Welcome back to the 2025-26 edition of Smash or Pass, in which we examine potential free agent and trade targets to determine whether the Red Sox should pursue them and what it would take to land them. Today we look at a vereran lefy reliever.
Who is he and where does he come from?
He’s Tim Mayza. He’s most recently a Philadelphia Phillie, and it was great that after a somewhat lengthy career, the 33-year-old Allentown, Pennsylvania native could assist his childhood team in a postseason run. Unfortunately, the team he was with for the first seven years of his career, the Blue Jays, made it to within an inning of being World Series champions. He’s now, according to Chris Cotillo, one of few subjects of lefty relief interest (lol) for the Red Sox following some other recent reports that, at 38, Justin Wilson may be calling it a career. That leaves the team with around 61 appearances to fill — and that’s not counting Brennan Bernardino’s absence as he was dealt to Colorado.
Is he any good?
If you’re asking if his warmup song is good, the answer is yes. I grew up listening to Chevelle in a “rebellious middle school student who wears Fox Racing” kind of way, so my ears perked up when I heard a newer Chevelle song blare over the Rogers Center speakers when he came into the game a few years ago.
If you’re asking the more important question about whether he’s a good pitcher: sort of.
After returning from a major shoulder injury suffered while with the Pirates (please hold any jokes about players returning from a recent shoulder injury piquing the team’s interest), Mayza looked much better in 2025 than he did in 2024, and improved his FIP from 5.21 to 3.03, but he was limited to just 16 2/3 innings. It will be interesting to see if he can return to his prior form earlier in the decade.
He’s always had a tough time keeping keeping hitters off the basepaths, as he’s never placed within the top twenty-five percentile in strikeouts and has struggled with walks at times, but he supplements that by being a purveyor of ground balls, placing near the very best in baseball in 2021. This generation of groundball pitchers is something that the Red Sox have been more drawn to in the Breslow age and even the tail end of the Bloom years.
TLDR; just give me his 2025 stats.
16 2/3 IP, 15 K, 5 BB, 3.78 ERA
Why would he be a good fit on the 2025 Red Sox?
The following are the lefties currently on the Red Sox 40-man roster who pitched in any sort of relief capacity last year, regardless of level, not named Aroldis Chapman: Payton Tolle, Kyle Harrison, Jovani Moran, and Tyler Samaniego. I’m not entirely comfortable with that list knowing that Payton Tolle and Kyle Harrison are far from finished products and that Patrick Sandoval is a huge question mark. Tim Mayza provides over 300 innings of Major League experience in exactly what the Red Sox desperately need. If you’re John Henry, you also love the low-risk financial terms a Mayza contract will likely cost. Plus, he’s an interesting case because he has huge extension (which Breslow loves) and his main pitch is a sinker, which Andrew Bailey no doubt would see as a fun project.
Why wouldn’t he be a good fit on the Red Sox?
Due to that recent injury, he’s so volatile. Mayza has never pitched more than 53 1/3 innings in his career. The Red Sox cannot afford too many injuries in the bullpen in 2026. And given that the Sox have a plethora of depth options, why give any high-leverage innings to a guy who doesn’t fit into the long term plans of the club when there are several younger arms to evaluate?
Show me a cool highlight.
Here he is serving a 94 mile-per-hour sinker to Shohei Ohtani, who promptly caught air with the swing.
Smash or pass?
I need to pass here, and it’s not any indictment on how good I think Mayza may be this year, because it’s likely that with a repaired shoulder, he might be a viable reliever if used in a 7th inning role. But his velocity isn’t what the Red Sox usually look for. And while that isn’t an immediate disqualifier, the inconsistencies, including being less than 24 months from an ERA over 6, would lead one to want lower-risk reclamation projects. But don’t be shocked if Mayza, or a player with similar experience and low price tag, ends up on the Opening Day roster.
