The Boston Red Sox have a new right-handed pitcher with explosive potential at their disposal after reportedly acquiring Johan Oviedo from the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday night.

Throughout the offseason to this point, there have been rumors and speculation about the possibility of Boston adding pitchers like Joe Ryan or Sandy Alcántara. Oviedo’s name wasn’t thrown around at all, but that shouldn’t minimize this deal. Oveido is no slouch. He’s 27 years old and had a 3.57 ERA in nine starts last season in his return to the mound after missing the entire 2024 season. He has electric stuff and his advanced metrics point to a guy who can pitch near the top of a rotation when healthy.

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The Red Sox got a guy fans can be excited about

On Friday, Red Sox insider Rob Bradford of WEEI shed some light on why Boston made the deal and pointed to high expectations for Oviedo while also noting the two pitching additions already can free up salary cap space for big bats.

“Another element of this approach by the Red Sox is that by getting two pitchers they believe can emerge into big parts of the solution, it frees them up to use some very viable major league arms to potentially get their big bats if the asking prices for Pete Alonso, Alex Bregman, and Bo Bichette get too outrageous,” Bradford wrote. “As one American League East executive said, the Red Sox have put themselves in a position few teams can claim thanks to a list of major league-ready pitchers that stretches well beyond No. 5 or 6. It’s why the Blue Jays had to prioritize paying Cease and KBO standout Cody Ponce.

“But when it comes to this trade, make no bones about it: They view Oviedo as far from more than a depth option. While there are conflicting opinions on Garcia’s ceiling in the big leagues, he still represented a valued trade chip, one they have now used in something other than a deal for Ryan.”

That should get you very fired up as a Boston fan. It sounds like the Red Sox are viewing Oviedo as someone who can significantly impact this rotation in 2026. It doesn’t hurt that he’s cheap as well. Boston is in the driver’s seat right now and could have more fireworks coming.

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