The Boston Red Sox have acquired a surplus of young pitching talent during the Craig Breslow era, and naturally, Boston has run out of room for some of it. This has resulted in guys like Richard Fitts and Brandon Clarke getting moved to the St. Louis Cardinals for Sonny Gray, or a guy like Quinn Priester getting moved to the Milwaukee Brewers in the middle of the 2025 season (Boston might want a mulligan on that one).
Another example is right-hander Nick Burdi. Signed by the Red Sox to a minor league deal in February, Burdi doesn't check the "young" box that we're dicussing here (he's 32), but he's certainly talented.
That's exactly why the New York Mets reportedly signed Burdi to a minor league contract on November 25.
Burdi didn't ever get the stage to showcase himself in Boston. He did pitch 5 1/3 scoreless innings in a Red Sox uniform, which was actually significant for his career. Burdi has only pitched 30 1/3 MLB innings in totality. He has a career 3-2 record in the bigs with a 5.34 ERA, 44 strikeouts, and a 1.65 WHIP in 35 appearances.
The Mets just signed former Red Sox right-hander Nick Burdi to a minor league deal
The Mets have signed RHP Nick Burdi to a minor league deal, per his MLB transactions page.
— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) November 25, 2025
Burdi threw 5.1 scoreless innings for the Red Sox last season. He has also previously pitched for the Yankees, Cubs and Pirates. pic.twitter.com/KE0OOfIDKT
The Mets are hoping Burdi finally breaks through in 2026. His talent has always been notable. He was considered a top prospect heading into the 2014 MLB Draft, where he was selected in the second round by the Minnesota Twins.
Burdi was developing in Minnesota's farm system, but an elbow bone bruise in 2016, and more significantly, Tommy John surgery in 2017 stalled that development. Burdi was selected in the Rule 5 Draft by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2017, and Philly traded him to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where Burdi made his MLB debut on September 11, 2018.
More injury trouble followed Burdi to Pittsburgh. Thoracic outlet surgery in June of 2019 ended his season. In October of 2020, Burdi underwent Tommy John for the second time, terminating his 2021 campaign.
In the years since, Burdi has landed a string of minor league deals with the San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, and Red Sox, but he's never been able to evade the injury bug.
Given the wealth of Boston's young pitching, as alluded to above, the Red Sox had no great urgency to retain Burdi. They designated him for assignment on August 11, and he elected free agency in October.
Burdi still has a handful of years left to re-write his MLB narrative. Doing so under the bright lights of New York would be special, and you have to be rooting for Burdi to overcome his injuries struggles and finally stick somewhere.