Spring Temperature Check: Who's Hot & Who's Cold in Red Sox Camp? (Feb 24-27)

[Alex Mayes]

We’re back with our second installment of the spring training temperature check here at Talk Sox. If you missed the first one, you can check it out here. The team has played four games since the last installment, so there’s been some change in both lists, but the team, as a whole, has performed fairly well considering backing up their five and three start to Grapefruit League play. Without further ado, let’s take a look at this installment’s list of players.

Who’s Hot? 🔥

Jarren Duran: Duran has been absolutely on fire as he prepares to join Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic next month. The Red Sox have been giving him consistent work in right field, the position he’s going to play in the WBC, and he has been running with the opportunity. He won’t see right field for the Red Sox during the season, unless things go horribly wrong at some point, but he’s flashing defensive versatility that will serve him well during his career. He’s slashing .556/.636/1.111 with one home run through the first eight games. That home run? An absolute moon shot off old friend Chris Sale. That’s significant for two reasons: Sale is one of the best left-handed pitchers in the game, and Duran struggled against southpaws last season. Duran may be tapping back into a power stroke this season. Maybe the front office was onto something by not trading Duran during the offseason.

Willson Contreras: The new first baseman for the Red Sox has made an immediate impact both on and off the field. He’s been great for a soundbite while he’s working on the backfields, but he also has been a spark when he’s in the lineup. Like Duran above, he’s gearing up for work on Team Venezuela during the WBC, but his contributions to the Red Sox so far can’t be understated. He’s slashing .375/.545/.750 so far with one home run, three RBIs, three walks, and two strikeouts. Contreras has stepped into a leadership role already with the club as he looks to make his mark in Boston after being traded this offseason. His homerun was an opposite-field shot that landed in the bullpen at JetBlue Park, something that has been incredibly rare since JD Martinez left the team.

Ceddanne Rafaela: We’re all familiar with Rafaela’s Gold Glove-winning defense, but he’s looking to improve at the plate as we head into the 2026 regular season. So far in spring training, he’s slashing .333/.3885/1.000 with four hits, two home runs, one stolen base, and five RBIs. Now, he has zero walks so far in Grapefruit League play, but he’s also not swinging wildly at everything thrown at him, so we’ll take small victories where we can get them. He was involved in a scary collision early in the Braves game on Thursday, February 2,7 that originally looked like both he and Roman Anthony were injured, but both came through without much more than general soreness, as of this writing. While he may need to work on his communication, his defense will keep him around even if the offensive numbers aren’t sustainable right now.

Who’s Not? 🧊

Johan Oviedo: Oviedo tossed 1 2/3 innings in his lone start of spring training so far, and those innings were less than stellar. He lacked command, walking three and hitting one, while only striking out one. He gave up one hit and one strikeout on 33 pitches, with 15 of those being strikes. It’s early, so we don’t need to read too much into these early numbers as he’s likely still knocking the rust off, and he should settle in as spring training continues, but that lack of command is worth keeping an eye on for the time being. Oviedo has all the tools to be an incredibly effective back-of-the-rotation arm, but he’s yet to put it all together during his big-league career. The trade that brought him to Boston can be looked at positively if he improves on this outing, but expect the media to continually bring up the trade if Oviedo falters again.

Brayan Bello: We have our first member of the two-time ‘not’ club already this spring training. Brayan Bello looks rough so far after two starts during Grapefruit League play. In his second start, he tossed two innings, allowing four hits, five earned runs, one walk, and one strikeout. His spring training ERA has ballooned to 24.30, and he’s still struggling to find a footing with his changeup, a pitch that was highlighted as improved and under more control just a week ago. He’s getting whiffs, posting six in this last start, but when the opposing team is making contact, which is frequent, they are making hard contact. On top of that, he’s walking 5.4 batters per nine innings, so he’s getting himself into trouble by handing out free passes unnecessarily. He’s leaving to join Team Dominican Republic in the WBC soon, and the hope is that he can find his footing there while they make a deep run over the two-week tournament. If not, there will be more people questioning why Bello wasn’t traded prior to the start of spring training.

After just over a week’s worth of games, who do you have on your hot and not list? Let us know in the comments!

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[drewski6]

Nailed this one , Alex