Spring Temperature Check: Who's Hot and Who's Cold in Red Sox Camp? (Feb 28-March 3)

[Alex Mayes]

Spring training is going to look quite a bit different for the Boston Red Sox for the next two weeks, as multiple players have departed to participate for their respective countries in the World Baseball Classic. What that does, though, is give us fans an opportunity to watch some of the less heralded players in the organization. Once teams have been eliminated from the WBC, we’ll see more familiar names start to pop up here. but it will be interesting to see which players are making a case for themselves to be in the Opening Day roster conversation based on these next two weeks.

Who’s Hot for Red Sox?

Braiden Ward: Ward has been not so quietly making a case for himself to be the utility man off the bench come Opening Day. Offensively, he’s been absolutely on fire. He’s slashing .389/.450/.444 with a .894 OPS. He’s notched seven hits in 10 games with three RBIs and no home runs. Where he has absolutely shined is on the basepaths. In those ten games, he’s swiped eight bags while only being thrown out once. He’s lao scored six runs so far in Grapefruit League action. If Ward continues to be an absolute menace on the basepaths while playing solid defense in the outfield, it will be tough deny him a spot on the Opening Day, or at least have him cooking in Worcester, ready to be called up at a moment’s notice.

Trevor Story: Story is looking to build on his first healthy season with the Red Sox in 2025 and through the first portion of spring training, he’s doing just that. He’s slashing .400/.400/.667 with six hits, two RBIs, and one triple over five Grapefruit League games. He’s showing that he’s still comfortable at shortstop on defense and is already rounding into form on offense. There’s a lot riding on Story being healthy again in 2026, which is always a huge question mark. As of right now though, Story looks strong and ready for the season to start. If his bat can avoid the early season cold snap he went through last season, he will force his way into the All-Star conversations for the first time since 2019.

Noah Song: Song is making a case to be a part of the major-league bullpen sooner than later with his early performances in spring training. He’s appeared in two games, tossing 2 1/3 innings with a flat zero ERA and three strikeouts. He’s topping out at 96.7 mph on his four-seam fastball and getting whiffs with it up in the zone. He’s been a name that diehard fans have been tracking since he was drafted in 2019 due to his military service commitment and then subsequently being taken by the Phillies in the Rule 5 Draft in 2022. Song has all of the tools to be a major-league contributor this season, but he’s going to have to keep this up for the remainder of the month to shoo away the remaining doubters.

Who’s Not?

Nick Sogard: Sogard has logged 22 at bats over nine games so far this spring, but he’s failed to make much of an impact. He’s slashing .091/.167/.091 with two hits and two runs. He was believed to be in contention for a bench spot entering camp, but he may be quickly playing his way into a role with the WooSox instead. He could be one of the people most impacted by playing time changes over these next two weeks, so he has a chance to turn things around, but the spring has not been kind to Sogard so far. He will be one of the first names called up in the event of injury, but if this level of play keeps up then he’s going to be jumped in the pecking order pretty quickly.

Wilyer Abreu: Abreu has taken some great swing against left-handed pitchers during spring training but his stats leave a lot to be desired. He’s slashing .143/.294/.143 through six games of Grapefruit League action. He’s been playing out of position, left field, as he prepares to join Team Venezuela in the WBC, but that shouldn’t make such a drastic impact on his offensive numbers. He’s likely going to start every game for Venezuela while they are in the tournament; hopefully, he shows back up to camp ready to go and is able to prove that he deserves more than just being part of a platoon in right field in 2026.

Connor Wong: This feels like low-hanging fruit after the season Wong had in 2025, but he’s not performing well in camp so far. He’s slashing just .111/.200/.111 over nine at bats in four games. He’s registered one hit, zero runs, two strikeouts, and one walk. Wong entered camp hoping to reestablish himself as a viable option as the backup catcher, but we could be seeing the beginning of the end of Wong. He would have benefited from Carlos Narvaez playing in the WBC, but Narvy was denied insurance to compete, so he’s sticking around camp for all of spring training. He was scratched from the lineup on March 3 with back spasms, but it’s unlikely that sidelines him for very long. Wong likely has a short leash this year and his lack of production is making it shorter and shorter by the day.

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