The Red Sox added Isiah Kiner-Falefa to their infield group last night on a one-year deal, and they’ve also been poking around the market for right-handed hitting outfielders, per Katie Woo and Will Sammon of The Athletic. Colleague Jen McCaffrey writes in a separate piece that the Red Sox are interested in someone to fill a role similar to the one held by Rob Refsnyder (who signed with the Mariners in free agency) in recent seasons.
The free agent market has been largely picked over but still has some options that could fit the bill. Randal Grichuk, Austin Slater, Mark Canha, Connor Joe and old friends Hunter Renfroe and Tommy Pham all remain unsigned. Some from that group could probably be had on a minor league deal with a spring training invite. The trade market generally isn’t bursting with names this time of year, though Houston’s Jake Meyers has reportedly been available for much of the offseason and there are some obvious salary dump candidates (Tyler O’Neill, Nick Castellanos) if the Red Sox want to just pay a bit of cash without giving up much of anything in the way of prospects.
Ceddanne Rafaela is Boston’s only righty-swinging outfielder. He’ll be in the outfield every day, given that he’s arguably the game’s best defender there, but he doesn’t offer huge production at the plate. The rest of the Red Sox’ outfielders — Roman Anthony, Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu, Masataka Yoshida — hit from the left side of the plate. The Sox have suggested Abreu might get more run against lefties this year, but he’s a career .205/.271/.318 hitter in left-on-left matchups. Yoshida is a .237/.310/.340 hitter against southpaws. Duran held his own against lefties in 2023-24 but fell off again in 2025 and now sits on a lifetime .232/.284/.336 line against them. Anthony hit well against pitchers of either handedness in his debut last year but was better against righties.
Beyond the more obvious names listed above, spring training is sure to present plenty of outfield options for Boston to consider, whether it be via a waiver claim or small trade for a player who’s been designated for assignment or a veteran who signed a minor league deal elsewhere but returns to the market after not making his club’s roster. Chas McCormick, Dylan Moore and Stuart Fairchild are among the veteran righty-swinging outfielders who’ll be in camp with other teams this spring.
It’s not clear just how much more budget space Red Sox ownership is giving chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and his staff. RosterResource’s projections have the Sox about $20MM over the tax threshold. Any subsequent additions will thus be taxed at a 42% clip.
They are Pham-i-ly.
Tommy Pham will bring his fantasy team to Boston if they want him!
Tyler O’Neill is probably available. 🤣
Tyler O Neill for Ranger Suarez
They should look at that Jhostynxon Garcia kid the Pirates have.
You need the right password to get a look at that guy.
What a joke the Red Sox are
What do you find funny specifically?
If u consider 93 Wins a joke
Care to elaborate?
acentola
👎
Why’d we let Refsnyder walk??? Smh. No interest in Pham. O’Neill is interesting if his contract is paid down, he was great for 1 year here…… I always loved Marcell Ozuna, but he’s mostly a DH, had a rough 2025 and he isn’t getting any younger.
On another note…..I thought Theo was on board as an adviser???
Do you think Breslow could use some decision-making help? Hello. Hello?
They let Ref walk because giving $6M to a minimal contributor is a bad… oh wait, nevermind.
A guy who just put up a .959 OPS vs. lefties last season is hardly a “minimal contributor”! And it’s not like Refsnyder hasn’t done that for years…
The Sawx paid IKF $6M while a much better hitter in Andy Ibanez just got DFAd (his salary will be $1.2M in 2026)!
Breslow seems very short sighted when it comes to the position player side. Like he can only focus on one thing.
Gotta get Crochet, gives up Teel. Oops now there’s no catching depth whatsoever.
Gotta get better SP. Oops our platoon OF guy left and now we need another one.
What? They gave up Teel to get Crochet and you’re worried about their catching depth? lol
Joemo is Slow really isn’t here but for one thing. Bash the Red Sox and every decision they make.
They traded literally the only decent catcher on their team (majors or minors).
Notice how this off-season they acquired like 6 C? Yeah … Gotta plan ahead a little bit Breslow.
Crochet was amazing last year, but the deal probably could have been done without him. If CWS said we need Teel then sure, but they have Quero…. Who was an equally good C prospect.
This is a very deceiving headline. The Red Sox have Eaton and Campbell as RHH outfielders plus Romy has experience as a corner outfielder.
This is likely just the Red Sox looking for depth in case Eaton gets hurt and Campbell hasn’t figured things out yet – a minor league depth signing makes sense here. The only other conclusion is that they’ve decided to move Rafaela back to the infield after failing to get a starting infielder in free agency/trade, which has lead to needing more outfield depth, but that would be speculation at this point.
Ozuna isn’t OF but man would he fit there
They’re pretty much full on domestic abusers
Possible O’Neil for Yoshida trade?
Castellanos playing right in Fenway… I think that seems very realistic. Philly is going to unload him for practically nothing, he could have a big offensive year. He’ll always be a butcher in right, there’s no getting around that.
Castellanos would have to play left. He’s already a horrible right fielder and would be even worse at Fenway. Either way the Sox should definitely take a hard pass.
Sure if you want a huge downgrade in RF….
Can’t believe nobody has mentioned the photograph that Mr. Adams chose to accompany the article. Comedy gold. Thank you sir.
He knows what he’s doing lol
Don’t underestimate Rafaela, he made notable improvements last year. He’s a gifted player.
If he wouldn’t be so scared of hitting from behind in the count.. The kid is just full blast at the plate.
If they keep him in CF, his offensive numbers would be fine, just like they were trending this season before they moved him around a bunch.
Rafaela still needs some plate discipline, but he’s improving.
This is idiocy. Truly a clown show
Teoscar was available earlier in the offseason and he would have been a good DH and part time OF.
Another Outfielder is the last thing this team needs, regardless of what hand he hits with
Grichuck still absolutely smashes LHP. He had a lot of bad luck on outcomes last year, but the underlying numbers were as good as ever. I think he’d be a great easy sign for this role.
Adding any OF does leave the 26-man roster thin on infielders, but if you accept Rafaela could play IF in a pinch (I know no one wants him to), then you can get by. I guess Wong also plays a little IF in a pinch as well.
Why? They have too many outfielders.
Because neither Duran nor Abreu can hit LHP well. So if they continue on that trend, they need one platoon guy.
If only they had a great RHB OF who absolutely destroyed LHP…….
My name is Joe Slow
Middle name is”mo”
I bash the Red Sox
Wherever I go
Playing Anthony, Duran, Cedanne, Yoshida and Abreu 120 games each between the OF and DH. Maybe a few less for the lefties in that bunch while whoever they bring in as a RH OF plays?
Is that the strategy?
How about the Mariners send Randy Arozarena and others to Boston for Wilyer Abreu? Who says No?
That’s actually a reasonable swap, but the other player from SEA needs to have ~1.5 WAR value to make it doable considering Wilyer’s contract.
I mean why does it have to be an OF? If you go by the rosterresource chart which has Duran at DH, you can easily just plug him in the field for Abreu or Anthony and the DH spot could be anyone. They have enough OF as is.
Could go in on Goldschmidt, Ty France, Hoskins (all of whom could also play 1B with Contreras at DH).
Vientos or Spencer Steer on the trade market?
Could also take cheap minor league fliers on Justin Turner (he was actually competent vs LHP last year) or Mitch Garver (look at the home/road splits).
Sox need to get rid of Yoshida – pay that deal down and do what it takes. Total waste of the DH slot.
I thought Campbell was their RH OF depth. Also I would rather just use Nate Eaton over these other choices. This whole conversation is stupid.
Sign Mark Canha
End of discussion