A final farewell from Nick Pivetta’s biggest suporter
My week started off swimmingly. On Monday, I didn’t go to a Kansas basketball game which was probably the best decision I made all week. Then that night we had 30 minutes of freezing rain which absolutely wrecked the roads and then got four inches of snow dumped on top of that mess.
The good news was, I didn’t have anywhere to go on Tuesday because campus was closed! So I was all good to go and have a nice, relaxing snow day, right? Wrong.
Even after I was cognizantly proactive enough to clean off my car that night )though I had nowhere to go, because I knew that I would be late to class in the morning if I waited to do it then) the universe still sought to punish me. I submitted a few grad school applications, exciting times! And then the worst moment of the offseason that I’d been bracing for since October finally hit.
While spending four hours in an excruciating administrative meeting trying to protect student journalism at KU, I opened my phone… and then I saw it. Nick Pivetta, after declining Boston’s qualifying offer and then having his market stall like most everyone else this offseason, had signed a contract for the 2025 season. And it was not with the Red Sox.
Of course, the pain was exponentially increased when I learned that he went to San Diego, a place that has already taken so much from me: the best personality that NESN has ever had in Don Orsillo, the player who was on my first jersey in Xander Bogaerts, and the career of my favorite player ever in Dustin Pedroia, by their disgusting association with Manny Machado.
Really could he have gone anywhere worse? The Yankees, of course, would have been devastating. The Orioles or Rays would turn him into a Cy Young winner within two months of him being on their roster, which would be both fantastic and painful. Instead, he went to go live with the rest of Boston’s (unnecessarily) rejected parts in that city all the way across the country sitting on the wrong body of water.
While I have a deeply personal vendetta against the Padres, I would usually be excited if a player I liked joined San Diego since it would mean I’d be more able to see them at Coors Field when I’m back in Colorado for the summer. But the one time I saw Nick Pivetta pitch at Coors Field was the worst day ever, and I would genuinely never wish that kind of pain on ANYONE seeing their favorite player live and in person for the first time. All of these factors coming together in the culmination of losing my favorite player truly felt like when the food critic in Ratatouille tastes Remy’s signature dish for the first time and is instantly transported to a devastatingly tragic moment from his childhood.
I will be heartbroken for quite some time, but I will still support our Candian king from afar. And who knows! Maybe he’s 2020 Drew Pomeranz reincarnated five years later. Maybe he’ll post a nearly 300 ERA+ in his first year in San Diego and everyone will wonder how the hell he became one of the league’s best relievers after being the bane of our existence for four years. Maybe, you all will finally start to APPRECIATE HIM, as I always have. Maybe this is a necessary evil of if you love something, let it go, and the fan base will once and for all realize what they had in their clubhouse only after losing it.
Was he the best pitcher on the team? No way. Was he consistently consistent and someone you felt confident about when you saw his name as a projected starter? Also no. But will he throw 150 innings a year with an IL stint once a decade? You better bet he will. He’ll go out there, he’ll take some damage, he’ll record some outs, and by God he will throw a seven-inning no hitter on any American holiday but end up as the losing pitcher nonetheless.
While those developments marinate as I’m sure they will over the next six months, I hope you all think about what you’ve done, and remember the dedication I’ve had for years before you all hop on the Nick Pivetta bandwagon. I hope you’re all happy, that my suffering brings you joy, because soon, an outcome you’ve asked to happen for the past two years will become your greatest regret. Once his Stuff+ numbers translate to actual results in game action in his ninth year in the major leagues, YOU’LL ALL BE SORRY!
But this is my final thank you to you, Nick Pivetta, for reinvigorating my love for mediocre Canadian workhorse pitchers. Thank you for giving me an agenda to follow ever since I predicted and hoped for your arrival in 2020 in exchange for Brandon Workman. We all need our own things, and I’ll always be a defender of you not only as an athlete, but for the great person that you are as well. I don’t know who else could fill this void in my heart, so just know I’ll be rooting for your success and your success only during your time in San Diego. And if you want to come back to Boston at some point and we can hang onto that comp pick, that’d be cool too.