Article: Boston Red Sox 2025 Position Analysis: Designated Hitter

[Alex Mayes]

The designated hitter position has been widely debated all offseason. Clarity has been slow in coming.

Looking at the designated hitter options for the 2025 Red Sox reminds me of a classic choose-your-own-adventure book. For Masataka Yoshida, turn to page four. For Rafael Devers, turn to page eight. At this point in spring training, there’s not a really clear indicator of which way the coaching staff is leaning. Devers has yet to see any game action and a number of players have rotated through the position so far. If Devers does make his spring training debut on Saturday as expected, the designated hitter conversation is likely to get much more complicated.

Red Sox DH at a Glance
Starter: Masataka Yoshida
Backup: Rafael Devers
Depth: Trevor Story, Triston Casas, Alex Bregman, Wilyer Abreu, Connor Wong
Prospects: Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell, Marcelo Mayer, Blaze Jordan
Red Sox 1B fWAR Ranking Last Year: 15 out of 30

The Good
The best part of the DH spot for the Red Sox is that both the starter and backup (Yoshida and Devers, whichever order they end up in) are pretty talented. Yoshida started to show some pop when he came back from his extended stay on the injured list in 2024 and Devers is one of the best left-handed hitters in the league. Either option here likely comes with solid home run totals and quite a few RBIs. Alex Cora has not been shy about rotating position players through the DH spot after the departure of JD Martinez and we should expect to see a bit more of that in 2025. If Yoshida and Devers both stay healthy, though, they will be the main two names penciled into that role each game.

The Bad
The bad isn’t necessarily a player issue. As outlined above, there are quite a few solid options to rotate through the position. The real ‘bad’ here is that as of right now, we don’t have an answer as to who is playing where. So far, we assume mostly due to injury, Alex Bregman has been playing third exclusively. It’s not difficult to imagine that Devers wants to get some work at third during spring training, but it’s far more likely his spring training debut has him at DH; you know, the spot he said he didn’t want to switch to at the start of camp. Now, I’m still of the mindset that the entire situation was overblown and Devers would accept a position change if Cora approached him and they had a discussion about it. As it currently stands though, Yoshida will slot into the Opening Day lineup as the DH. Even if the plan is to get Yoshida reps in the outfield, which it shouldn’t be, there’s still a ton of uncertainty as to which player is going to man which position for the bulk of the season.

The Bottom Line
We’re entering the back half of spring training with more questions than answers when it comes to the designated hitter position. Luckily, the Red Sox have two players who can step into the role and be incredibly successful, even if Yoshida’s track record in the majors has been lackluster so far. He seems to be following the path that a lot of players from Japan have followed, their first couple of years in the majors aren’t anything spectacular but their third season is where they start to put everything together. Fingers crossed that Yoshida puts everything together and the Red Sox have the very good problem of too many strong DH candidates throughout the entire season.

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[moonslav59]

IMO, Devers will be the primary DH, and he may DH 140-150 games.

Both he and Yoshida suck on D, but we have Bregman at 3B and plenty of 2B options to make Devers at 3B only when Bregman sits.

I'm not sure Yoshida gets much playing time. Maybe 20-25 games at DH and an unknown amount in LF. The Abreu illness might allow him to play more, to start the year, but, if everyone is healthy, it could come down to Yoshida in LF and Duran in CF vs Duran in LF and Rafaela in CF. Rafaela's bat might be the determining factor. (WE could see Rafaela in RF vs LHPs, which would allow Yoshida to play more, but I see that happening as a way to get Refsnyder in the line-up vs lefties- not Yoshida.