The Red Sox landed an impact bat in Willson Contreras on Sunday. The longtime catcher made the move to first base last season, and that’s expected to stick in Boston. “We see him primarily at first base, maybe some DH opportunities. But the more that we can get his bat in the lineup, the better off we’re going to be,” chief baseball officer Craig Breslow told reporters, including Sean McAdam of MassLive.com.
Contreras bounced around a bit when he first came up with the Cubs, even logging innings at third base and the corner outfield spots, but spent the majority of his time behind the plate. He served as Chicago’s primary catcher from 2017 through 2021. Conteras split his time fairly equally between catcher and DH in 2022. He went to St. Louis in 2023 and continued to play both catcher and DH somewhat evenly. The Cardinals changed course this past season, slotting Contreras in as their primary first baseman. He also made the occasional start at DH.
Heading into 2025, Contreras only had 11 career appearances at first base. He made 119 starts at the position this past season. Contreras delivered fine to solid defensive results, depending on the metric. Outs Above Average looked favorably on Contreras, with a +4 grade. Defensive Runs Saved wasn’t as kind at -1. Given Contreras’ significant contributions as a hitter, Boston will likely be fine with close to average defensive numbers. The 33-year-old has posted a wRC+ of at least 124 in four straight seasons.
Boston has Carlos Narvaez and Connor Wong penciled in as its two backstops. Narvaez had just six games of big-league experience when he was dealt from the Yankees to the Red Sox last offseason. He emerged as a reliable offensive contributor, hitting 15 home runs and slashing .241/.306/.419 across 118 appearances. Wong fell off significantly after a strong 2024. He failed to get on track at the plate after missing most of April with a broken finger. Wong has shown enough in the past to be relied on as a backup heading into next season, and it seems he’ll maintain that role if Boston isn’t interested in playing Contreras at the position.
The Contreras addition immediately puts Triston Casas’ role into question. For his part, Breslow expressed optimism about Casas’ outlook. “We still have a ton of confidence and belief in Triston. What he needs to do is commit to doing everything possible to get back on the field. He’s doing that right now,” Breslow said, relayed by Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. Casas is currently recovering from a ruptured patellar tendon that cost him most of 2025. His status for the start of next season is uncertain.
Casas has frequently come up in trade rumors this offseason, even before Boston acquired Contreras. The fact that the team added a player at his position could increase the chances he’s on the move. The main inhibitor toward a potential deal is Casas’ recent performance, both in terms of production and health. He hit just .182 over 29 games before going down with the knee injury. Casas was better in 2024, but also spent three months on the injury list with a rib strain.
It’s not just Contreras pushing Casas, either. Boston has another DH option in Masataka Yoshida, who’s been squeezed out of the outfield mix by Jarren Duran, Roman Anthony, and Ceddanne Rafaela. Wilyer Abreu also performed well last year, mostly against right-handed pitching. Breslow didn’t sound overly concerned about the potential roster glut. “Those things tend to work out. (It’s an) opportunity to keep everybody fresh, to keep everybody involved and engaged at the same time.”
Sliding Rafaela to the infield could help alleviate some of the roadblocks for Casas and the young outfielders, but that isn’t the current intention of the club. “We’re a better team with Ceddanne in center field, and we’ll try to keep (him) there,” Breslow said, per Ari Alexander of 7News Boston WHDH. Rafaela earned a Gold Glove in center field this past season.
After splitting his time between shortstop and center field in 2024, Rafaela was primarily on the grass this past season. He made 19 starts at second base, but the rest of his appearances came in the outfield. Rafaela was one of the most impactful defenders at any position in 2025. He tied for second with Alejandro Kirk in Statcast’s Fielding Run Value metric. Patrick Bailey was the only player to be more productive as a defender.
Second base is an area of need for the Red Sox at the moment. If the season started today, Boston would likely be rolling with an uninspiring platoon of Romy Gonzalez and Nick Sogard at the position. Kristian Campbell could factor into that mix, though he’ll need to show more in the minors to earn another big-league opportunity.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry, Imagn Images
If the Red Sox play Rafaela in the infield for more than an emergency situation, the entire front office should be fired.
Totally agree. He makes the entire OF defense better and you get the most value from him out there. It’s nice to hear they are finally starting to realise that. Either trade or sign another IF player; simple as that.
It wasn’t as simple as that on first reading but duh I get it. My thought for them to solve this was in trading an outfielder not an IF. Last winter I hoped Cleveland would trade Clase for a Boston outfielder, maybe Abreu, or possibly with the Dodgers. Oh well. That clears up things too and gives Rafaela a no doubt home.
Kind of a moot point, as that seems to be exactly what they’re laying out. It’s great that he is an option on the INF, and injuries do happen, so there is no reason to shut that door hard – but everyone knows he’s much more valuable in CF, so that is the setup they’ll aim for.
Red Sox have to trade Duran that’s all there is to it.
Speed will decline as he ages and he’s at a high point now with the arb stuff and talent. We’ve got a great outfield without him.
Sure he’s dynamic, but let’s improve another area by trading him. I think that’s the biggest no-brainer in the history of the world.
Gary– Seems they are aware but so are others. The sticker price hasn’t matched up and few who could match thought it poor, namely the Royals with Ragans.
Is natural to wait for the best deal. If Something fruitful comes up they’ll jump on it. But just my opinion I think they have to trade from their wealth of assets on the grass.
Gary – Hafta disagree, Maryanne over Ginger was the biggest no brainer in the history of the world.
No argument here. Merely stating, can’t do si do without someone. And the pickings are slim.
I believe they want to because he said something controversial to a heckling fan. The problem is, other teams aren’t interested in paying full price.
I believe he will be staying put barring another team stepping up because of an injury need.
Trying to understand. You are saying the Red Sox have to trade the best player on the team because he is 29 and in his prime? That they will get better by trading away the best player on the team? Did I get that right?
Skip, I’d argue Anthony is already the most important every day player on the team.
I know you want to put Ceddane at 2B and Duran at CF, but that will make the Red Sox a worst team. We’ve debated this before, and there is no doubt that Duran has the best skill set today of everyone. But he is an average at best, to slightly below average defensive center fielder. Defense wins championships. He is also someone who seems to not handle the spotlight or tribulations very well. That’s not a slight on him, I don’t know how players handle it. But when the times get tough, or a clutch situation arises, he seems to struggle with that.
I think Duran would shine in a smaller market. Kansas City would make so much sense for him.
So, the Sox should trade him. But if they do, they need an impact bat to replace him (most likely in the infield). This will be easiest by re-signing Bregman. But could be accomplished with someone else with power (like Eugenio Suarez). Additional offensive contribution will be made by a full season of Anthony.
Red Sox, at this point, should trade Duran, Casas, Campbell and Abreu.
Sign Bregman and Tucker.
That keeps Rafaella in CF.
Anthony (RF)
Tucker (LF)
Bregman (3B)
Contreras (1B)
Story (SS)
Yoshida (DH)
Rafaella (CF)
Narvaez (C)
Mayer (2B)
You’d have a marquee top three.
&$-#+The Dream+$+&($
How about this lineup:
Duran (CF)
Teel (C)
Anthony (RF)
Bregman (3B)
Abreu (LF)
Casas (1B)
Yoshida (DH)
Story (SS)
Rafaella (2B)
Mayer, Refsnyder, Gonzalez, Wong on the bench.
Pitching Staff:
Bello
Giolito
Priester
Sandoval
Early
Dobbins
Fitts
Stack the bullpen with veteran free agents. Trade for a starter at the deadline. That was a possibility.
_-$($(4-End Dream$+_-#(#
Back to reality.
lol second lineup is a joke. You take away Crochett trade we win maybe 82 games. First one is a pipe dream but acting like they can’t afford it, is ridiculous.
I guess that is where we differ, I like the second lineup.
It seems to gel and all the pieces fit nicely.
As it looks this season, have to sign a 3B, Suarez or Bregman and if you like Rafaella in CF, a Duran trade is probable. A Casas trade also probable because neither fit all that well.
Rafaella (CF)
Yoshida (DH)
Anthony (LF)
Bregman / Suarez (2B)
Contreras (1B)
Abreu (RF)
Story (SS)
Narvarz (C)
Mayer (2B)
Its a good lineup but is Rafaella as good at the top as Duran has been? If he isnt leading off, you don’t have a great option in the one hole. If you keep Duran, you move Rafaella to second base and if you sign Bregman or Suarez, you have Mayer on the bench or in AAA. Campbell also in AAA.
Who are you going to trade if you sign a 3B? Signing Tucker would be nice, Abreu in CF and Mayer at third, trade Duran and Casas? If you sign Bregman / Suarez and Tucker, do you keep Mayer around until Story’s deal expires in ’28?
Jammed up in Boston.
First
👎
He’s a wack job
Did you hear that? He saw it on the television.
Nope saw it first hand when he played for cubs blows his mouth off on the regular
Chase Burns, Matt McClain for Jarren duran Kristian campbell and Early.
Interesting
Laughably bad
“Impact bat” huh?
A 34yr old who’s never hit 25 HRs in a season and is a 250 career hitter…… That’s a dime a dozen and about a dozen miles away from “impact bat”. What a homer charlie wright is
His exit velocity is good, and he’s going to love peppering the Monster for doubles.
bass – His Pull Percentage this year was the 2nd-lowest of his career. Hopefully he doesn’t mess up his swing with the Monsta tempting him.
Bregman was supposedly going to rake in Fenway too …. didn’t work out that way at all.
“Bregman was supposedly going to rake in Fenway too …. didn’t work out that way at all.”
Come on man, that’s a really shallow declaration.
Bregman, a career-long slow starter (.777 career OPS in April, .818-.840 in all but one other, .963 in August), raked in April last year and had a .299/.385/.553 slash line when he went down for 1.5 months to injury. He was clearly not himself when he returned in mid-July, put up by far the worst August of his career, and then finished on a skid.
Now, that doesn’t prove that it was as simple as “he started how he would have gone all year, and it was lingering injury impact and rust that held him back the rest of the way” – after all, maybe it was simply a hot start and his fade was due to being older – but without question his season is a tale of a pre- and post-injury split that at a minimum begs consideration. And he was hitting both at home and on the road before the injury.
To emphasize, I’m not declaring that he was definitely taking advantage of Fenway until and only because of injury, but it’s simply untrue to declare that he didn’t thrive at Fenway as expected “at all”, given that very clearly he *might* have been doing just that and then had things ruined for other reasons. We’ll never know for sure.
u571 – I said that based solely on the Road/Home splits. The injury would have impacted each equally, correct? I mean it’s not like the injury affected him more at home than on the road, that’s not possible.
.875 Road OPS and .761 Home OPS
.296 Road BA, .246 Fenway BA
12 Road Homers in 259 PA’s, 6 Fenway Homers in 236 PA’s.
Fenway didn’t help him at all this year.
Don’t forget his defense was not elite, and his clutch performances left much to be desired.
He bought the rookies some suits in spring training and the media almost (collectively) lost their minds about his leadership. When he came back from the injury and struggled, most players interviewed were raving about Story as team leader (admittedly he was on a tear at the time). Then, we almost never heard from him again.
At what point in our collectively therapy can we all admit that 2/3rds of a season with Bregman was a ploy to remove the QO compensation, and not a great fit at all, and move on?
Sad – What’s even worse, bringing in Bregman resulted in the Sox losing Raffy for virtually nothing AND losing a 54th-overall draft pick AND losing $500K in International Bonus money.
And all they got out of Bregman and his $32M salary? 6 good weeks offensively to start the season.
With his speed… most will be singles.
CJ- what about his 128 ops+ the past 3 years? Contreras has been very good for the Cardinals.
Red Sox fan saying “How many homas did he hit?”, is equivalent to a gym muscle head saying “How much ya bench?”
CJ
OPS+
2022. 126
2023. 123
2024. 138
2025. 123
Avg. OPS+ over past four years 128
“impact bat”…. Yes
Avg. OPS+ over past four years for Bregman is 125
Willson in 2025 hit 20 homers in 490 at bats
Bregman in 2025 hit 18 homers in 433 at bats
His wRC+ is pretty elite. Anthony is the only current Red Sox who was better last year.
You’re judging him by home runs and Batting average? Is the Wayback Machine set to the 80s?
He’s an above-average power bat by any respected metric,
Made for fenway
Leaving David Hamilton out of the potential 2B options seems rather intentional.
As it should be. He’s only good at being fast.
Are the Sox willing to trade out prospects in order to dump Yoshida’s salary? Using BTV, a package of Kyson Witherspoon + Kyle Harrison is almost enough to offset Yoshida and his entire 37M owed. Would they even do that?
Another option is Jordan Hicks and his 25M due which by BTV could be offset with Witherspoon alone.
Question is, since they clearly have the prospect capital to clear out those two contracts of Yoshida and Hicks, would they do that in order to sign Bregman or Bichette or one one of the arms like Valdez or Gallen?
Nine – I’ve said the same thing, attaching prospects to Yoshida/Hicks in order to save some money could help sign others.
But if it was gonna happen, I would think it would have happened by now. It’s not something you can really do after signing the free agents.
Why would any team want Hicks’s money and production. Yoshida, all nonsense aside, is a pretty good hitter. The problem is he is being paid like a very good hitter that has defensive value, which he doesn’t. There isn’t fits almost anywhere in the league except big budget teams in win now mode, and they would look to do better.
Also, if you aren’t looking at elite talent anymore on long term deals, or going to nickel and dime even secondary upper tier guys, what sense would it be to eat any money on our own bad contracts? We have been playing just below or above the cap for years content to fill out the roster with plan C through Z guys. Some of the same exact problems remain.
We are still trying to shore up the rotation, the pen, find a second baseman, and add power. The difference this year is we need a third baseman also.
Off season is not over. There is time to shock fans this off season with showing that same hunger to win it all, or repeat the last few years of reimagining how to build a roster through wishful thinking, reclamation projects, and self gratification in not spending a penny or year more on a player than some internal team valuation system uses that dominant teams rarely flinch at.
william – That’s why I said attach the prospects to Hicks and/or Yoshida, that would make it worthwhile to a team that is willing to pay some or all of their salaries.
For instance the Brewers did the exact same thing with JBJ, they attached a couple prospects to JBJ’s bloated contract and traded them to the Red Sox.
Unfortunately there’s no other way to sign a Bo, Bregman or maybe even Suarez unless their prices drop substantially as I believe reports of the Sox refusing to cross the second CBT threshold are legit.
I’m gonna stick with my original list of likely acquisitions if the Sox don’t unload salary ….
Donovan
Marte
Suarez
Okamoto
Breggy can wait all he wants, I don’t see the Sox signing him unless he reduces his demands below $150M.
I see the same deal he signed for last season Fever but without the opt outs. Equates to a three year new deal at a present value of $31m per. If Breggy gets more years, the AAV drops to around $26m per. If another team offers a better deal, he’s not returning to Boston except as part of the visiting team.
Dewey – The funniest part about all this is the Sox are probably not pushing hard on Marte yet because acquiring him means Breggy is gone.
Have you heard whether Breggy is demanding a NTC? If he’s not the Sox could always sign him to like a 6-year $160M heavily backloaded contract and then trade him after 2 years, just like they did to Raffy. Assuming Breggy maintains his value.
Yoshida was arguably the best hitter on the team down the stretch..is he overpaid sure but its not like he isnt a solid hitter.the red sox have plenty of money to sign bregman or bichette without any of these proposals..and there has been little reported on them signing a top end pitcher
4HR’s and 26 RBI’s is hardly a “solid hitter”….the Sox have been trying to dump him since they signed him and found out he’s a singles hitter with little to no power and defensively challenged at Fenway…..your characterization as “the best hitter down the stretch” is a real stretch itself…..
Disagree Rocky on Yoshida who was injured. He was their best hitter to end the year. Injuries happen and while I expect him traded before opening day, having him around is not a bad option IF others can play multiple positions so he remains a DH only. I’d love to get rid of Hicks but that was the cost of getting Devers’ contract off the books. Just eat that contract if you can’t dump him with others in a trade.
He hit .338 in September. with a .837 OPS statmuse.com/mlb/ask/best-red-sox-player-batting-a…
It isn’t hard to look things up.
Plenty of money? Their payroll is currently 191M which is about 16M shy of last year’s final payroll. Unless I missed a report saying they’re going to fly past the 207M they spent last year then they do not have budget space for signing a Bregman/Bichette type player without shedding payroll.
The Sox could easily and should be thinking of exceeding last year’s payroll and then some. They have as much budget space as they want to have. They spent $40 million more 8 years ago, Mr Henry.
I said it recently that Henry, et al. tasted success and got us fans drunk in the process. Now, we continue to support the team but ownership after a certain point, takes OUR additional profits and invests elsewhere so us fans will not again drink from the WS winning fountain without substantial luck (like in 13).
Roman Anthony and not Yoshida was the best Red Sox hitter over the last three months cumulatively by any metric even with Anthony missing most of September.
FYI MLB Top 100, “Down the stretch” is traditionally a much shorter timeframe than half a season (more like the final month or six weeks or something like that), and by traditional meaning Anthony was basically absent for the final stretch.
No question, Anthony was Boston’s best hitter “in the second half” or along those lines, but that wasn’t the intended point/period.
The commenter said “down the stretch”
Anthony had 8 at bats in September. Yoshida was their best hitter in September. statmuse.com/mlb/ask/best-red-sox-player-batting-a…
Down the stretch typically means from the All Star break through the end of the season. That is 2.5 months from mid-July through the end of September.
Taking any single month is far too small of a sample size. Staying with the Red Sox you could then try to argue that Duran was the best hitter on the team since he had a .317 BA and 1.093 OPS in July. Months matter only in how they contribute to the season as a whole.
Yoshida had a .696 OPS and 93 OPS+ for his season.
I said during “the last three months”. The other poster said “down the stretch”. My point is that I think the other poster overestimates Yoshida’s value to the Red Sox or any other team. I offered an alternative time frame to make my point.
Down The Stretch is “late season” not after the all star break. Good lord dude.
Skip, down the stretch is not from the ASG forward. It represents the last month or even shorter, the last two or three weeks. The expression came from horse racing where a track is a mile or longer and the down the stretch distance is AFTER the final far turn. The last straightway before the finish line.
A .690 OPS is not good.
Your knowledge of the term “down the stretch” is also not good.
baseball-almanac.com/dictionary-term.php?term=down… last 4-5 weeks of the season,
There is no set in stone “down the stretch”.
When I played, we considered it to be after the ASB. The last 2.5 months of the season.
For some baseball writers it is considered to be the period after the trade deadline.
You like the last 4 or 5 weeks of the season, which is really amorphous, but more power to you.
A hot month is a worthless measure of performance. Yoshida’s September was not in the top 10 on the Red Sox for best 30 day period during the 2025 season.
Yoshida had a .696 OPS and 93 OPS+ for the season. That is bad.
Skip, your definition makes no sense. The ASG used to represent the dividing line between the first and second halves until they started to begin the season earlier each year. Down the stretch to me anyway means the final 10 to 25 games. Certainly not 60 or more.
Argue with Baseball Almanac. baseball-almanac.com/dictionary-term.php?term=down…
I’d love to add Witherspoon. An intelligent front office would pursue this. We don’t have one of those.
and a stupid front office would shoot down any trade involving Witherspoon just to dump salary.
Because every GM goes to BTV, does the math, and does the trade? Uhhhh….
Salary dump trades happen every year. A team like the Angels should be willing to take on a Senga or Hicks if they can add young talent as well.
The Dodgers kick started their rebuild taking on bad contracts from Boston in order to land young talent.
Angels would be a decent fit for Yoshida if it brought back some young pitching. His defense ain’t great but it’s an upgrade over Soler.
Angels are still 34M under last year’s payroll, they could fit both Yoshida/Hicks salaries if Boston was willing to throw in the appropriate prospects to get them to bite.
I agree with you that salary dump trades happen almost every year. I don’t think that Senga or Hicks will be traded, let alone in a salary dump trade that had prospects attached to them.
Yoshida is different. The first 3 seasons of his contract he has averaged 1.0 bWAR and last season was 0.2 WAR because he missed the 1st half of the season to an injury that takes a couple of seasons after returning to play to achieve the level of play before the injury. He is a DH that might be able to fill in a corner OF spot during a dire emergency.
To get rid of him the Red Sox would have to include both prospects and cash to dump him. I am sure that some team would take him on as a DH if they only had to pay him $5-7 million per year or $10-14 million for the last 2 seasons on his contract. What I am saying there is if the Red Sox pay $24-26 million of what he is owed, another team would send back a marginal 40FV prospect. The kind of prospect you see at the bottom of a team’s top 30 lists From the Angels that would be someone like Austin Gordon, a relief only prospect in A+ ball. To get a good prospect in return for Yoshida plus money, the Red Sox would have to add a prospect or player that has value.
The Angels with Moreno as their owner have not shown the foresight needed to undertake a rebuild. Moreno seems to be more about marketing than winning when it comes to his baseball team.
packaging Witherspoon and Harrison to dump youshida is so outrageous given how valuable SP is that Breslow would and should be fired on the spot if he did such a thing. Including either of them to dump Yoshida should also be fireable offense.
Aye don’t get upset at me for just relaying info go complain to BTV if you think it’s outrageous. Witherspoon+Harrison is fair value per BTV. If you’ve got a better tool to evaluate trade scenarios please share it with the rest of us.
hardly upset. just surprised that sopmeone would post such an outrageous suggestion. BTV isn’t the be all end all that some make it out to be. It might be “fair value” based on whatever algorithm they’re using but real world MLB works much differently.
BTV is not a valuable tool. In 2023 it said that Grisham was more valuable than Judge in a straight up trade. That in 2019 Nick Senzel was more valuable than Clayton Kershaw.
Your best guide is knowledge of the game, not that ridiculous program.
If the season started today, the game would be snowed out.
And Wong was fine over the last two months of the season.
Let’s keep it simple here. Trade one of the four everyday outfielders, either Duran or Abreu. Play Rafaela every day in CF. Casas can battle Yoshida and Gonzalez for playing time. If he lives up to his ego, he’ll easily be the best of the three. If not, then he has an option remaining and can relearn the game in the minors or until an injury opens a job.
Isn’t really all that difficult… Contreras is the best defensive 1B and an everyday player, so that’s where he plays most of his starts.
All that just sounds too complicated and beating around the bush. Please simplify.
I don’t get why people are bagging out this trade. He’s rated well with the leather, carries an OPS .800+, is reasonably priced, the contract is relatively short and fulfills a need in a position which was questionable going into the year. Oh, and they gave up players from a position of surplus.
It ticks a lot of boxes.
But yes, they still need another infielder.
I still think Bregman comes back to the Red Sox, but then I think they make a trade from their outfield. I’m not sure Breslow trades Casas, he’d be selling low right now.
If Campbell has a good spring he’ll be at 2B barring the return of Alex Bregman or another outside acquisition that could push Marcelo Mayer to the keystone position
Some of the talk has him LF going forward.
Campbell playing LF doesn’t work with Duran on the roster. Even if Duran was traded Roman Anthony would likely end up in LF. The OF for the Sox is very crowded currently
The Sox have made it clear that Campbell is moving to the OF.
rsox–There will need to be plus plus hitting from him to sniff Boston lineup for a while. Even after opening the OF, Anthony, Rafaela, and Abreu will hold court.
acell10 — Basically a death knell for his playing time and what hope there was for him to hit the ground running. It’s feeling like it’s ’27 or a trade.
not necessarily. Refsnyder signed elsewhere and te only person infront of Campbell right for a forth OF spot at least is Eaton.
Acell10 — assuming Duran is gone, yes he could be a fourth. But seems like a waste for him to only reach being a fourth.
Cleve – Rafaela was literally the worst hitter (min 225 PA’s) in MLB from July 18th to the end of the season with a.587 OPS. If he continues to not hit he will not be an everyday starter no matter how good the defense.
Rafaela decline in his bat exactly matches up with the team playing him at 2B instead of just leaving him in CF.
When he was a full-time CF, he had an OPS of 0.796 (first half of the season, starting the second half the team started playing him at 2B).
So simple solution, leave him in CF and let him win the platinum glove and see if his offense can repeat the progress he showed the first half of 202t.
Fever Pitch Guy — After the All-Star break Rafaela faced a bunch of strong pitchers, and they went after him with sinkers and sliders. The east-west ate him up after dominating north-south game.
Joemo — It’s a coincidence. Rafaela’s report for pitchers got updated All-star break and opposing pitchers went into a east-west game. Rafaela had his best success against pitchers going north and south right before the break. The shift to east-west ate him up. Slider and sinkers are an area of weakness, it seems, for Rafaela, and it wasn’t until late season when the pitchers started throwing more north south did we see some life.
Cleve – Good point, I agree the league adjusted to him and he couldn’t adjust back.
I know some think his playing 2B was a factor, and I agree it was partially a factor. But after Roman went down Sept 2nd Rafaela was exclusively a CF and had just a .630 OPS for the rest of the regular season
He also went hitless in 12 PA’s in the postseason.
If he doesn’t make some drastic changes, he will not be a starter for much longer. The lineup right now is not deep enough to carry a black hole for a non-catcher.
Cleve – Fantastic point, thank you!
Fever Pitch Guy — He’s a 4 WAR player with defense alone. With such streakiness, and knowing himself, there’s plenty reason to believe he can muster adjustments when there’s time to devote his full attention. It certainly happened between ’24 and ’25 there were important shifts most didn’t think likely. Since he’s still pliable, and motivated, it’ll be fine. Worse case is that the seasons east west has major prevalence will be down seasons, and the reverse would be true too.
Cleveland – I don’t necessarily think that’s true.
fangraphs.com/leaders/major-league?type=7&sta…
You can use this fangraphs page to see the differences between the pitch value and then change the time frames.
Breslow said only that Campbell would practice some in the OF, not that he would play there. He has been clear that Anthony, Duran, Abreu, and Rafaela would play OF.
Joemo — the link only has fastballs together. When you split them up, it shows there’s a difference for Rafaela. Sinkers aren’t good for him.
But maybe it’s simpler than I thought. The month directly after the break was a tough stretch of pitchers including (Imanaga, Wheeler, C. Sanchez, Sheehan, Brown x2, Valdez, Pivetta, R Suarez, Fried, and Rodon). This stretch between 7/18-8/24, he played 2B some. So maybe I was too hasty to dismiss relevance; however, only a diminutive part as compared to the strength of pitchers.
Sinker usage went up with sliders and it caused him to fall apart. And afterward Rafaela was a mess trying to find footing for another month.
Cleve – I hope you’re right. The announcers often talked about him swinging for the fences at the first pitch of almost every PA, that makes it tougher for him always starting an at-bat in a hole.
Yes he did improve, but it would have mattered much more if it was the second half of the season instead of just the first half.
Cleve – I agree he performs rather well against poor pitchers, he is really good at hammering mistake pitches.
Problem is, there’s a lot of good pitchers in the AL East and in the postseason who don’t make very many mistakes. They can’t bench him against good pitchers, unless they don’t trade Duran or Abreu.
In 2022, Contreras played nearly twice as many games at catcher as at DH. In 2023, Contreras played over three times as many games at catcher as at DH. Those ratios don’t fit the definition of “fairly equally” or “somewhat evenly.”
Rafaela should play CF and bat ninth – always. He’ll be solid, just leave him in center & ninth.
Sox need to use some prospect capital to go in this year. Use a good prospect or two attached to Yoshida to save some money and free up a roster spot. Trade Abreu and Campbell in a package for Hunter Greene. Sign Bregman and move Mayer to 2nd base. A lineup of Duran, Anthony, Contreras, Bregman, Story, Casas, Narvaez, Rafaella, Mayer and rotation of Crochet, Greene, Gray, Bello, Tolle/Early makes them serious contenders.
Lets see if I understand this. these are all from Breslow. Anthony will start in LF. Abreu will no longer be platooned in RF. They are a better team with Rafaela in CF. Duran won’t be traded. Contreras will be the starting 1B. Yoshida will be the DH. Where does Duran play then? He was far and away the best OF on the team the last 2 seasons.
Duran will be traded. It’s just a matter of when.
29 and a speed guy. His next contract will be a decent payday yet as he declines. What he hit this year 260? I say cash in now. Yes, we’ll miss him, but we can approve other other areas. Our outfield is set !!
Duran is the best player on the Red Sox team. Do you know whose game is based on speed? Rafaela. Furthermore his game was based almost entirely on speed on defense. He has not shown that he can hit. His 95 OPS+ was below average and his .295 OBP was abysmal.
So whose game will fall apart faster? The defense only player or the player that had a 114 OPS+, gets on base by drawing walks at an above average pace, and is a better baserunner than the equally fast defense only player? Historically its the defense only player.
You make excellent points skip and you’re not wrong. But I think Duran is going to want to get paid for his past production when these control years are over very soon. And he’ll be 31, 32 years old.
Rafaela is 25 right now. He’s improving as a hitter I think and centerfield is your premium defensive position.
Jackie Bradley Junior played there and hit the ball in a streaky way and was great for years. I Loved him out there.
But yeah, you’re not wrong. Both points are excellent. We’ll see what the Red Sox decide. I’m just giving my two cents and that’s about what it’s worth lol
Skip, you are right that currently Duran is our best player. He is under team control for 3 seasons. It makes no sense to trade him. So of course all Red Sox fans want to ship him out.
Rafaela is the guy they would rather keep. As you pointed out he can’t hit and refuses to take a walk. He is only 25 so he may eventually learn to hit, but his pitch recognition is so awful that I’m not holding out much hope.
My hope is that Breslow is much smarter than most fans.
Even though the other two guys have 3 Gold Gloves between over the same two seasons? Come on, Skip.
Popularity contests like Gold Glove are not how I measure value. Duran has the most WAR of any player on the Red Sox the past 2 years. He is the best overall player.
In 2024 he played 105 games in CF and was the best defensive CF in MLB by measure of DRS. He was top 5 in FRV, which is the StatCast measure of fielding run value. In 2025 he was the 2nd best defensive LF in MLB behind Kwan.
He is not as good as Rafaela on defense, but he is good on defense and does things Rafaela can’t do. Namely hit, take walks, and take extra bags.
Rafaela isn’t that much worse of a baserunner than Duran: baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/baserunning-run…
2025 Duran OPS: 0.774
2025 Rafaela OPS: 0.708
Objects in mirror may be closer than they appear. Before the Red Sox jerked Rafaela between 2B and CF, he has an OPS near 0.800. If they just stick him in CF and let his Platinum Glove caliber defense eat, the bat will come along. Just like it was doing to start this season, when he was hitting really well – taking walks, less K’s, with some more power.
Joemo, Everything Skip said was on point. Rafaela is not as good as Duran at baserunning.. That chart you linked to shows Duran ranked #7 with a +7 Runs and Rafaela ranked 20th with a +4. When you look at runs via extra bases taken Duran has double the run value. That doesn’t mean either was bad, because both were in red numbers, 90th percentile overall. Duran was 98th percentile. Rafaela was 82nd percentile. Both had exactly the same sprint speed in 2025.
Staying with Statcast, Rafaela was in the 22nd percentile on batting run value. Duran was in the 77th percentile.
If you want to compare B/R stats then 114 OPS+ vs 95 OPS+. A 19% difference. That is a huge difference.
Using wRC+ you see Rafaela at 91 wRC+ and Duran at 111 wRC+. A 20% difference.
In terms of walks, Rafaela is in the 7th percentile, Duran in the 53rd percentile.
In terms of plate discipline Rafaela was the worst in baseball in 2024 at a 1st percentile and improved all the way to the 2nd percentile in 2025. With plate discipline like that he will not improve much at the plate.
Rafaela got better with the bat overall in 2025, but his peak potential is about average with the bat and 99th percentile defense in CF. A one dimensional, glove-first player, Duran showed his peak in 2025 which was plus offense, 132 OPS+ and 131 wRC+, combined with 95th percentile defense in CF. Duran is simply a better player overall. The difference between 95th percentile and 99th percentile defense is not enough to overcome the humongous difference in ability with the bat.
Skip – there are over 200 names on that list. Going from 7 – 20 is a miniscule jump.
By statcast’s FRV, Rafaela was the top OF at 22 while Duran was 40th at 2. That gap is significantly larger than the gap between their base running.
Duran had a good offensive 2024 but really regressed in 2025 with an OPS+ of 114.
Rafaela had an OPS+ of 95.
The defensive gap is much wider than the offensive and base running one…
I get it now. You were bounced on your head as a child and don’t realize that double is a huge difference.
99th percentile is a 5% difference from 95th percentile. This is not hard to understand, except to you.
Skip, you are wasting your time with Joemo. He is a troll. Everything you said went right pice his head.
I like it when people are so wrong and they just jump to insult the other persons intelligence.
So you’re saying double is a huge difference right? Well in FRV, as I mentioned in my previous post, Rafaela’s value is 11x Duran’s. If Duran’s baserunning value is double Rafaela’s and that’s a huge difference, then Rafaela’s FRV being 11x Duean’s must be…. A much larger difference? I’m not sure of other ways to describe that but hopefully it’s obvious enough for you to understand it.
Yoshida was coming off shoulder surgery and it took a long time until he was ‘ready’ and had a spot to play. I suspect there is a better season coming. At worst the team can use splits to manage plate appearances, as suggested with Contreras getting some DH.
Casas still has to recover. There is bound to be some lag for him to actualize peak strength and production, so slow and steady won’t be a terrible problem. Who knows how the health of these three guys works; Casas and Yoshida haven’t got a good record.
I see that Bregman and Devers bats need to be replaced. You aren’t going to replace the defense Bregman provides. I think Contreras can give ya a similar offensive production to Bregman. Breslow still hasn’t replaced though the production of Rafael Devers. The team needs a power bat to anchor the lineup still. It potentially could be Casas he showed flashes in 2024 but I don’t think that should be plan A.
You could say Anthony replaced Devers’ bat. But another big bat is still needed for sure.
Contreras will replace Bregman generally, and Mayer stepping up could be considered the other half. Meanwhile, if and when Casas returns, presumably best in the second half, they’ll be back square. Luckily, the team plays half the games in Fenway and surely makes even fringe hitters look smart, and the team will put up their runs. Hence, what they really need is a pitcher to hedge Crochet. Gray could do so but only half as good as certain.
The Red Sox plan seems pretty clear to me. They are absolutely hard-capped by ownership. They cannot go over the $264M second tier of the CBT, so their order of preference is this:
1) Trade for Ketel Marte and his $18M per year salary. This will allow Boston to have an all-star second baseman and play Mayer primarily at 3B. This will also give them enough money to add to the bullpen and to add players at the deadline if need be.
2) Re-sign Bregman to a contract that will allow them to stay under the 2nd tier of the CBT, preferably by a considerable sum ($5-$10M) so they can enhance their bullpen some and pick up a cheap option at the deadline. Bregman’s contract will need heavy deferrals for this to happen.
3) If neither of these options are achievable, sign Geno Suarez to a 2 year deal to play 3B for ~$20M per year. This allows them to develop Arias in the minors for another 2 years and figure out who their long term 2B, SS & 3B are between Mayer, Arias & others once Story & Suarez have completed their deals.
Note: A trade of Duran’s $9M and a trade of 1/3 of Yoshida’s salary ($6M) would really help Boston with Option 2 quite a bit.
Option 2 seems far from likely. Option 1 looks promising on the surface. But underneath, the commitment and acquistion costs are large bites at the apple than they can stomach. So option 3 might be most promisingl; however, there hasn’t been much of a whisper considering Geno. Geno should be a great fit and would be ideal, but the Contreras trade does muck around it a bit.
There’s plenty for them but with all the talk regarding pitching, swapping in and out guys in some form of upgrade is likeliest. Probably coming from Duran and Bello etc when a pitcher or OF falls victim to happenstance and the Red Sox are Johnny on the spot.
Hard pass on Marte. Certain Red Sox seeming obsession with making a trde for Marte given the amout of red flags and alleged prospect capital needed is surprinsing.
The red flags aren’t an issue here. Christ, Duran’s issues could be considered more troubling, yet no one cares. And depending on how committed to paying Marte for five more season the Dbacks are remains to be seen as the next season approaches. They might be more keen than they let on to trade before the 10 and 5 kicks in. Sox standing off for now could play in their favor. But Marte would be a serious upgrade and make a fantastic 1-2 with Anthony for the next few seasons.
If by Duran’s issue’s you’re refering to the slur he uttered yes that’s a problem. But being an issue in the clubhouse allegeldy shouldn’t be ignored. The bigger concern is his age, the fact he’s limited to 2B, and what the d backs supossidly want in return. Just because the D Backs might be keen to do it doesn’t mean they aren’t going to ask for a lot. The sox shouldn’t be the ones to pay it.
Duran has been better than Marte the past 2 seasons and he is younger with 3 seasons of team control.
I wouldn’t be certain about that. Duran was better than Marte in only 2024, and that was to the tune of 0.5 more fWAR in 150+ more PAs. Most of that value was built on plus defense in CF, and that’s the only season in Duran’s career (to this point) that he’s shown that level of skill.
Sure, Duran is the better baserunner by a country mile, and is also the better fielder (although, the gap is much less wide if he’s primarily in LF); however, Marte is the more impactful bat by a long shot. I’ll even give you a favorable comparison for context.
Duran’s best full season in the last 3 years was to the tune of a 131 wRC+ in 2024; that’s pretty good. Marte’s worst platoon splits in the last 3 years was a 121 wRC+ against RHP in 2023; Marte is still a well above average hitter even in his least favorable situations.
Sure, I’d accept the argument that Marte will struggle as his bat slows down, but he has a great eye from both sides of the plate and his bat has actually been speeding up since we’ve had bat tracking data available.
Then why not play Duran at 2B? Keep the prospects and saves them money. Win-Win
Redsox8 — It’d be great if that was possible. However, Duran started there in the minors but it became abundantly clear to the Red Sox he couldn’t. It’s also pretty clear defense isn’t something Duran does naturally as it does for Rafaela.
acell10 — Marte’s home was burgled.. His teammates thought him weak because they were playing through injuries when he was asking for time off. Is that a red flag?
Not really sure what the ask was, do you know where the ballpark is for the Marte? I genuinely don’t know whose been mentioned.
Arizona wants young pitching so someone in the Tolle, Early, Witherspoon group. That’s a non starter and should continue to be for the Red Sox
clubhouse issues regardless of what they were could be considered a red flag. along with his age and postion. . Regardless that doesn’t change the fact that Marte is 32 and plays 2B only.
Acell10 — That is a hefty first ask. Probably why there hasn’t been much ado from the Sox since, and the Contreras trade took even more wind out the sails.
How far off would Bello and Harrison+ be in this situation?
There is a reason that no one that is serious about statistics uses fWAR. It uses expected stats so its an opinion rather than an actual measurement of past performance.
Over the past 2 years the difference in bWAR is stark. Duran has been the better player in both 2024 and in 2025.
Rafaela started his major league career as an infielder. He started more games in the infield in 2024 than the OF. Duran has never played anything other than OF positions as a professional. The last time he did was in college.
I was wrong. Duran played 20 games at 2B in low A in 2018.
Cleveland, Duran was the best CF in 2024 by measure of DRS. He was a 95th percentile CF by StatCast. He was the 2nd best LF on defense on both DRS and StatCast this year. He plays great defense.
Skip — He played great defense in ’24. ’25 what major gains he had in CF regressed big time. His LF defense rocks because LF is filled with terrible defending corner OF bats, and his only competitior is Kwan, who crushed Duran defensively.
But my point is not that he’s a bad defender. He’s just not talented defensively in the sense that Rafaela is like a duck to water in the field.
Duran’s defense is like someone who really worked hard to improve their golf game. But took their foot off the gas in satisfaction. And slipped back into old habits. An uphill battle which never ends.
I am pretty sure Donovan is coming over to play 2B, at a way cheaper price than Marte, at $5.75M and arb eligible one more year after that.
If the Sox don’t end up trading Duran, yes you have a logjam, but 162 games is a long year. Worse things than rotating guys in and out and staying fresh. I think he’s as good as good though in a deal for a #2 pitcher.
As good as gone.
Freddy Peralta for Duran in some form maybe.
With maybe…three top ten prospects
Actually I just checked his stats and contract, make it four
Sorry I confused him with Casas for a moment lol. Duran plus might work.
3 prospects going to the Red Sox?
Hitting is not the Sox problem. The problem has been starting pitching. The Sox were 7th in runs scored and would have been higher without some of the injuries all the way. They didn’t miss Casas or Devers quite frankly. There offense was good enough, the pitching was not. Losing Anthony in September really hurt them.
They have a lot athleticism on this roster, lots of doubles hitters, and lot of SB guys. That all equates to runs scored. Let your pitchers go pitch with a lead, and that in itself in a win over a full season.
You don’t need one big HR guy in today’s game. Bases bigger, stolen bases get guys in scoring position and doubles play well and keep guys on the base paths. I’d much rather the other team pitching all games with guys on base than pitching with nobody on after a solo homer. It’s more stressful on the pitcher and the defense with guys on.
I’d have my power bat hitting behind Roman Anthony. I’m having Anthony hitting leadoff as I believe he’s going to be one of the league leaders in OBP for many years to come. It’d also be protection for Roman and he should see more strikes. Im having 1-2 because I want them with the most ABs at year end. Contreras can fill that spot but ideally I want it with someone with more pop and then have Contreras hit 3rd or 4th.
Bum – If Duran stays I like him at leadoff and Roman 2nd. Duran needs to set the tone by running every first inning. Him batting behind Rafaela makes for great speed … chaos!
Pop – 27th in HR for the 2nd half is a huge problem. They miss Raffy’s power.
The fascination with Home Runs is just media fodder. It doesn’t matter how a run crosses the plate, it’s a run scored. 7th in the league in runs scored, without all the big boppers in the lineup, means the entire lineup is better as a whole, making it more difficult on opposing pitchers.
9th in slugging %.
8th in OBP.
6th in Stolen Bases.
The numbers don’t lie. And that was with a ton of young guys in the lineup that will continue to get better hopefully. It’s pitching that’s needed. The offense will be just fine even without Bregman (may be better without him in general as he is slow on the base paths and no longer provides a ton of pop and didn’t hit well in Fenway (especially for the $$$).
Pop – When facing good pitchers, which is often the case in the postseason, a homerun hitter becomes more valuable because the opposing pitchers will make very few mistakes …. therefore you want to capitalize on those mistakes with a homerun, not just a single or double that eventually leads the batter stranded on base.
Do you remember Napoli stopping Verlander’s 21-inning postseason scoreless streak with a gamewinning homerun in the 2013 ALCS Game 3?
Breslow finally realizes this, and said so not too long ago.
I don’t disagree, which is why you pick up a guy at the trade deadline. Always a HR hitter or 4 at the deadline you can bring over. Across the league, plenty of runs scored without the long ball involved. Only the handful of superstars provide you both power and OB/runs scored.
You can very easily make the playoffs without a banger in your lineup. Consistency throughout the lineup is more important in my opinion. Take the Angels with Trout and Ohtani both in the lineup and still couldn’t win games.
So grab that guy late come trade deadline if you want a slugger for the playoff run.
I also think a couple of these young guys can turn into that banger guy. Anthony could easily hit 40 in my opinion if he gets hot.
I also think Abreu’s natural pop is impressive. As he continues to mature, and hits lefties better, he could be very Schwarber like in years to come. We know Casas can hit the long ball, and we know Contreras will love hitting in Fenway with his swing. Story has pop still, Mayer is starting to develop some pop. Even Rafaela has some pop.
Pop – I agree there’s always pitchers, especially relievers, available at the trade deadline …. but not so much sluggers. There are far few sluggers, they would likely need to have less than 2 years left of team control, and the team would have to be a non-contender. So having them available at the deadline is no sure thing like it is with pitchers.
Sure there’s other ways to build winners, but they are harder such as a very strong pitching staff or a bunch of very good contact hitters. Individually it’s homeruns that win games, like Game 7 of this year’s WS.
Yes I agree Roman could hit 40, but likely by sacrificing quite a bit of OBP which I’m not sure is a good idea.
I’ve been a big supporter of Abreu, love the guy …. but there seems to be a pattern forming with him, very strong start to the season followed by regression in May/June followed by improvement in July/August and then horrible in September, with injuries every year at some point in the season.
Casas definitely can be a slugger if he’s fully healthy, which we will not know for a while.
Let’s hope for the best, having only two guys hit more than 18 and nobody more than 25 won’t get it done as far as going deep in the postseason.
There aren’t a lot of true sluggers in the league, period. Only 7 guys hit more than 38 home runs last year and of those, Ohtani, Soto, Judge, Raleigh, Judge, aren’t going anywhere.
Caminero is the only guy I’d be interested in going hard after in a trade, and an inter division trade with the Rays right now doesn’t appear super likely.
Suarez is the other guy, but he was pretty much a 30 per year guy and then exploded last year, at an older age and I expect a regression to the norm as he continues to age.
Considering they missed on Alonso and Schwarber, you adjust and build your roster with athletes that can run the bases, steal bags, and hit for a lot of doubles.
And yes, a Homerun can win a game (by anybody, not just a big popper). Bucky Dent comes to mind, Rajai Davis, etc. Injured Kirk Gibson, Carton Fisk, Will Smith, to name a few (none of them – Boppers).
Pop – Everyone has different opinions of what a slugger is, some go by just homeruns and others go by just SLG.
Generally 30+ HR’s qualifies, there were 32 this year who fall in that category.
I’m guessing you agree Manny and Ortiz and JDM played huge roles in the 4 Sox championships? All sluggers.
Everyone would like Caminero, but TB won’t even consider moving him. He’s only 22 and he’s got 5 more years of team control, that’s a guy they will build around when they are ready to compete.
Suarez had 49 HR in 2019 ;O)
I certainly wouldn’t mind if the Sox used the speed game more often, but their analytics department refuses to allow hardly any bunts, hit-n-runs, and of course you can’t steal first base ;O) That means they’d have to sacrifice power for contact/OBP, something they refuse to do.
Yes of course anyone can hit a homerun, but guys like Davis do it very infrequently (Fisk hit 376 HR so I wouldn’t put him in the no-power category).
I don’t always agree with Breslow on everything, but his focus on getting a big homerun hitter is appropriate. Suarez isn’t just a homerun hitter, he’s an immense presence in the clubhouse and as a Venezuelan he would galvanize the clubhouse along with fellow Venezuelans Contreras, Narvaez, and Abreu.
BTW – I think Chapman will have a very positive influence on Oviedo.
Tim, your writers need to be factual. Serious mistakes like Charlie Wright saying Contreras played catcher and DH equally in 2022 and 2023 when he played 72 at catcher and 39 at DH in 2022 and then 90 at catcher and 30 at DH in 2023, is just not acceptable.
Its one thing to make a mistake like that and then correct it. To let it stand compounds the mistake.
Why don’t the Red Sox play Duran at 2B? Nobody seems to ever ask that question. It’s never even been brought up to Breslow. He played it his whole life, including California State University. The Sox were willing to try a butcher in Campbell at the position to get his bat in the lineup, Why not Duran? He had a .970 fielding percentage at 2B in college. Just look up his prospect report. Doesn’t show any glaring red flags. Just wondering why its never even been mentioned.
Take of the day right there.
Is Romy at second really “uninspiring”?? Guy was rock solid last year
Romy is a nice player to have on a team, but not playing every day on a team that has WS aspirations. Similar to Rob Refsnyder. This is no knock on either. I liked them both. Romy batted .326 through the first half and then dropped to .287 in the second half. Although, not terrible, but will the trend continue? Sox should be able to do better.
Gonzalez is a platoon player.
Rx – Romy was a negative defensive player at 2B in all the major stats. Combined with Story it would be one of the weaker middle infields in MLB.
Chaim – I agree it seems logical, but the depth he provides cannot be overlooked when you consider Abreu being injury prone and Rafaela’s horrendous 2nd half.
Just imagine if Duran had been traded before Roman’s injury.
Fever just imagine the starting pitcher we would’ve received in trade for Duran who could’ve challenged the Yankees a little more?
If Duran was traded, someone else would have come in and benefited the team.
Gary – It’s impossible to know who they would have gotten for Duran, maybe it would have been a first baseman?
Either way, having Ref or Yoshida playing the outfield nearly every day would not have been good.
Correct FPG it’s not a bad thing to have all 4 outfielders the problem is Masa. They need to get him off the roster he’s just a bad fit with Boston. The Red Sox pitching is going to be good they need to sign one of Bregman or Bichette and everything starts to fall into place. A rotation of Crochet, Gray, Bello, Oviedo, and Early won’t be the best in the East at least not to start but it’s solid. If Early becomes what I think he is going to become and if Tolle develops a couple of decent secondaries the rotation looks a lot different in the second half of the season. It’s not all doom and gloom as long as they either bring Bregman back or sign Bichette.
Bruin – Yes I’m sure the Sox have been trying hard to trade him. Releasing him is not a legit option.
Definitely not doom and gloom, once they get another infielder they can contend if everything breaks right …. especially if players stay healthy. They don’t necessarily need Bo or Breggy, they would be fine with Suarez or Marte …. maybe even Okamoto.
BTW – The absolute WORST baseball site is TWSN Sports. How do they get away with outright lying all the time? They had a headline the Red Sox signed Murakami, and now they have a headline the Cubs signed Okamoto.
I’m really hoping for a Realmuto signing now
Red Sox 2B man for 2026 season should be Bo Bichette… Mayer at 3B
Luis Rengifo is the answer for Bostons infield, sign him and keep everyone else, see where we are at the deadline. Hopefully we’re in contention and trade for Skubal
All of them would get something back. Duran has been the best of them.