The Red Sox have made their first offseason acquisition.
Who is he and where did he come from?
He’s left-handed reliever Justin Wilson, and he comes from Clovis, California, an old frontier town that is so into rodeo that it put a bucking bronco on its flag.
Since forsaking the hard, lonely life of a cowboy in order to pursue baseball, Wilson has pitched in eight different MLB organizations. A journeyman’s journeyman, Wilson once even suited up for the Milwaukee Brewers without ever subsequently throwing a pitch for them, after he injured himself in the bullpen on the day he was to make his debut.
After pitching for the Cincinnati Reds in 2024 (his second stint with the team), the Sox signed him to a one-year Major League deal worth $2.25 million.
Is he any good?
He’s a reliever Craig Breslow and Andrew Bailey plucked off the scrap heap, and we can answer this question in the exact same way for all of those guys: no, but maybe?
Last year was pretty ugly for Wilson: 60 games, 46.2 innings, an ERA of 5.59 (translating to an ERA+ of just 79), 51 strikeouts, 13 walks, and a putrid 10 homers allowed. Amongst relievers who threw at least 40 innings, he produced the fourth-highest home run rate.
But there are some reasons for optimism. Wilson’s 38.8% chase rate was elite across baseball last year, driven by a cutter with big vertical movement and a slider that, as measured by Stuff+ was the 44th-best slider amongst all relievers, better than that of any member of the Red Sox bullpen. As his stat line demonstrates, he also excels at limiting the free passes.
Wilson’s principal problem was that, when he failed to get hitters to chase, he got pummeled. His four-seam fastball, which he threw far more than any other pitch, was hammered particularly hard (seven of his ten homers allowed came on the fastball).
The 2024 Red Sox notably threw far fewer four-seam fastballs than any other team in baseball history, and had tremendous success with that approach, particularly in the first half of the season. It’s reasonable to surmise that Breslow and Bailey think Wilson can be effective with a few tweaks.
Show me a cool highlight.
Admittedly, it’s not a great sign if a pitcher’s most-viewed highlight on YouTube is a fielding play as opposed to a pitch. But this is a pretty nice little catch.
And look! That wasn’t even the first time he’d done that!
What’s he doing in his picture up there?
Thinking about how much money he’s paid to moving companies over the course of his 16-year professional career, while wearing the uniform of a team with whom he wouldn’t even last a full calendar month or play a competitive game.
What’s his role on the 2025 Red Sox?
He’s a depth bullpen option who, ultimately, may end up having almost no significant role on the 2025 Red Sox at all.
But what’s interesting about the Wilson signing is that, on the surface, there seems to have been little reason to give him an MLB deal at this point in the offseason. He didn’t sign with the Reds until halfway through spring training last year, and signing him this early means that there’s one fewer spot on the 40-man roster to play with between now and March. That tells me that Breslow and Bailey think Wilson can and will be a positive addition to the bullpen, so I expect the Sox will give him plenty of opportunities in the early going next year.