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. 

[JoeBrady]

22 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

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. 

If I were to rely completely on the numbers, OBP correlates to runs scored better than HRs.  But it feel like the RS is less than the sum of it parts.  We're 28th in OBP out of the lead-off slot.  And we're 29th in OBP in the 2-slot.  That in turn makes us 28th in scoring in the 1st inning.

[JoeBrady]

On 10/2/2026 at 9:44 AM, mvp 78 said:

Until he's off the roster, they won't have the stomach to sign another fulltime DH. 

Part of the issue will be finding a DH that is a material upgrade over Yoshida.  If we sign a mediocre DH to an expensive contract, we'll be having the same discussion 2-3 year from now.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

46 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

If I were to rely completely on the numbers, OBP correlates to runs scored better than HRs.  But it feel like the RS is less than the sum of it parts.  We're 28th in OBP out of the lead-off slot.  And we're 29th in OBP in the 2-slot.  That in turn makes us 28th in scoring in the 1st inning.

In other words, darn near the worst in the majors in the two most important slots in the batting order. 

At least our middle and bottom are invisible in the postseason, too.

[moonslav59]

3 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

In other words, darn near the worst in the majors in the two most important slots in the batting order. 

At least our middle and bottom are invisible in the postseason, too.

Sticking with Duran up first had some logic behind it, but the wait for the turnaround never materialized. I was a bit surprised to see Anthony leading in PAs in the 1 slot, and for all the grief he's gotten, he did 71 points better than Duran in OBP.

.333 Anthony 213 PAs

.262 Duran 202

.333 Sogard 104

.255 Seigler 95

.310 Yoshida 42

.281 Gasper 32

.556 Jones 27 (short sided platoon)

.300 Eaton 20

.400 Rafaela 10

.200 Monasterio 5

We simply have to do better here, and while Anthony has a .370 career OBP, I'm not confident he can stay healthy. They don't even know what his hand issue is.

The .303 OBP from the 2 slot is about as bad as can be. The two slot is the most important slot according to modern line-up theory. i really like Rafaela, but he should not be a top 5 or 6 batter in a winning offense.

.301 Rafaela 391 PAs (.434 SLG)

.306 Gasper 99 (.671) YUCK!!!

.372 Contreras 78 (.484) Great but we needed him 3rd or 4th.

.119 Story 42 (.214) was beyond awful.

.250 Jones 24 (.286)

.304 Durbin 23 (.211) awful SLG for 2 slot.

.409 Monasterio 22 (.444) 

.368 Yoshida 19 (.294) too low SLG

If we get a power hitter, maybe we can bat Contreras 2nd and run with Anthony 1st, but more likely we need an outside addition to spruce up 1 or both of these slots.

Mead could be a nice bat in the 2 slot, since he had an OBP over .340 v L and R. That would allow Willson to bat 4th. I'd prefer Abreu up 5th or 6th not 3rd, but the modern strategy values the 5 slot more than the 3, so maybe 3 is okay. That puts the pressure on greatly improving the 5 slot- best if a LHP. That could be BLowe v RHPs and AR vs LHPs, I guess, but this assumes Anthony, Mead, Abreu and Willson are all healthy and not having a bad year.

 

[NHNative]

So--simple the first three bats base hits or walks and 4 and 5 drive em home.

Kinda like the streak.

Easy Peasy---right?

[JimEd]

14 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

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. 

you know what else made no sense? signing him in the first place.

[moonslav59]

11 minutes ago, JimEd said:

you know what else made no sense? signing him in the first place.

Yup, and it seems like nobody else valued him even half as much as we did. Had we signed him at $10M a year, it would have been more bearable. They really missed the boat on his defense and near total lack of power.

That was Bloom, and Story was Bloom's second and actually bigger signing and blunder. At least Story made more sense, had he just stayed healthy and given us his COL era away numbers.

One year left on both of these guys. Seems like ages ago we signed them. Maybe we pull the plug on one of both, this coming winter, but with the lock out pending, what team wants to take on big salary, even if we pay a big chunk of it. Why would another GM have faith in Yoshida or story helping them in 2027? I guess if they only pay Yoshida $4-5M out of $18M or Story $6-8M out of $30M (counting the buyout) maybe.

The easier way to clear up $8-10M is to trade or non-tender Duran. I seriously doubt we shed all three.