The Red Sox have one of the most crowded outfield mixes in all of baseball. Jarren Duran is an All-Star who has averaged more than 5.0 WAR per season over the last two years. Wilyer Abreu has two Gold Glove awards on his mantle and a career 116 wRC+. Ceddanne Rafaela is the best defensive outfielder in the American League. Roman Anthony has a career .401 on-base percentage just 73 games into his major league career. A crowd of outfielders that impressive leaves little room for veteran DH Masataka Yoshida to fight his way into the starting lineup, and manager Alex Core spoke to reporters (including Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic) about the outfield situation yesterday.
“We’ll see how it plays out,” Cora said, as relayed by McCaffrey. “JD is gonna play center soon, the day Ceddanne doesn’t play, and we got Thursday off. It’s not easy. Whoever thinks this is easy to move them around, they’re wrong… It’s not easy, but I’ll make it work.”
Cora went on to note that Yoshida figures to play three of the club’s next five games, as the team feels comfortable having Yoshida play left field in Houston’s Daikin Park. Cora noted that while the club will “need” Yoshida to play some outfield in order to get him into the lineup, the team’s other defensive outfielders (Rafaela, Duran, Anthony, and Abreu) are all a cut above Yoshida defensively. That would seemingly indicate he’ll get most of his time at DH, though Cora did express concerns about taking one of the other four outfielders out of the lineup. From Cora’s comments, it seems as though Duran is least likely to sit on any given day this year. Cora indicated that getting each of Anthony, Abreu, and Rafaela days off could be beneficial, but made no such pronouncement about Duran.
It’s not especially hard to see why Duran would be the least likely to sit on any given day. Abreu and Anthony both suffered from injuries last year that limited their playing time, while Duran has appeared in 317 of Boston’s 324 regular season games over the past two years. Rafaela, meanwhile, is by far the least accomplished hitter in the team’s outfield mix, and Duran is the next-best option in center defensively. With the Red Sox likely looking to avoid injury for Abreu and Anthony and Duran being needed to cover center on any day’s Rafaela is out of the lineup (or, perhaps, covering the infield), Duran once again figures to be part of the lineup on almost an everyday basis to start the year.
Of course, those plans could change in a hurry depending on performance. Anthony looks to be one of the brightest young stars in the game, and there may come a point where his value is simply too high to ever sit when he’s healthy. Abreu is the only one of the team’s four primary outfielders who can’t play center, but he also showed more ability to hit left-handed pitching than Duran has to this point in 2025 and could be a preferable choice against lefties if that trend continues in 2026. Even Rafaela has shown the ability to be a well-above average hitter when he gets hot, and at just 25 years old could certainly take his game to another level this year.
Cora’s public acknowledgment of the difficulties that come with having more outfielders than he can play on a regular basis is sure to keep conversations about the Red Sox potentially trading from their outfield glut in the rumor mill. The club has been heavily rumored to be considering doing so for years now, but they’ve yet to pull that trigger. Perhaps that could change when the right offer comes along, but with the season now underway it would be a surprise if that happened until closer to this year’s trade deadline.
If the team’s outfield logjam reaches a breaking point without a trade taking place, that could spell the end of Yoshida’s time on the roster. Cutting ties with the veteran DH is another move that’s been long speculated about for the Red Sox. While 47% of MLBTR readers believed Yoshida would not make the club’s Opening Day roster in a poll conducted when camp opened up back in February, he was able to earn a spot on the team’s roster to begin the year.
Still, his hold on a roster spot could prove tenuous if he doesn’t perform in his current part-time role. Yoshida is limited to DH and left field defensively, and his bat doesn’t compare to that of Anthony, Abreu, or Duran even when at his best. Last season he was a below-average offensive player in 55 games, and if he can’t turn things around this season it might be tempting for the Red Sox to carry a younger, more versatile player like Kristian Campbell on the roster instead. Even someone like Triston Casas, who is currently on the injured list but could pitch in at first base and offers intriguing power off the bench, could be a viable alternative if Yoshida struggles this year.
This article said nothing that we didn’t already know.
It was a good summary for someone who doesn’t follow the Red Sox D2D.
So the high effort 5 WAR OF who was at the center of trade rumors is a pretty valuable asset after all.
Thats why the asking price was someone like cole ragens and the sox pretty much didnt even consider duran for paredes
Paredes is not worth giving up Duran. Paredes plus tw0 top pitching prospects is not worth it.
My – He’s been involved in trade rumors for years. Some fans don’t like him and the team doesn’t value him because of his age. It’s a damn shame, I love the guy and hope he plays as much as possible.
The team doesn’t value him???
Because he’s in trade rumors???
Which are total horse crap???
I don’t think it’s that they don’t value him, it’s that they know his profile won’t age well and he’s already under contract for what they project as his productive years. There’s no need to extend him, and they’d only trade him for a huge return
A fair chunk of the fans who don’t like Duran are basing it on his “f****t” comment a couple of years ago, which is idiotic. He apologized and made his peace. Move on. He’s one of the Sox’ top players. If anyone should be dealt, it’s Cedanne. He’d bring in a good haul and he’s expendable.
I saw them play yesterday and can confirm they do have an outfield according to plan.
They need Yoshida to come out hitting just to get any kind of trade value going. It’s going to be difficult to take any of the other 4 out of the lineup on most days and Rafaela seems like the most likely to sit
They could move rafaela to 2b on occasion if the goal is to play them all
Rsox – I figured it would be Rafaela sitting today since it’s against a RHP and he had a brutal game yesterday. But unfortunately I think it will be Duran who gets the most DH/bench time (not including Yoshida).
Screw the outfield, who cares.
How about better umpiring?
Huh?
Umpiring at the major league is incredibly hard, I get that. If a team has a few crappy players, that’s ok, they can still win. But a crappy umpire quite simply ruins the game and therefore the sport. So if you can utilize technology to improve the accuracy of umpiring why the heck not? If anything, it protects the crappy umpires from ruining the game and therefore the sport. This challenge crap is just for show and is really stupid. Get the damn calls right from the get go. Come on.
They should have released Yoshida.