeks, 25, who will head to Tampa’s 40-man roster, made his major league debut June 7 against the Tigers. At Triple-A Pawtucket he was 5-5 with a 2.89 ERA with an impressive 12.06 strikeouts per nine innings ratio. His assignment with Tampa is to be determined.
Welcome Nate Eovaldi to Red Sox Nation. He’s on Twitter at @Nathan_Eovaldi.