In addition to needing to build a better roster for 2025, the Red Sox need to build a more functional one. With that in mind, the future of Masataka Yoshida is squarely in question as Boston begins chipping away at what should be a long offseason to-do list.
Yoshida, who just completed his second big league season after signing a five-year, $90 million contract with the Red Sox in December 2022, hasn’t been a disaster for Boston but has proven to be a limited player. In a sample size that spans 1,001 plate appearances over 248 games, the 31-year-old has hit .285 with 25 homers, 54 doubles, 128 RBIs, a .343 on-base percentage and a .776 OPS. Offensively, he’s serviceable. He finished 2024 with a .280 average, 10 homers, 21 doubles and a .765 OPS in 108 games.
Masataka Yoshida only got to put his glove on during warm-ups in 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)AP
“Solid,” said manager Alex Cora when asked to describe Yoshida’s season. “He was banged up early in the season. That’s the hitter he is. He’s not gonna hit 50 home runs but he’s going to hit doubles, he’s going to drive in runs and he’s gonna put good at-bats.”
Still, Yoshida doesn’t offer any speed or a ton of power and the Red Sox took his glove away completely in 2024, vowing not to play him in the outfield at all, outside of one emergency instance in extra innings in April. And while there’s some debate over whether a lingering shoulder injury — one that still could require surgery, according to team officials — contributed to that decision, it still doesn’t bode well for Yoshida’s future with the club.
The Red Sox have too many outfielders and too many left-handed hitters in their lineup. Yoshida, before being shifted to full-time DH in 2024, fit both of those categories. During a conversation last weekend, he said he hasn’t told the team he wants to be traded. But chief baseball officer Craig Breslow kept the door open, emphasizing roster functionality, and still seems to prefer rotating the DH position, as he had said was his hope before last year.
“Without speaking too far into the future here, I think we have to figure out how the roster comes together,” Breslow said Monday. “I don’t think it makes sense to be constrained by anything at this point. (Yoshida) being able to get out there and and play in the outfield just gives Alex more flexibility. But obviously we’ll see where the health is and we’ll figure out the best way for him to impact our team.”
Yoshida’s rookie season was a tale of two halves, as he hit .316 with an .874 OPS before the break but scuffled to a .278 average and .663 OPS in the second half. All the while, he was serviceable against both righties (.795 OPS) and lefties (.746 OPS) but extremely limited defensively in left field. Entering 2024, it was thought he’d remain in the outfield mix while mixing in at DH. It quickly became apparent that the DH position was his and his only, and the limitations of that plan reared their ugly head when, in April, Alex Cora had to sit Yoshida in an effort to slowly work sluggers Rafael Devers and Tyler O’Neill back from injury by giving them DH at-bats. Yoshida started slow, then began heating up in late April before a left thumb strain sidelined him for six weeks. At that point, there was some clear discord between the team, who didn’t believe the injury would require surgery and Yoshida, who got not only a second opinion but a third one from a doctor associated with his agent, Scott Boras.
Yoshida showed his ceiling with a fantastic two-month stretch from June 30 to August 28, when he hit .341 with seven homers, nine doubles, 35 RBIs and a .920 OPS in a 47-game span. All the while, though, he never hit lefties (he finished the year with a putrid .192 average and .565 OPS against southpaws and Cora was playing Danny Jansen over him down the stretch) while providing nothing defensively. The whole experience left a bad taste in Yoshida’s mouth.
“It’s something I’m a little disappointed in,” he said through interpreter Yutaro Yamaguchi. “At the same time, it’s a team strategy. Next year, hopefully I can come back stronger than ever and contribute defensively as well.
If I could play more outfield, it would definitely add more flexibility to the lineup, more variation to the lineup. Being a full-time DH was tough for me. But it was a learning experience.
Health questions aside, it’s hard to envision any room in the outfield for Yoshida in 2025. With Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu and Rob Refsnyder due back and top prospect Roman Anthony set to debut, the Red Sox are more likely to subtract outfielders than add them. And if they do add, it’ll likely be in an effort to balance the lineup with right-handed pop. Accomplishing that goal would seem to be a lot easier with the DH spot open.
A reunion with O’Neill, for example, is somewhat hard to envision with Yoshida filling the DH spot. With the glut of left-handed outfielders due back, O’Neill is a cleaner fit to return to the Red Sox if he can mix in at DH while still playing the corners when needed. This past season, constant injuries made the rotation of outfield types manageable for Cora, but it’s a task that’s only going to get harder. Breslow was clear in November that he wanted a rotating cast at DH and it’s almost certain that’s still the preference.
So what happens with Yoshida?
By any metric, the $54 million left on Yoshida’s contract over the next three years is more than he’d command on the open market. In 2024, he was able to do one thing really well — hit righties — while faltering at virtually every aspect of the game. In trade talks, the Red Sox would have to hope another club thinks that Yoshida’s one elite skill is worth a dice roll and that he might be able to improve in other areas, especially offensively against lefties. Paying down some of the remaining salary may help facilitate a deal. After exploring the possibility last winter as he took stock of the organization, Breslow is almost certain to do it again. He might find that doing so represents addition by subtraction, not because Yoshida is a lost case, but because the puzzle pieces of a roster the Sox hope will contend just fit better together without him.
If Yoshida has played his last game in a Red Sox uniform, he’ll look back at his tenure as an unsatisfying one.
“Going into my second year, I was expecting a lot from myself. It was actually far from what I expected myself to be,” Yoshida said. “Compared to other elite, first-class guys, I’m not there yet, physically or mentally.”
“It’s disappointing. This is a franchise where fans are expecting us to win all the time. We’re expected to win. Disappointing in the sense I couldn’t really contribute to the team much this year.”
