Red Sox designate Cooper Criswell for assignment

The Red Sox designated right-hander Cooper Criswell for assignment. They needed to open a spot on the 40-man roster to finalize this evening’s five-player trade with Pittsburgh.

Criswell and the Sox worked out an $800K contract last month. While the righty locked in a fully guaranteed salary a little above the MLB minimum, that also pointed to a likely offseason DFA. It has become increasingly common for teams to work out slightly above minimum deals with players whom they’re considering dropping from the 40-man roster. The salary could serve as a minor deterrent for another team to place a waiver claim. Perhaps more importantly, it gives the player incentive to accept a minor league assignment if they clear.

The 29-year-old Criswell was outrighted by the Rays during the 2022 season. That gives him the right to decline future outrights in his career. Criswell might have elected free agency had the Sox ran him through waivers earlier in the winter. It’s less likely that he’d walk away from guaranteed money, so the Sox could stash him in Triple-A if no other team places a claim.

Criswell had a decent season in a swing role in 2024. He logged a career-high 99 1/3 innings with a 4.08 earned run average. He doesn’t have huge velocity or swing-and-miss potential, but he threw strikes and got a decent number of ground-balls. He didn’t get nearly as much big league work this past season. Criswell logged 17 2/3 frames with a 3.57 ERA over seven appearances. He spent the rest of the season at Triple-A Worcester, pitching to a 3.70 ERA with an above-average 24.5% strikeout rate across 65 2/3 frames.