Red Sox Free Agency Wish List: Steven Okert Would Bring A Different Look to the Bullpen

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The Boston Red Sox relied heavily on their pitching staff all year long, whether that was the rotation or the bullpen. That reliance was also part of their downfall by the end of the season, as several players were either injured or exhausted from their usage. High-leverage arms like Justin Slaten and Tyron Guerrero missed the postseason entirely, while Erik Miller struggled mightily from September onward.

As currently constructed, the Red Sox currently have five left-handed relievers on their 40-man roster when you include closer Aroldis Chapman. However, only he and Miller are equipped to handle late-game situations. One arm they could look to sign as another high-leverage option is Steven Okert, the 44th-ranked player on DiamondCentric’s Free Agency Ranker.

The left-hander is coming off of a fantastic season with the Houston Astros, appearing in 68 games and tossing 67⅔ innings while sporting a 2.13 ERA and a 0.87 WHIP. The left-hander also had a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 4.86. For his entire career, he’s tossed 369 innings across 408 games with a 3.41 ERA. He's also got pristine control, with a walk rate hovering around 6% over the past two seasons combined.

Okert is a three-pitch pitcher, relying on a slider, four-seam fastball and a sinker. The left-hander leads with the slider, using it around 69% of the time against left-handed batters and 65% of the time against right-handed batters. The mix has been successful for him despite a lack of velocity (his fastball averaged around 91 mph in 2026), as he was able to generate a high whiff percentage thanks to a sharp sweep on his slider that is set up by a fastball he tries to keep up in the zone.

In 2026, opposing batters hit just .168 against his slider and slugged .307 while striking out 50 times against it. His fastball was just as efficient, being hit at a .205 clip and slugged at a .321 rate. Thus, it's no surprise that he finished 2026 with a hard-hit rate of 35.4% and an average exit velocity of 87.6 mph, both above the 70th percentile league-wide.

Of course, Okert doesn’t fit the mold of pitcher that Craig Breslow fancies. He doesn’t have an elite fastball and his extension isn’t much to write home about (just 6.3 feet in 2026, a number that was in the bottom third of baseball). Despite that, Okert has improved as a pitcher since joining the Astros and has become a dominant left-handed arm out of the bullpen.

He isn’t without some concern, however. He’ll be 36 years old in early July and there’s never been a pitcher who has beaten Father Time. While some have managed to pitch well into their later years, there’s always concern for a sudden fall-off. Relievers are also very volatile and it’s never a guarantee that success will carry over from season to season.

Okert also has a red flag due to his high fly-ball rate. In 2026, batters hit the ball in the air at a 72% rate, up from his career rate of 68.9%. In Fenway Park, that could lead to some concerns, especially since he’s been one of the worst pitchers in baseball when it comes to pull-air rate in eight of his nine professional seasons. Facing an avalanche of righties at home could spell disaster for him in Boston.

However, it's worth noting that he’s had success in Daikin Park with the Astros, a stadium known for its short porch in left field (the Crawford Boxes). He's held opponents to a slash line of .162/.217/.270 with six doubles, eight home runs and five RBIs at that stadium. There's no lack of evidence to suggest that Okert can work around unfavorable park dimensions; in fact, in a small sample size, batters are just 1-for-8 against him at Fenway Park, the lone hit being a double.

Okert could be a valuable addition to the bullpen that not only helps take stress off of the quartet of Garrett Whitlock, Miller, Slaten and Guerrero, but also help shorten games for the entire roster. He would provide a reliable arm for manager Chad Tracy who can get both right-handed and left-handed batters out, bringing an entirely different look to a relief corps currently built on big velocity and swing-and-miss stuff.