The San Diego Padres have addressed their need for starting pitching depth by signing right-hander Nick Pivetta to a four-year, $55 million contract. Pivetta joins a rotation that includes Dylan Cease, Yu Darvish, and Michael King, adding experience and talent to a key area for the team.
PEORIA, Ariz. — Early Wednesday, on the day pitchers and catchers conducted their first official workout of spring training, the Padres announced they were focused inward in search of starting pitching depth. The team agreed Wednesday to a four-year, $55 million deal with right-hander Nick Pivetta , who was arguably the top remaining starting pitcher on the free agent market after a season in which he posted a 4.14 ERA in 27 games (26 starts) for the Red Sox.
Pivetta made 107 starts and 24 relief appearances over the past four-plus seasons with Boston. He had a 4.29 ERA over 633 innings in that span. He debuted for the Phillies in 2017 and made 71 starts for them before being dealt to the Red Sox at the trade deadline in 2020. He slots into the Padres rotation behind Dylan Cease, Yu Darvish and Michael King and intensifies the competition for the final spot in the rotation (or two spots, depending on how the Padres structure their staff) between Jhony Brito, Stephen Kolek, Randy Vásquez and Matt Waldron. The contract pays Pivetta just $4 million in 2025, including a $1 million base salary and $3 million signing bonus, which helps the Padres with their ongoing cashflow challenges. Pivetta, who turns 32 on Friday, can opt out after 2026 or ‘27. He is due $19 million in ‘26, $14 million in ‘27 and $18 million in ‘28. The acquisition of Pivetta affirms the claims made by Padres management that they were not done with their offseason, which until recently had consisted of three free agent signings for a total of $5.5 million in salary and bonuses. It also indicates that the line the team had drawn of not going over the Competitive Balance Tax threshold was not in ink. According to FanGraphs, the Padres currently sit about $17 million over the first threshold with a CBT payroll of $258 million. The penalty for surpassing the $241 million mark is a 20 percent charge on the overage for first-time offenders, which the Padres are after staying under the threshold last season following four straight years of exceeding the limit. The CBT payroll, which takes into account the average annual value of contracts and player benefits, is not officially tallied until the end of the season. Pivetta’s is the third contract they have completed in the past few weeks that serves to illustrate just how much they are paying attention to their payouts. The other two were contracts for King that paid him a $1 million base salary, $3 million signing bonus and deferred $3.75 million in the form of a mutual option buyout and catcher Elias Diaz that paid him a $1.5 million salary with a $2 million buyout on a team option. Their payroll is now pushing up against $200 million, which is where team sources had said they would be. The Union-Tribune’s calculations estimates their payroll at slightly above $197 million when Pivetta’s salary and bonus are factored in, which ranks them ninth among Major League Baseball’s 30 teams. Pivetta turned down a qualifying offer from the Red Sox, which would have guaranteed him $21.05 million this season. With the qualifying offer attached to his free agency, the Padres will forfeit their second-highest draft pick and $500,000 in international bonus pool money. But they felt it was worth it, because they did not have the pitching depth they knew they needed — even if earlier Wednesday they had expressed a desire to be cautious with their spending
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