12:46 pm: According to Ian Browne of MLB.com, the Red Sox are hoping Yoshida will be back in the lineup and ready to play on Opening Day.
11:44 am: Masataka Yoshida had surgery to repair the labrum in his right shoulder earlier this month, the Red Sox announced. The 31-year-old sat out the final two games of the regular season as he contemplated how to address the shoulder soreness that had bothered him for most of the year. He underwent an MRI after the season, and evidently, the results convinced him and the Red Sox that surgery was the best course of action.
The Red Sox described the procedure as “successful,” though it’s unclear what that means regarding Yoshida’s timeline to return. The usual recovery period for position players who undergo a labrum repair is somewhere between four to six months. Reds infielder Matt McLain had labral repair surgery this past March and initially hoped to return in August before suffering a setback. Meanwhile, Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim had a labrum repair of his own this offseason, and he is hoping to return sometime between mid-April and early May. Kim’s anticipated timeline is slightly longer than McLain’s, but it’s worth noting that Kim’s injury was in his throwing shoulder while McLain’s was not. Yoshida’s injury is also in his throwing shoulder, but as a designated hitter and a left-handed batter, perhaps his recovery timeline will be on the shorter end of the spectrum. If his timeline is similar to McLain’s original goal, he could be ready to return to game action sometime next March.
The 2024 season was complicated for Yoshida in terms of both his injury status and playing time. There was reportedly tension throughout the year between Yoshida and the Red Sox, both because he sought outside opinions regarding a thumb injury against the team’s wishes and because he was unhappy to be limited to a platoon DH role when healthy. Thus, between his injury troubles, defensive shortcomings, and poor performance against left-handed pitching, not to mention any behind-the-scenes tension, Yoshida’s tenure in Boston hasn’t gotten off to the strongest start. It’s fair to wonder if a change of scenery would do him some good, although his recent surgery and the $55.8MM remaining on his contract through 2027 could make a trade difficult to put together.
If Yoshida remains with the Red Sox next season, it’s hard to imagine his role changing all that much. Boston has two of the best defensive corner outfielders in the league, with Jarren Duran manning left field and Wilyer Abreu covering right. Duran can play center as well, but former top prospect Ceddanne Rafaela is far more valuable as an elite defensive center fielder than a stopgap shortstop, and he needs regular playing time if he’s going to improve at the plate. On the offensive side of things, Yoshida is going to need to slowly earn back playing time against left-handed pitchers; he put up a 103 wRC+ against lefties in 2023 but a dreadful 58 wRC+ against southpaws in 2024. Considering the Red Sox will already have at least four lefty batters in the everyday lineup next year – Rafael Devers, Triston Casas, Duran, and Abreu – it’s understandable why Cora might prefer to sub out Yoshida for a right-handed bat at DH. Thus, if Yoshida wants to be an everyday player for the Red Sox in 2025, he’ll need to make a quick recovery over the offseason and come to camp ready to address his weaknesses at the plate and in the field.
Chances now of being moved….. Zilch!!!
Moving him would create better balance and fit, but I still think he will be a solid producer. Despite the injuries, he still produced a 112 OPS+. And we aren’t loaded with guys that actually get on base.
The guy has hit tools. I hope the Sox don’t sell low. Go work on your defense, Masa!
The guy can hit! Keep him
No one in Boston has forgiven Shaughnessy for not voting for Ortiz.
@Terry
And thats relevant to absolutely nothing on this thread, with your admirable consistency.
Relevancy is subjective.
and to the insane, relevancy is rare.
More entertainment value watching money flush counter clockwise down the toilet. Ahahaha!
Bobby Dalbec: My big chance has come.
Extend the QO to O’Neill. If he accepts, problem solved, if he doesn’t, than expect a short term addition that hope will fill the gap and can be easily cut later (Dom Smith reunion?)
Leo, you said that there was no information on what the injury was, but you put a recovery time in your article? Why? When you don’t know, just say so. We would respect that much more than what you just did.
There is a HUGE difference in recovery time between surgery for a type 2 SLAP tear of the labrum and for a type 3 SLAP tear of the labrum. 4-6 months vs 8-10 months. If it is a type 4 of the throwing arm, the player may not return at all as we have seen with multiple pitchers.
If its a Bankart tear, typically from a dislocated shoulder, we saw how long the recovery time can be with Bellinger and that was not his throwing arm. It can take 9-12 months to recover full use of your shoulder. Even after that full range of motion and strength is effected.
As you said, McClain was not his throwing arm and it was nearly 6 months between surgery and his first game appearances in the AFL.
If its the throwing arm it it can be substantially longer and when a player HOPES to return is rarely when they actually return.
Give Bobby another chance and he will win MVP!!!
Masa is just a bad fit on this team. I think he can hit and could be a fit on another team. The Red Sox have absolutely no room in the outfield for him. They already have Duran, Rafaela, Abreu, and they have a cheap option on Refsnyder.I think with a good spring there’s a great chance that Anthony breaks with the team. They just don’t need him his DH spot would be better served with a right handed power bat if they aren’t moving Devers off third which I don’t think they will.
Perhaps there’s a bad contract swap of some sort available with Arizona. It’s hard to see Monty not being moved after the comments by the owner. Maybe something can be figured out there and Boston can go get power hitting righty in free agency. I just know that Masa isn’t a good fit on the Boston Red Sox.
Yoshida was never a good fit for the Sox, you would think at worst he could play LF in Fenway but they seem reluctant to even do that. That being said, the top prospects were LHB before he signed, lineup was LH heavy, etc.
For potential fits: maybe Pittsburgh or Miami if the Sox eat a good chunk of the deal and take a lotto ticket prospect back or something.
I also think Anthony is on his way to starting the season in Boston so they need to free up a roster spot.
Bruin – There’s no reason to move him unless it’s to make room for a better hitter already on the team, like Casas or Devers.
I do agree swapping him for an overpaid pitcher makes sense, assuming Bailey thinks he can fix him. Monty is not the answer though, not for just one year.
Fever Pitch Guy – Yoshida needs to go for the very reason you stated. The Red Sox need a better DH and if it can’t be Devers then it needs to be someone with skills more similar to O’Neill than Yoshida and the new guy needs to stay healthy. I think there will be several free agents that could qualify but in the end it needs to be Devers some time down the road, sooner rather than later..
No offense to Yoshida or Story but they both are clogging the roster. Cut them loose, eat the money and build without them. There are typically 13 hitters that get rostered at the MLB level on the 26 man roster. Right now we have:
1 – Teel
2 – Wong
3 – Casas
4 – Grissom
5 – Campbell
6 – Hamilton
7 – Mayer
8 – Devers
9 – Anthony
10 – Duran
11 – Rafaela
12 – Abreu
13 – Refsnyder
That’s without Story or Yoshida.
Would the team be competitive without the two of them? YES.
Can one of the 13 listed be swapped for another young player to have one fewer OF and one more corner Infielder? Yes. Can the new Corner Infielder be a powerful right handed hitter that could DH or play 3B so Devers can have more rest? Yes.
I love the new young guys and all Story and Yoshida do is remind us of a time past that sucked. We need to tear off the rear view mirror and focus on the future.
Lou Merloni’s targets for the offseason… Fernando Tatis Jr, Teoscar Hernandez, Tanner Scott, Max Fried, and Corbin Burnes.
Any bets on how many of these five the Red Sox walk away with?
A max of 2 and a min of 0.
tff – I think Scott is a possibility. If not, Helsley would be a good acquisition.
Tatis is on the trading block?
Fever PItch Guy = Is Tatis similar to O’Neill? When healthy, a heck of a player but he’s too much like Bob Horner for me!! If that much money is involved we need no less than 150 starts.
Do you think Helsley won’t be offered something from STL?
Scott as the set-up for Hendriks would be good!! Probably lower cost than other closers.
No on Tatis. He is not on trading block.
Pads – Yeah I have no idea where Loomer got that from, maybe he was hitting the bottle at the time. LOL!
I searched quite a bit, all I saw was one Twitter post about Tatis requesting a trade 5 months ago ….. not one other source was found indicating he would be traded or wanted to be traded. And why would he? The fans absolutely love him and he seems extremely happy there.
I think he will come back and be a better hitter than he was this year, but that’s forever more the reason to trade him. We have too many lefties and he takes up a roster spot. It’s cheaper to trade him and fill his spot with young talent. Who knows if that is possible with the injury…
Why are the Red Sox not hiring Roger Beshens? Nobody teaches his Football Slider better than him. Thousands of pitchers, coaches and others have read Roger say. Here’s My Grip, Tilt and Wrist action, Here’s the On center grip, throw it like a football, 90 degree angle tilt and Stiff Wrist. What pitch do you think is being taught in these so called bogus pitching labs and schools? It’s the RBFS. Roger Beshens doesn’t even need technology to teach it although he tracks every slider from baseball savant and tells ML pitchers, ex, too much vert, you need to shape it this way more and….This is simple for him because he threw his football slider over 20,000 times.
It’s unbelievable pro’s are not even recognizing most cutters are just a traditional slider, Remember Verlander’s slider in Detroit? It just had some late horizontal on it, there was no 2 plane break. Then Verlander in Houston with Cole, Morton learned the Roger Beshens Football Slider. The Red Sox already proved, Boddy has no clue what he’s doing. NONE, Cincy had the same problem, Now that Roger Beshens consulted with Strom ALL 2024 and helped Ryne Nelson in the process, teams should be thinking very seriously about hiring Roger Beshens. Imagine hiring Roger Beshens NOW as head of pitching development, or rover the whole organizaton by Spring Training would be better than the Dodgers and Yankees.