{"id":844814,"date":"2026-11-03T15:18:20","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T15:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/844814\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T15:18:20","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T15:18:20","slug":"red-sox-designate-zack-kelly-eduardo-rivera-for-assignment-chad-tracy-payton-tolle-named-award-finalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/844814\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox designate Zack Kelly, Eduardo Rivera for assignment; Chad Tracy, Payton Tolle named award finalists"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the MLB offseason underway, the Red Sox finalized their 40-man roster Monday, designating right-hander Zack Kelly and left-hander Eduardo Rivera for assignment in the process.<\/p>\n

Boston faced a 5 p.m. Monday deadline to reinstate players from the 60-day injured list to its 40-man roster. The Sox activated pitchers Justin Slaten, Johan Oviedo\u00a0and\u00a0Kutter Crawford, first baseman Triston Casas and outfielder Eli White.<\/p>\n

Both Kelly and Rivera finished the season on the 60-day injured list, and the Red Sox still have an opportunity to trade either pitcher following their designations for assignment.<\/p>\n

MassLive’s Chris Cotillo previously reported that Rivera had drawn interest from other clubs, though he did not identify any potential suitors.<\/p>\n

Kelly made his major league debut with Boston in 2022 and compiled a 4.04 ERA with 127 strikeouts over 131 1\/3 innings in 115 appearances with the Red Sox.<\/p>\n

The right-hander made a career-high 49 appearances in 2024 before earning a spot on Boston’s postseason roster in 2025, following a strong September in which he posted a 2.84 ERA across 11 outings.<\/p>\n

Kelly posted a 3.31 ERA in 17 major league appearances this season before being optioned to Triple-A Worcester in May to make room for Tyron Guerrero. He did not make Boston’s Opening Day roster but joined the club a week into the season.<\/p>\n

The right-hander landed on the injured list with right elbow inflammation in early July and did not pitch again.<\/p>\n

Red Sox designated Zack Kelly for assignment, sources say.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) November 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Kelly was a logical candidate to be designated for assignment given his injury history and lack of remaining minor league options heading into 2027. He is also arbitration-eligible for the first time, with MLBTradeRumors projecting him to earn $800,000 next season.<\/p>\n

Rivera, 23, made his major league debut this season after being called up to face the Yankees. The left-hander impressed in his first outing, tossing 3\u2153 scoreless innings while allowing just one hit, walking none and striking out three.<\/p>\n

He was optioned back to Triple-A Worcester before returning for his second appearance July 11 against the Mets. Rivera allowed one run over 3\u2154 innings, walking two and striking out three.<\/p>\n

His final two major league outings were less successful, as he surrendered seven earned runs on six hits and four walks before being sent back to the minors.<\/p>\n

Rivera’s season took another turn in August when Worcester placed him on the 7-day injured list. Four days later, he was moved to the restricted list to attend to a personal matter. He was activated four days after that before eventually landing on the 60-day injured list with a lumbar strain.<\/p>\n

Slaten was also reinstated after appearing in 36 games and posting a 4.60 ERA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of Boston’s primary high-leverage relievers, the right-hander missed significant time with right elbow inflammation and was ultimately shut down in mid-September after additional imaging revealed “degenerative changes in his flexor mass.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the MLB offseason underway, the Red Sox finalized their 40-man roster Monday, designating right-hander Zack Kelly and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,4,89,2543,63118],"class_list":["post-844814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-red-sox","tag-baseball","tag-boston","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-bostonredsox","tag-mlb","tag-red-sox","tag-redsox","tag-top-red-sox"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117553181674865728","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}