DH

[L J]

Of the many glaring defects of the Red Sox's offense, that was exposed in the Wild Card debacle, none should be more obvious than the need for a dedicated DH. Of course Big Papi, or even J D Martinez, is not walking through the door, but the team needs to find that " big bat". Someone who can consistently provide a hit when needed.

[Brock Beauchamp]

23 hours ago, L J said:

Of the many glaring defects of the Red Sox's offense, that was exposed in the Wild Card debacle, none should be more obvious than the need for a dedicated DH. Of course Big Papi, or even J D Martinez, is not walking through the door, but the team needs to find that " big bat". Someone who can consistently provide a hit when needed.

Welcome to the site! Ideally, I think you'd want Contreras at DH, or a 1B/DH platoon of some sort.

[mvp 78]

This problem goes back to the initial signing of Masa. Good player, bad fit for DH. Until he's off the roster, they won't have the stomach to sign another fulltime DH. 

[Michigan Adam2]

Some would argue we need a couple of big boppers.  I would push for a much higher team obp.  .245 .319 .717 with 285 2b, 26 3b, 163 hr isn't enough power to make up for .319 obp. I like guys on base.  Puts huge pressure on the pitcher. Pitch from the stretch, dancing baserunners, sb, pb advances, balks, taking the extra base, just exciting baseball. Hr are cool, obp is fun. 

[mvp 78]

28 minutes ago, Michigan Adam2 said:

Some would argue we need a couple of big boppers.  I would push for a much higher team obp.  .245 .319 .717 with 285 2b, 26 3b, 163 hr isn't enough power to make up for .319 obp. I like guys on base.  Puts huge pressure on the pitcher. Pitch from the stretch, dancing baserunners, sb, pb advances, balks, taking the extra base, just exciting baseball. Hr are cool, obp is fun. 

Sox were 11th in OBP and were only 23rd in runs. OBP is fickle when looking at runs. SLG may be a better indicator as part of its calc uses OBP. 

[notin]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

This problem goes back to the initial signing of Masa. Good player, bad fit for DH. Until he's off the roster, they won't have the stomach to sign another fulltime DH. 

He seemed to be written out this year.  Before Anthony got hurt, he was still only playing slightly more often than Monasterio and that was with Duran’s bad start (that never ended) and that Yoshida was pushing a .480 OBP…

[JimEd]

On 10/1/2026 at 9:19 AM, L J said:

Of the many glaring defects of the Red Sox's offense, that was exposed in the Wild Card debacle, none should be more obvious than the need for a dedicated DH. Of course Big Papi, or even J D Martinez, is not walking through the door, but the team needs to find that " big bat". Someone who can consistently provide a hit when needed.

frankly, i think the reason they don't have a dedicated DH is because Henry is too cheap. he thinks you can rotate "resting" players and back-ups/ bench guys in this position and not have to pay $$$ for a true DH like Papi. and like MVP said, they won't (if ever) sign one until Yoshida's money is off the payroll. no idea why he was signed because he's not a DH, can't run and can't field. 

[moonslav59]

10 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

This problem goes back to the initial signing of Masa. Good player, bad fit for DH. Until he's off the roster, they won't have the stomach to sign another fulltime DH. 

Maybe even worse than their projected offense from Yoshida was their belief he could play a decent LF. They didn't really sign him to be the DH, but here we are.

Looking at the current all-healthy roster, we seems to have others being squeezed into DH:

Arias at SS, so Mead or Story at 2B & DH.

Duran or Anthony in LF & DH.

We have some decent platoon options, too:

Gapser- Jones

Sogard-Romy

Or, we could platoon Yoshida with Jones or Romy.

All these options, and DH might still be the best place to upgrade.

[notin]

2 hours ago, JimEd said:

frankly, i think the reason they don't have a dedicated DH is because Henry is too cheap. he thinks you can rotate "resting" players and back-ups/ bench guys in this position and not have to pay $$$ for a true DH like Papi. and like MVP said, they won't (if ever) sign one until Yoshida's money is off the payroll. no idea why he was signed because he's not a DH, can't run and can't field. 

1.  Henry did pay for Papi for a long time.

2. They paid and are still paying Yoshida.

3. They started last year with 4 starting outfielders, clearly planning to use one as DH.  And once A thing went down, they went to the Emergency Backup DH in Yoshida. 
 

The Sox have never used the DH to “rest starters,” but that is something fans always seem to want. Probably because they prefer star players not get too many days off…

[JimEd]

2 hours ago, notin said:

1.  Henry did pay for Papi for a long time.

2. They paid and are still paying Yoshida.

3. They started last year with 4 starting outfielders, clearly planning to use one as DH.  And once A thing went down, they went to the Emergency Backup DH in Yoshida. 
 

The Sox have never used the DH to “rest starters,” but that is something fans always seem to want. Probably because they prefer star players not get too many days off…

do you really think Yoshida was signed to be a DH? if so, BLoom is a bigger idiot than i thought.

[moonslav59]

If we look at our top 9 batters going into 2027, it might look like this (in order of best batters listed first)

Contreras (1B/DH)

Mead (1B/2B/DH)

Abreu (RF)

Anthony (LF/DH)

 

Rutschman (C)

Rafaela (CF/2B)

Yoshida (DH/LF)

Casas (DH/1B)

 

Durbin (3B/2B)

Story (2B/SS)

Gasper (1B/DH/C)

Sogard (1B/3B/2B)

Romy (DH/1B/2B)

 

Seigler (2B) Monasterio (3B/2B/SS) White (OF) Jones (OF) Eaton (OF/3B) Campbell (LF/RF)

Wong (C)

[notin]

41 minutes ago, JimEd said:

do you really think Yoshida was signed to be a DH? if so, BLoom is a bigger idiot than i thought.

Doesn’t matter what he was signed for.  He’s been a DH for several years…

[moonslav59]

Not worthy of the Realistic thread...

LOL

BTV Accepts Justin Gonzalez, Valera and Soto for 2 years of Yordan Alvarez. I doubt HOU even thinks about it.

BTV Accepts Story, Wong and Duran for Sean Murphy

BTV Accepts Yoshida for Kikuchi

BTV Accepts Arias & Cespedes for de la Cruz

Sign Gray

________________

Crochet, Tolle, Gray, Suarez, Bennett, Bello

Chapman, Whitlock, Miller, Houck, Crawford, Oviedo, Slaten/Guerrero

1. L Anthony LF

2. L Alvarez DH

3. R Contreras 1B

4. S de la Cruz SS 

5. L Abreu RF

6. S Rutschman C

7. R Mead 2B

8. R Rafaela CF

9. R Durbin 3B

Bench: R Murphy C, S Sogard UT, R Romy UT, R White or Jones OF 

 

 

 

[JimEd]

6 minutes ago, notin said:

Doesn’t matter what he was signed for.  He’s been a DH for several years…

we all know that. the conversation was about Henry signing a dedicated DH.

[moonslav59]

54 minutes ago, JimEd said:

we all know that. the conversation was about Henry signing a dedicated DH.

Yes, and one reason he did not was because Yoshida morphed into one almost as soon as we got him.

Sign a FT DH and move Yoshida to LF made no sense.