The Red Sox handled some offseason business Thursday by agreeing to a one-year, $800,000 contract with righty Cooper Criswell, according to a source.
Criswell is a pre-arbitration player so he was not a free agent and would be under club control even if an agreement wasn’t reached. After making $1 million in each of the last two seasons, he’s taking a small pay cut to remain on the 40-man roster. The new deal prevents him from being a non-tender candidate later this month.
Criswell’s new deal came before a Thursday deadline for teams to clean up their 40-man rosters by reinstating players who ended the regular season on the 60-day injured list. Boston needed to clear one spot and did so by designating reliever Luis Guerrero for assignment. The timing of Criswell’s new agreement is interesting, coming more than two weeks before the November 21 non-tender deadline. But it was done in large part to increase Criswell’s chances of staying with the Red Sox through the offseason — and to give the Red Sox some 40-man roster flexibility.
The Red Sox didn’t want to lose Criswell, a source said, and his new agreement makes it more likely he remains with the organization even if further roster moves force him off the 40-man roster later this winter. The salary is guaranteed and represents a bigger value than he would have likely gotten if he had signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox (or another club) after being non-tendered. The Red Sox can remove Criswell from the 40-man roster for further moves, if they so choose, and if they do so, he’s now more likely to clear waivers and accept an outright assignment (instead of electing free agency) because his salary is locked in.
Barring a trade, Criswell will enter spring training as depth option in a crowded rotation that is expected to be reinforced this winter. Criswell enters 2026 out of minor league options, so — if he’s on the 40-man roster come spring — he must break camp with the major league team (and remain on the active roster) or the Red Sox would have to expose him to waivers and risk losing him to another club. Considering that Criswell has impressed with a 4.00 ERA in 117 innings over two seasons with the Red Sox (while also pitching well at Triple-A), it’s likely Boston will try to keep the swingman in the organization. For now, he’s a candidate to compete with Connelly Early, Payton Tolle, Hunter Dobbins, Kyle Harrison, Richard Fitts, Patrick Sandoval and Kutter Crawford for back-end rotation work.
Criswell, a 29-year-old who signed with Boston as a free agent in December 2023 after stints with the Angels and Rays, posted a 4.08 ERA in 26 games (18 starts) over 99 ⅓ major league innings in 2024, then spent most of the 2025 season in Triple-A. He logged a 3.57 ERA in 17 ⅔ big league innings last year and a 3.70 ERA in 65 ⅔ Triple-A innings over 16 games (14 starts). Criswell missed the final few weeks of the season with an elbow issue that has since been resolved.
FanSided’s Robert Murray reported the agreement first.
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