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Boston Red Sox' Nick Pivetta Speaks on Being Moved to the Bullpen

One week after defiantly saying he wants to stay in the starting rotation, Boston Red Sox pitcher Nick Pivetta said he will embrace his new bullpen role.

Brady Farkas

Boston Red Sox' Nick Pivetta Speaks on Being Moved to the Bullpen
Boston Red Sox' Nick Pivetta Speaks on Being Moved to the Bullpen /
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Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora said on Wednesday night that he was moving pitcher Nick Pivetta to the bullpen.

This moves comes for a few different reasons:

1) The Red Sox had been operating with a six-man rotation for the last week. Cora is not a fan of the six-man rotation so a move was bound to be made. With James Paxton coming back last Friday and looking sharp, that necessitated a move. The team will go with Paxton, Chris Sale, Corey Kluber, Brayan Bello and Tanner Houck.

2) Pivetta has struggled this year. Though he got the win on Wednesday against Seattle, he's just 3-3 with a 6.30 ERA this year.

3) He excelled in the bullpen during the 2021 playoffs. As the Red Sox got to the ALCS, he was an integral part of the bullpen. He pitches with a lot of intensity and that could help him in short spurts. Furthermore, he has two really good pitches (fastball and curveball) which could play up in short usage as well.

Just last week, Pivetta balked at the idea of moving to the bullpen, saying that he was a starter, had always been a starter, and would always be a starter. But on Wednesday night, Pivetta took a more team first-tone.

You can see his full comments below, but here's a partial transcript:

"I'm grateful for the opportunity I'm given. I'm going to focus on helping the team achieve our goals. I'm going to go out there, do my job, throw up zeroes and then help this team win."

The Red Sox are off on Thursday but will play the Padres in San Diego on Friday at 9:40 p.m. ET.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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