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Red Sox Make Announcement on Former Yankees Pitcher Before Beating Mets

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Jake Elman | Last updated May 21, 2025 8:02 AM ET

After two games and 10 batters faced, the Boston Red Sox are halting the Nick Burdi experiment.

That’s nothing against Burdi, the 32-year-old veteran reliever who made his Red Sox debut last week. However, Boston optioned the 2014 second-round pick to Triple-A Worcester on Tuesday to make room for starting pitcher Walker Buehler on the active roster.

Buehler, who missed nearly a month with a shoulder injury, threw 2.1 scoreless innings and struck out four in a 2-0 victory over the slumping New York Mets. The two-time All-Star only threw 29 of his 54 pitches for strikes, walking two and hitting another two.

As for Burdi, he returns to the minors, where he’s dominated opposing hitters all season. Burdi owns a 0.54 ERA and 25-5 K-BB ratio across 16.2 innings for the Triple-A Red Sox.

Burdi has notched three saves and has yet to give up a home run.

We’ll see if any MLB teams call for Burdi, who has posted a 5.93 ERA in 27.1 big-league innings since his 2018 debut. However, he flashed with the New York Yankees last spring, recording a 1.86 ERA in 9.2 innings over 12 games.

Burdi’s most significant issue, though, remains control. Although he’s limited his walks at Triple-A, he allowed nine free passes for the Yankees a year ago.

Burdi has issued 20 walks in 27.1 career innings.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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