Red Sox sign pitcher Cooper Criswell
BOSTON -- With the baseball world still marveling at the Shohei Ohtani contract, the Boston Red Sox have made a minor addition to their roster.
The team signed right-handed pitcher Cooper Criswell, according to multiple reports. The deal is for just one year at $1 million.
Right-hander Cooper Criswell and the Boston Red Sox are in agreement on a one-year, $1 million contract, a source tells ESPN. Criswell, 27, spent the last two seasons in Tampa Bay and was DFA’d but found a solid market and leveraged it into a fully guaranteed big league deal.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 13, 2023
The 27-year-old Criswell has appeared in 12 MLB games -- with two starts -- over the past three seasons. He got the most work of his career last year, when he made 10 appearances for the Rays, going 1-1 with a 5.73 ERA and a 1.545 WHIP. He struck out 27 batters over 33 innings while walking 11 batters.
He was 4-4 with a 3.93 in Triple-A last season, where he started 17 games and made six relief appearances. The Boston Globe's Alex Speier said that Criswell "could be a spot starter or multi-innings reliever."
The Red Sox are still in need of rounding out their rotation, and with Seth Lugo agreeing to a deal with the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday, the starting-pitching market has shrunken a bit. The team is set to meet with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and free agents Jordan Montgomery and Blake Snell remain on the market.