Yankees ship Ottavino to Boston within the uncommon Purple Sox commerce

NEW YORK (AP) – Wanting to cut salaries to avoid paying luxury taxes, the New York Yankees settled on a rare deal with the Boston Red Sox.

Boston took over fighting reliever Adam Ottavino along with right-handed Frank German from the Yankees on Monday for a player to be named or made money.

As part of the deal, the Yankees agreed to send Boston $ 850,000 on July 1 to cover part of the $ 8 million owed to Ottavino, a 35-year-old right-handed man who entered the final season of a three-year contract of 27 Million USD occurred. New York remains responsible for Ottavino’s $ 3 million signing bonus due January 15th.

“I know it’s the Yankees and I understand what that means, and it’s the most famous rivalry in the sport,” said Chaim Bloom, Red Sox chief baseball officer. “But when we’re not ready to do something that helps us because it helps them too, or worse, when we’re worried that it won’t go as we expect it and it will explode on our faces and we’ve watched it Then we’ll just play fear and we won’t play fear. “

This was only the second trade between the rivals since 1987. When New York received infielder Stephen Drew from Boston in 2014 for infielder / outfielder Kelly Johnson, it was the first deal between the Yankees and the Red Sox since Boston received the first baseman / catcher Mike Stanley to New York for pitcher Tony Armas Jr. and a player distributed named who became pitcher Jim Mecir.

“I was a little surprised when I got the news today, but all in all Boston is always a place I want to play,” Ottavino said in front of a painting by jazz trumpeter Miles Davis that was painted by his mother-in-law. “I feel like I’ll have a quiz question now.”

Ottavino is from Brooklyn and attended college in Boston in the northeast. He signed with the Yankees prior to the 2019 season and finished in 0th, the last available single-digit Yankees number. He had a successful first season with a 6-5 record and 1.90 ERA as he became a key setup man for Aroldis Chapman along with Zack Britton, Chad Green and Tommy Kahnle.

But it slumped to 5.89 ERA during the 2020 pandemically shortened season, the highest of its nine full seasons in the big league, and manager Aaron Boone didn’t use it in the last week of the season or during the late season of tight games the playoffs. Ottavino’s low point was when he allowed six runs against Toronto on September 7th without getting any outs.

“2020 was a tough year,” he said. “I didn’t throw the way I wanted overall and then I had probably the worst game of my career in the middle that made it so much harder to deal with and then didn’t get a big chance in the playoffs. So it was tough. …. “

He went nine in 18 1/3 innings last year and 40 in 66 1/3 innings in 2019. Still, he hit 25 in last season, 88 in 2019 and 112 over 77 2/3 innings in 2018.

“There are people who miss a lot of bats and people run too, because a lot of the bats they miss bats with are pitches that run out of the strike zone and people swing at them.” Said Bloom. “So sometimes you have to take the good with the bad, but there are always marginal opportunities to improve the guys.”

Ottavino’s cutting speed dropped from an average of 91 mph in 2017 to 86.5 mph last year.

“I’ve been working on different things with my breaking balls and trying to expand some of the directions in which I can make the ball break,” he said. “The cutter, as good as he was at setting up for me in the past few years, also led to a few home runs, too many in my opinion.”

New York aims to stay below the $ 210 million luxury tax threshold. Ottavino reckons his discounted signing bonus will be $ 924,956 for tax rebate, not $ 8,924,956 for his 2021 contract, and his departure will bring the Yankees’ proposed tax rebate down to $ 203 million. This includes $ 26 million for outstanding contracts with second baseman DJ LeMahieu and right-handed Corey Kluber, as well as $ 2 million for the rest of their 40-man roster and $ 7 million for estimated seasonal changes, including replacements for injured players.

New York’s bullpen had already lost to Kahnle, who had to undergo an operation by Tommy John in August. After the season he became a free agent and signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The 22-year-old German was 4-4 with an ERA of 3.79 in 2019 in 15 starts and one relief appearance for the Florida State League’s Class A Tampa. Boston did not have any scouting for German in 2020 as minor league seasons were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic and the Yankees did not have an instruction league.

“Frankly, one of the most uncomfortable aspects of such a trade,” said Bloom. “This required a lot of legwork from many different people in our organization.”

Ottavino joins a bullpen that includes Matt Barnes, who had nine saves last season.

“We think we’ve just won someone who is really capable of pitching in any late inning situation,” said Bloom. “How that shakes up to the end, we will discuss it later.”

Boston is changing over to last place in the AL East at 24:36. The Red Sox have made pending agreements to add second baseman Enrique Hernández and right-handed Garrett Richards, while keeping left-handed Martín Pérez.

Bloom said the Red Sox will keep in touch with outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr., who became a free agent.

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