Why the Red Sox didn’t trade Nathan Eovaldi, explained

The Boston Red Sox made some big trades at the deadline, but they didn’t trade pitcher Nathan Eovaldi.

The Boston Red Sox made some big moves at the deadline, including the trade of Christian Vazquez. Despite needing to clean up their starting rotation and bullpen, they didn’t trade Nathan Eovaldi.

According to Rob Bradford of WEEI, several teams had heavy interest in him but his asking price was “the moon.” Thus, Boston opted against trading him, and instead will try to make one more run.

Eovaldi was signed to a four-year $68 million contract through this year. He’s eligible for free agency in 2023.

Nathan Eovaldi is one of the highest-paid players on the Red Sox

Eovaldi is the fifth-highest paid player on the Red Sox, behind Xander Bogaerts, Chris Sale, Trevor Story and J.D. Martinez.

He’s the 20th-highest paid starting pitcher out of 99 in MLB. He seems to be losing his steam this season. So far, Eovaldi’s produced an ERA of 4.11, batting average against of .261 and WHIP of 1.23. He’s gone 5-3. He’s not doing bad, but his past two seasons were much better and the Red Sox don’t have much room for error with their starting rotation.

The Red Sox are currently one of the worst teams for pitching in the league. They have the seventh-worst ERA (4.25), 10th-worst opponent batting average (.248) and ninth-worst WHIP (1.31).

Their bullpen has been even worse, and they should’ve definitely focused on improving that at the trade deadline. Trading Eovaldi could’ve gotten them some relief help. However, most teams didn’t want to invest what the Red Sox were asking for.