When the Red Sox added Sonny Gray and Ranger Suarez, there was no question how they’d fit into the club’s plans. These were proven veteran arms who’d slot right behind Garrett Crochet at the front of the rotation.

Boston’s other rotation addition doesn’t have as obvious a fit, but he could still prove a huge presence.

Added emphasis on the “huge” part.

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Standing at 6-foot-6, 275 pounds, Johan Oviedo is a mountain of a right-hander who stands as one of the biggest wild cards on the Red Sox roster. The 27-year-old was acquired last month from the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for top outfield prospect Jhostynxon Garcia, and he enters spring training among a number of candidates for the No. 5 rotation spot.

Given the price the Red Sox paid Oviedo will presumably have a strong chance to win the job, and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said shortly after the trade that they’d been keeping an eye on him for a while.

“Oviedo was a guy that we had targeted pretty early in the offseason,” Breslow told reporters at the Winter Meetings. “We feel like coming off Tommy John stuff had ticked up, the fastball profile was really intriguing, it had gained a ton of playability. So felt like he makes a ton of sense to continuing to add to our pitching depth.”

Oviedo missed all of 2024 due to elbow surgery but returned to the Pirates rotation in early August and impressed over the season’s last two months. In nine starts, he posted a 3.57 ERA with 42 strikeouts in 40.1 innings, a strong bounce back after putting together a breakout 2023 season in which he made 32 starts and put up a 4.31 ERA in 177.2 innings.

Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Johan Oviedo throws during the first inning of a game against the Boston Red Sox on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025 in Boston. (AP Photo/Mark Stockwell)

Red Sox pitching coach Andrew Bailey described Oviedo as possessing “elite stuff” and as someone with both a high floor and an even higher ceiling.

“(He) had a bright year last year when he was up with Pittsburgh and (we’ll) continue to help him grow into the pitcher we know he can be and wants to be,” Bailey said at Fenway Fest earlier this month. “Really looking forward to seeing him develop over the next two years and see what the ceiling is, because there is so much to love about him.”

One thing that’s clear about Oviedo is that he perfectly fits the profile of pitcher that the Red Sox have coveted. Under Breslow’s leadership the club has frequently targeted big-bodied arms who throw hard and have the ability to generate elite extension. That means they can release the ball closer to the plate, giving opposing hitters less time to react.

Oviedo is one of the biggest-bodied arms around, and while his 95.4 mph fastball velocity doesn’t jump off the page, his 7.4 feet of extension ranked 98th percentile in all of MLB last season, which allowed him to consistently miss bats and avoid hard contact.

Command has been a weakness for Oviedo, who had a below average 13.5% walk rate last season and an 11% mark for his career, but it’s not hard to see why the Red Sox thought highly of him.

For his part, Oviedo said he was excited to learn he’d be coming to Boston and doesn’t anticipate having any pitch restrictions another year removed from surgery.

“I’m a competitor and that’s one of the things that I love about being traded here. Here is all about winning, World Series is the main thing that comes to mind when I hear the name Red Sox,” Oviedo said at Fenway Fest. “I’m a competitor and that’s all I want, to win and help the team to accomplish that.”

Besides the presumed top four of Crochet, Suarez, Gray and Brayan Bello, Oviedo will be competing with Kutter Crawford, Patrick Sandoval, Kyle Harrison, Connelly Early and Payton Tolle for the final rotation spot. Crawford and Sandoval are both established MLB veterans who missed all of last season due to injuries, while Early, Tolle and Harrison are promising upstarts still looking to establish themselves as big leaguers.

Ovideo, in many respects, is a little bit of both. He has an extended MLB track record and is further removed from his season-long injury than Crawford and Sandoval, but he also still possesses tantalizing upside, making him a safer bet than the prospects, at least for now.

Time will tell how Oviedo fits into the big picture, but while he won’t go down as the club’s splashiest offseason addition, he could potentially rank among the most impactful.