Adam Ottavino is leaving New York.
But he’s not going too far up the Northeast Corridor.
The now-former Mets reliever is heading to the Red Sox on a minor league contract with an invite to spring training, the team said Tuesday.
“I talked to Boston for a long time. It was a long process,” Ottavino told reporters. “Once I was open to the NRI situations, I got a lot of offers really fast after that. I was parsing through that, trying to figure out what move to make. I had one MLB offer but I didn’t want to take it in that location. I just kept doing my research and talking to the teams, then made this decision last night.”
Ottavino, 39, pitched one season in Boston (2021) in between two seasons with the Yankees and the last three with the Amazin’s.
The right-hander had a terrific first season in Queens in 2022 with a 2.06 ERA and 0.98 WHIP with 79 strikeouts in 65 ²/₃ innings, primarily as a setup man for closer Edwin Diaz.
But things proved to be more up-and-down the next two seasons, including last year where his ERA jumped to 4.34 as his role largely shifted out of leverage innings.
Though Ottavino was included in the wild-card round and NLDS rosters, he did not throw in either series.
And when Jeff McNeil returned from injury in the NLCS against the Dodgers, Ottavino was left off the roster entirely.
Ottavino, who primarily uses a sweeper and sinker, did have better expected numbers than his on-field stats indicated, as he ranked in the 92nd percentile in expected batting average against and in the 84th in expected ERA, according to Baseball Savant.
In the offseason, he threw three scoreless innings in the Dominican Winter League.
He said before the NLCS began that he planned to play in 2025 and that his numbers were not indicative of the season he felt he put forth.
“I think it’s impossible to evaluate my season,” Ottavino said in October. “I did a lot of things elite level, and yet I gave up too many runs. So very hard to evaluate it. Been having a hard time figuring that out, how to feel about it.
“But I felt like I threw the ball really well the majority of the time. Had a couple innings that got away from me and kind of killed me. That’s baseball.”
