Role
Slaten was one of Boston's right-handed setup options when healthy, with 17 holds in 36 games. He didn't stay healthy. He had an early-season IL stint, came back May 9, and went down again in mid-August with right elbow inflammation. Manager Chad Tracy said an exam found "some degenerative changes in the flexor mass" and that Slaten would get a platelet-rich plasma injection (per the AP). He missed the Wild Card Series.
Outlook
His 4.60 ERA was worse than he pitched. Hitters batted .276 against him, but their expected average was .223 and his expected ERA was 2.94 (Baseball Savant). He struck out 39 and walked 8 in 31 1/3 innings. Most of the damage came in a bad June (9 earned runs in 9 innings), and the cutter, his most-used pitch, got hit hard. The health record is the worry: elbow trouble in 2024, a shoulder problem that cost him nearly three months in 2025, and the elbow again this year.
Our take: the stuff and the strike-throwing are still there. We expect him ready for camp, but he's a seventh-inning arm until the elbow holds up for a couple of months.