Three Second Base Free Agent Targets for the Red Sox

[Alex Mayes]

It seems as though the second base position has been cursed for the Boston Red Sox ever since Manny Machado slid spikes up into Dustin Pedroia’s knee, effectively ending his career. In the ensuing years, the position has been a revolving door for the team. There was some hope that Kristian Campbell would be able to step in and become the second baseman of the future after he broke camp with the big league club for the 2025 season, but that experiment lasted around a month before major league pitching caught up with him and he finished his season in Triple-A Worcester. Even if there's hope that his bat will turn around, his defense was so putrid that it's hard to rely on him to run away with the job in 2026.

There’s some hope that Marcelo Mayer could be the person to solidify the position, but he’s better suited for shortstop or third base, and his struggles to stay healthy give a bit of pause for concern. Trevor Story could slide to second to play Mayer at his natural position, but would the team do that to a veteran player coming off such a strong season? Probably not, unless Story himself advocated for the position switch. On top of that, President of Baseball Operations Craig Breslow confirmed that Story would be the shortstop moving forward.

That leaves us scouring the free-agent market to see just who could plug into second base for at least the 2026 season and offer more than just a warm body to the Red Sox. Get ready, because the second base market is about as shallow as the wading section at your local pool.

Gleyber Torres (29, 2.6 fWAR)

Projected Contract
Analyst	Length	AAV	Total
Jim Bowden	4-years	$13 million	$52 million
Kiley McDaniel	3-years	$19 million	$57 million

Torres had a rebound season in Detroit after signing a one-year, prove-it contract before the 2025 season. He slashed .256/.358/.387 with 16 home runs, 74 RBIs, and a 113 wRC+. He played 134 games at second this season while committing five errors with a .990 fielding percentage. He’s earned a longer-term contract than he had going into the 2025 season, but he leaves a lot to be desired from a consistency standpoint. He's streaky, just a year removed from the worst season of his career where he was almost a walking strikeout. If this is the best the team can do, they may be better off hoping an internal option presents itself during spring training instead. He also has a qualifying offer attached to him, and that could keep the Red Sox from being interested in the former Yankee.

Jorge Polanco (32, 2.6 fWAR)

Projected Contract
Analyst	Length	AAV	Total
Jim Bowden	2-years	$13 million	$26 million
Kiley McDaniel	2-years	$13 million	$26 million
Ben Clemens	2-years	$15 million	$30 million

Much like Torres above, Polanco had his best statistical season in ages in 2025. He slashed .265/.326/.495 with 26 home runs, 78 RBIs, and posted a 132 wRC+. He had the potential to be a playoff hero for the Mariners until a cold spell slowed him down in the ALCS. The biggest issue here is that Polanco is 32 and he saw more time at DH (88 games) than second base (38 games). He can’t be trusted to take on a full season at second anymore and still produce those kinds of offensive numbers. He’s likely in line for a two-year deal and paying someone who is a bat-first second baseman doesn’t make sense for the Red Sox. who can turn to Kristian Campbell for the same purpose. It’s telling that the Mariners opted to not extend a qualifying offer to Polanco, as his age and lack of positional versatility are working against him in a weak market.

Ha-Seong Kim (30, 0.3 fWAR)

Projected Contract
Analyst	Length	AAV	Total
Jim Bowden	3-years	$13 million	$39 million
Kiley McDaniel	1-year	$16 million	$16 million
Tim Britton	3-years	$16.7 million	$50 million

Kim only played in 48 games this season, so take his stats with a grain of salt. He slashed .234/.304/.345 with five home runs, 17 RBIs, six stolen bases, and posted an 82 wRC+. He’s a shortstop first, so we have to get a bit creative here, but if he would shift to second it would take strain off his him throwing arm and hopefully allow him to get back to where he was pre-injury. I’m struggling to see a multi-year deal for Kim, though, and I think he’s going to have to sign a one-year, prove-it deal. He declined a player option with the Braves for $16 million, so he will likely be looking to get above that, but he may end up settling for less when push comes to shove.

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That’s a pretty thin market if you ask me. There are other names out there like Luis Rengifo, who has all the tools to be a successful second baseman now that he’s moved there full time, but he’s been unable to put it together so far. Luis Arraez is another second baseman that technically checks the boxes for the Red Sox, and he could be a buy-low candidate after a tough season, but it’s hard to see the team handing him a multi-year contract at this point in his career when he played just 14 games out of 154 at second base in 2025. He profiles as a first baseman now, but one without pop.

Given the state of the market, the Red Sox are likely going to have to hope that an internal name breaks out as their next second baseman, or make a trade that no one sees coming to fill the glaring hole up the middle. Can I interest anyone in Ketel Marte?

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[notin]

No on Torres, especially with the QO.

Polanco and Kim are both good choices….

[moonslav59]

Polanco is high on my list, hopefully as the second best batter we add.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Nothing personal, but I don't want any of these guys. Torres and Polanco aren't good second baseman in their 30s, and don't hit consistently like Bichette to trust them on longterm contracts. Kim would be a bandaid, and we have plenty of them. Rengifo only had the worst OPS of any qualifying batter in the AL.

We're Mayered at 2B.

[notin]

38 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Nothing personal, but I don't want any of these guys. Torres and Polanco aren't good second baseman in their 30s, and don't hit consistently like Bichette to trust them on longterm contracts. Kim would be a bandaid, and we have plenty of them. Rengifo only had the worst OPS of any qualifying batter in the AL.

We're Mayered at 2B.

Kim is a very good player who posted back to back 5 WAR seasons before getting injured in 2024.

But if I were a predicting man, and I am albeit not good at it, I would predict Mayer at 2b and Alec Bohm at 3b.  And I’m not wild about Bohm.  But he is available and Philly should have interest in Duran.  So a deal is possible (Not a 1 for 1 deal. That should be impossible.  Duran for Bohm plus stuff better than Bohm.)

[drewski6]

1 hour ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Nothing personal, but I don't want any of these guys. Torres and Polanco aren't good second baseman in their 30s, and don't hit consistently like Bichette to trust them on longterm contracts. Kim would be a bandaid, and we have plenty of them. Rengifo only had the worst OPS of any qualifying batter in the AL.

We're Mayered at 2B.

Mayer has the arm to play third, and I understand your reservations about Polanco and Kim (Torres isnt coming with the QO), but if we dont get Bregman , and Im starting to think we wont...Polanco and Kim are better than the third base options and Mayer (I think) has the arm to play 3b.

Not a good sign that the team is "challenging him" to hit the weight room though.

[moonslav59]

7 hours ago, notin said:

Kim is a very good player who posted back to back 5 WAR seasons before getting injured in 2024.

But if I were a predicting man, and I am albeit not good at it, I would predict Mayer at 2b and Alec Bohm at 3b.  And I’m not wild about Bohm.  But he is available and Philly should have interest in Duran.  So a deal is possible (Not a 1 for 1 deal. That should be impossible.  Duran for Bohm plus stuff better than Bohm.)

Polanco dealt with injuries, too. 2025 was not his best season.

More homers in '21.

Better OPS is '19 & '21.

That may have been long ago, but he had over double the bWAR those seasons and his .789 in '23.

[Larry Cook]

7 hours ago, notin said:

Kim is a very good player who posted back to back 5 WAR seasons before getting injured in 2024.

But if I were a predicting man, and I am albeit not good at it, I would predict Mayer at 2b and Alec Bohm at 3b.  And I’m not wild about Bohm.  But he is available and Philly should have interest in Duran.  So a deal is possible (Not a 1 for 1 deal. That should be impossible.  Duran for Bohm plus stuff better than Bohm.)

I would take bohm and painter for Duran in a heartbeat! 
 

but if desperate Dave will not play ball, then signing Kim and putting him at short, Mayer and 3rd and story at 2nd makes our infield defense better in 2026! 
 

I also have no problem trading Duran to kc for 2 or 3 quality prospects as long as 1 of those prospects is David shields 

[moonslav59]

40 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

I would take bohm and painter for Duran in a heartbeat!  

DD keeps saying Painter won't be traded, but Duran would give his team a huge boost- now!

I'm not sure I'd want Painter for the 2026 season, but he could be flipped for Ryan or the like.

[Malcolm White]

None of these guys does it for me, but Kim would come closest due to positional versatility. At some point the Sox need to which infielders (Mayer, Campbell, Grissom, all the way down to Arias and Romero) are keepers.

And 2B isn't nearly the hole that 3B and 1B/DH are, not to mention SP#2. They MUST find the starter (trade of Duran/Abreu more likely than 6+ year deal for over-30 starter). I favor Alonso or Suarez as the big stick, but lean towards Alonso. For 3B, the Cards are dying to deal Arenado's contract, so a swap of Yoshida makes some sense for both sides. Can't rely on Arenado's bat, but the glove is still great and having a bopper in-house makes Arenado's bat less important.

[Larry Cook]

On 11/13/2025 at 9:53 PM, moonslav59 said:

DD keeps saying Painter won't be traded, but Duran would give his team a huge boost- now!

I'm not sure I'd want Painter for the 2026 season, but he could be flipped for Ryan or the like.

I do think bohm would have to show us something before we talk about extending him 

[moonslav59]

39 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

I do think bohm would have to show us something before we talk about extending him 

I don't want Bohm.

[notin]

31 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I don't want Bohm.

Bohm falls more into the “Available and Fit Obvious Category.”  Checks some boxes, fills a need, but not enticing…

[moonslav59]

5 minutes ago, notin said:

Bohm falls more into the “Available and Fit Obvious Category.”  Checks some boxes, fills a need, but not enticing…

He'd be a "settling" addition, or an "in the mix" with Casas at 1B addition.

If he's our 3Bman, we better have Alonso at 1B and either Polanco at 2B or Suarez at 1B and Schwarber at DH

[Larry Cook]

23 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

He'd be a "settling" addition, or an "in the mix" with Casas at 1B addition.

If he's our 3Bman, we better have Alonso at 1B and either Polanco at 2B or Suarez at 1B and Schwarber at DH

The Mets were totally prepared to let Alonso walk last year and apparently very few teams were willing to step up and take him then, 

[moonslav59]

3 minutes ago, Larry Cook said:

The Mets were totally prepared to let Alonso walk last year and apparently very few teams were willing to step up and take him then, 

There might be more teams, this year. Whoever misses out on Schwarber might go hard after Alonso.

I do NOT think the Mets bid as high as it takes to get him. I think they'll set a number and not go higher. There are other 1B options they might like.