Red Sox officially call up Nick Pivetta; option Robert Stock down to Pawtucket

Red Sox fans will get their first look at half of the return from the Brandon Workman/Heath Hembree trade from last month on Tuesday night, as Nick Pivetta is coming up to make his major-league debut. The righty has been down in Pawtucket since the trade and will now have time to make a couple of starts — the team has announced he’ll start the season finale on Sunday — before the end of the year. In order to make room for Pivetta, the team sent Robert Stock down to Pawtucket.

Pivetta is obviously the main story here. We aren’t going to be able to make any long-term judgements on him based on this start alone, but it will be interesting to see how he approaches the Orioles lineup here. Pivetta has tantalizing stuff that made him attractive to the Red Sox in the first place, but it has never really been proven to work in a starter role (or a relief role, to be fair). In tonight’s start, and Sunday’s I suppose, look to see where in the zone he is attacking with his fastball and how often he goes to his changeup, particularly against lefties. Pivetta, it is worth noting, has 396 ¹⁄₃ major-league innings under his belt and is the owner of a career 5.50 ERA with a 4.64 FIP.

On the other end of the transaction, Robert Stock gets sent back down. This is not a major surprise as Stock, despite a big fastball of his own, hasn’t really found his footing in multiple stints this year. The righty has tossed 13 ¹⁄₃ innings for the Red Sox and has a 4.73 ERA with 14 strikeouts and 10 walks. He does have another minor-league option remaining for 2021, but given the roster crunch coming this winter he could be in danger of losing his 40-man spot at some point.