Red Sox Heights: Which Players Got Taller or Shorter This Season?

[Maddie Landis]

Professional athletes are just like us! They fib about their height. (For reference, I’m 5’6” on a good day.) Using data courtesy of Sox Stats, we can see which Red Sox players have shrunk (spoiler: most of them) or have grown. 

Ceddanne Rafaela, Justin Gonzalez, and Nelly Taylor are the only three players in the organization who have grown over the past two seasons. All three players are on the younger side, so a late growth spurt isn’t shocking.

The biggest takeaway is that position players' heights have fluctuated the most, not pitchers. Are pitchers more secure in their height? Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow – who’s listed at 6’0” – clearly has a type that he likes to target in pitching acquisitions. (AKA: Tall and muscular guys, which I don’t blame him for.) Sonny Gray (5’10”) is an outlier as the team’s “shortest” pitcher. 

Does height even matter? No, not really. One of my favorite aspects of baseball is that players come in all different shapes and sizes. Unlike other sports, there isn’t a secret formula to build the perfect player. Over the past eight seasons, the heights of American League MVPs spread by over a foot from Jose Altuve (5’6”, 2017) to Aaron Judge (6’7”, 2025). Former Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia (5’9”) didn’t let his stature limit him, and many smaller players, like newcomer Caleb Durbin, cite him as an inspiration. 

So, the next time you tell a little white lie about your height, just remember you’re in good company.

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