Alex Mayes

oh man, that would be a tough one to write. Maybe me saying he stinks right now would do it?

May has been a trying time for offense in Boston. Sure, they’ve erupted for a few big run games, but mostly, the Red Sox have been far from the offensive juggernaut that they were expected to be this season. As you’ll notice, there is a pretty significant drop off in the numbers between number one and the rest of the list, but that’s what happens when the team posts a losing record for the month of May. #3: Jarren Duran For the month of May, Duran slashed .258/.297/.400. He notched 17 RBIs and finally seemed to be finding his footing at the plate again after adding back in the leg kick that unlocked his All-Star campaign last year. The results haven’t been nearly as good, but he seems to be on track to returning (at least) to being a bat you can count on to get on base. He hit two home runs to help add to his offensive uptick, but surprisingly, he didn’t really use his speed once he got on base. He only swiped three bags during the month. He did also hit three triples, so there really wasn’t a need for him to steal bases constantly, but for someone who has that kind of speed under their belt, you’d like to see more. #2: Alex Bregman Bregman likely won’t appear on any more top hitters lists for the foreseeable future due to the quad injury he suffered May 25. Before that, though, he was hitting a bit of a slide, but he takes the number two slot on this list because the offense has looked listless in his absence. He was slashing .250/.357/.500 in May prior to the injury, still good for an .857 OPS. Outside of the number one person on this list, he had been the lifeblood of the offense since the beginning of the month. His absence is going to be sorely felt until he’s back from the injured list, but hopefully, he will still be around the big league club offering hitting advice and a leadership role that is needed on a team full of young players. #1: Rafael Devers The number one slot shouldn’t be any surprise — Devers will be a favorite to take home AL Offensive Player of the Month recognition. For the month of May, he slashed .356/.468/.606. Just bonkers. To add onto that incredible slash line, he added 33 RBIs, 22 walks, and even swiped a base. Suffice to say, Devers had himself a month. He hadn’t had a month where he notched over 30 RBIs since 2019, statistically the best season of his career. While he was hesitant to shift to full time DH, it seems to have already paid off handsomely, as he now has a chance to go down as the second greatest designated hitter in the history of the Red Sox, behind his mentor David Ortiz. Should Devers continue to stay hot, an invitation to Atlanta for the All-Star game is in his future, and he should post the best offensive numbers of his career this season. While there has been much to complain about in the month of May for the Red Sox, Rafael Devers carried the offensive load and has proven that he is made for the DH role in Boston. As the team looks to turn the page on May, we can all hope that there’s much more competition for the number one slot on this list for the month of June. What do you think of our list? Any other Red Sox players you'd add? Let us know in the comments! View full article

I’m back with my monthly installment of the “it’s time to DFA Trevor Story” series that I didn’t realize I’d write, but I’m happy to be one of the people leading this charge. At this point, the longer Trevor Story trots out to shortstop and hits anywhere in the lineup proves that the Boston Red Sox are being an unserious franchise. On the last episode of The Talk Sox Podcast, I spoke about how I thought last season’s shoulder injury likely ended his career. He's playing like someone who is clinging to the last remaining hope of being a contributor to a major league organization. If we look at the numbers, outside of his woes continuing in two strike counts or when there are runners in scoring position, he comes across as someone who shouldn’t even be sniffing a roster spot anymore. He’s currently slashing .218/.263/.318. He’s sporting a .581 OPS, a 59 wRC+, and -0.3 WAR. I’ll grant that he’s stolen nine bases and that’s helping the team, but that’s a limited benefit given the drawbacks. His offense is putrid. There is absolutely zero confidence that he will come through in any situation when he steps up to the plate. All opposing pitchers have to do is throw him something low and away and he’s going to strike out. Most of his at bats look non-competitive. If he manages to work a walk, which is rare considering he’s sitting on a 4.4% walk rate, or makes some form of contact, then he may swipe a bag, but his last stolen base come on May 19th. That’s over ten days ago. Since then, he’s totaled four hits in 29 at bats. As of this writing on May 30th, he’s currently hitting .194 and is hitting seventh in the lineup in the first game of the weekend series against the Braves. You could maybe excuse the poor offensive performance if he was playing any form of a passable defense. He isn’t. His Baseball Savant chart for 2025 is freezing cold on both sides of the ball. I thought there was maybe a changing of the guard on May 24 against the Orioles when Alex Cora opted to pinch hit for Story. Cora said he was going to “disconnect him” the following game and gave him the day off. He even hinted that he may get the Monday game against the Brewers off as well, but there he was when the lineup was announced. It seemed to be a harbinger for the series, as the Red Sox were walked-off twice even though Story did contribute a bit offensively. Did that inspire anyone to have confidence in him though? The Red Sox would be better served to admit Chaim Bloom’s biggest mistake and cut bait with Story. Give me Marcelo Mayer at his natural position and Nick Sogard at third until Alex Bregman is back. Sure, Mayer is a rookie and is still proving himself, but putting him back at shortstop should only make him more comfortable at the big league level. I believe that Mayer’s floor is Story’s ceiling now. Story is obviously going to opt-in to the rest of his contract—he’d be foolish not to. There’s no scenario where he can be traded unless the front office is willing to eat a huge portion of his remaining deal. Putting him in a bench role just further clogs the infield on the major league roster. As it stands, Story is playing his way out of Boston. I understand that he’s a veteran presence on a team full of young players and while that is needed, it’s not useful if the person behind the presence can’t even hit his weight and plays rapidly declining defense at shortstop. It’s a tough conversation to have with such a talented player who has such an impressive track record — one who was such an exciting free agent signing — but the truth is Trevor Story needs to be DFA’d sooner than later. If you’d like to follow my Trevor Story saga, it starts here, then gets a bit deeper here, doesn’t pass the eye test here, and I advocate for him to be benched here. I'd love for him to prove me wrong. There's no reason not to root for Story. But the Red Sox need more contributions from every spot on the roster, and the veteran shortstop isn't living up to his billing anymore. View full article

I agree with this 100%. We talked about it on the last episode of the podcast but it really feels like he's in a holding pattern until he's named the next POBO for the team, whenever they decide to move on from Breslow.

While appearing on WEEI Afternoons on Thursday, May 29, Alex Cora was asked if he was worried he would be fired after calls for his termination have gotten louder among fans. His answer was a solid no. Cora said, “No, not really, from my end. I actually don’t ask coaches about that. I just ask them to do their best on a daily basis. But I can answer that question personally: no.” That was the right answer. Yes, Cora has made some questionable decisions during his tenure in Boston, but as I’ve written recently, there’s few options in house who could realistically replace him over the full season. Ramon Vazquez did well in his two games managed in 2025, and he will likely get interviewed for open positions around the league during the offseason, but he’s not Cora. Additionally, it’s highly unlikely that Fenway Sports Group, and specifically CEO Sam Kennedy, would let Cora go after flying to Colorado in 2024 to sign him to a three-year extension. There’s been little proof of the front office being willing to eat money they have given just to pivot to something else. When Cora was hired going into the 2018 season, he was a highly sought-after managerial candidate after spending time as the bench coach for the Astros and as a media baseball personality. He then managed a team full of big personalities to a World Series victory and watched as the front office decided to cut corners and jettison those players in deals that the Red Sox haven’t come close to winning. He went from Dave Dombrowski to Chaim Bloom and now to Craig Breslow as his President of Baseball Operations. All have their strengths and weaknesses, but neither Bloom nor Breslow so far have proven to have the full trust of ownership like Dombrowski did. This has left Cora to manage a roster of players who, realistically, are role players on good teams at best. A team that constantly trots out Nick Sogard, David Hamilton, and yes, even (the 2025 version of) Trevor Story on a daily or almost-daily basis isn’t serious. What is Cora supposed to do here? He only has the players he has. It’s not his decision to call up Roman Anthony. If it were, I guarantee you Anthony would be on the team already. He’s caught flack for having Marcelo Mayer bat cleanup less than a week into his major league caree,r but when you look at the roster, who else makes much more sense? Krisitan Campbell is trying to figure out how to get out of his month-long slump, Carlos Narvaez has been hitting well but doesn't have middle-of-the-order power, and Wilyer Abreu has had a few chances to bat cleanup and hasn’t lived up to expectations. Why not try out one of the hottest hitting players in the minor leagues to see if that sparks something? Maybe the biggest reason that Cora shouldn’t be worried though, is it suddenly appears as though a lot of the decisions that he has been blamed for came as a front office directive. Craig Breslow appeared on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show and was asked who made the call to limit Garrett Crochet to 85 pitches against the Mets. He answered that it was a “discussion”, but that the front office evaluates pitch limits based on recent trends to help prevent injury, thus suggesting Breslow himself made the call to limit Crochet’s pitch count. After pulling Crochet, Cora was lambasted on social media and through the press. He could have very easily thrown Breslow under the bus, but he didn’t. He stood as the manager of the team and spoke about the reasons behind the quick hook. The same can’t be said for not allowing Brayan Bello to get through the fifth inning against the Brewers on May 28th, but Bello hasn’t given Cora much of a reason to trust him in tight situations lately. If the front office is controlling things like pitch counts, what else could they be telling Cora to do? Alex Cora is very aware that people are calling for his job, but he’s not worried about it. While his seat should be a bit warm, I fully expect him to manage his way out of this slump and get the most out of the players on the roster that has been put together for him. I have my faults with Cora, as do most fans, but he’s a far better manager than he’s currently being given credit for, and until he is charge of roster construction, he shouldn't be the name fans are calling for as the Red Sox struggle. View full article

It's almost comical how often this works out. The Talk Sox Podcast curse extends to pieces written by the hosts too, haha.

On May 21st, Liam Hendriks aired his frustrations with his role on the team. He told Alex Spier of the Boston Globe that he had “no idea” what his role was on the team. He then said that it was a “source of contention” that he’s had to bring up multiple times. From the outside looking in, it seems like his role is pretty well defined. He’s the lowest-leverage arm in a bullpen filled with other low-leverage arms. Since those comments, Hendriks has given up six earned runs in just three innings. That includes three on the very same day that he made those comments and then three more on Tuesday, May 27th. His ERA has ballooned to 6.59, he has a FIP of 4.97, a strikeout per nine of 7.90, and a walks per nine of 4.61. Simply put, he's no longer the All-Star closer he was in 2022, and he's definitely not the guy who earned back-to-back top-10 Cy Young finished in 2020 and 2021 as the most dominant closer in the American League. What kind of role does he expect to have when he puts up those kinds of numbers? Before the game on the 27th, the only high-leverage situation he had pitched in was on May 14th against the Tigers, when Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela made the insane alley-oop home run robbery to keep him scoreless for that appearance. He entered into the game on the 27th in the most high-leverage situation he could be in, but only because he was the literal last man left in the bullpen. Had there been literally anyone else who could pitch that night, Hendriks wouldn’t have seen the mound. He surely can’t think he deserves looks over guys like Aroldis Chapman, Justin Slaten, or even Garrett Whitlock. Brennan Bernardino has worked out of more jams than Hendriks, Hunter Dobbins has far more upside as a rookie, Greg Weissert has been steady most of the season, and the same can be said for Justin Wilson. I’d even take Luis Guerrero over Hendriks at this point, given that the ceiling is far higher. Maybe Hendriks was right in saying something about his role, but it’s not the front office’s fault that he doesn’t understand that he isn’t a high-leverage arm anymore. He deserves looks only when the game is out of hand because he can’t be trusted to throw a clean inning more often than not. It could just be a confidence thing — perhaps a few clean outings can get the ship righted — or perhaps his stuff just isn't the same. He's always been hit hard, but his stuff has always just been so good that his ability to strike guys out (and limit) walks kept runs off the board. With a fastball that's down three full ticks from 2021 and less control of the strike zone than ever, Hendricks is going to have to find new ways to get guys out. It’s been a sad fall from grace for Hendriks. I think the majority of people want him to succeed given his heartwarming comeback story, but he looks like he’s in over his head most times when he takes the mound. Even if the Boston Red Sox are a middling team after losing Alex Bregman, there’s no reason for him to be trusted with more than a mop-up role at this point. View full article

Rob Refsnyder summed up this most recent stretch of the Red Sox’s season pretty succinctly when he told reporters: “We suck right now.” Yeah, that’s hitting the nail squarely on the head. This has been a rough two weeks to watch the product that is on the field day in and day out. Take away the offensive onslaught against Baltimore during the day on May 23, and you have a middling offense who can’t pick up their top tier starter when he goes out and gets 11 strikeouts against a middling Brewers team. It’s infuriating, and someone needed to speak up. Enter Refsnyder, who has quietly become a leader in the clubhouse. Yes, he doesn’t play every day, but he’s been in the league for ten years and he has seen and been around leaders in other clubhouses. Now, he’s stepping into that role in Boston. If you have a hot mic feed when he’s at the plate, you know that Refsnyder is outspoken on the field. If you’ve watched Netflix’s docuseries "The Clubhouse", you know the kind of weight his voice holds in the Red Sox's locker room. When the most recent drama surrounding Rafael Devers occurred, it came out that a player in the clubhouse told Devers to ‘just stop talking’ and that veteran players were ‘frustrated’ with how everything was playing out through the media. It stands to reason that Refsnyder was one of those veterans and is outspoken enough to be the voice telling Devers to stop talking. The one issue here is Rob Refsnyder shouldn’t have to be a vocal veteran in the clubhouse. He’s not Justin Turner, brought in a few seasons removed from winning a World Series title as a championship-caliber clubhouse presence. The thing is, Refsnyder is one of the longest tenured players in the clubhouse as it currently stands. Devers has never been a vocal presence. Duran has had some leadership roles thrust upon him but he’s still in his 20s and struggles with pressure from time to time. Trevor Story has been around, but injured. Alex Bregman should be a calming voice in the clubhouse, but he’s now out with a quad injury for an undetermined amount of time. Who else has the ability to step into that role? Garrett Crochet is young, Tanner Houck is spending time on the IL (and struggling horrendously this year), and the rest of the team is still under arbitration or playing out the first couple of seasons of an extension. It's odd to say, but the Red Sox may be lacking older players this year that can help navigate the clubhouse through tough periods. Someone needed to say the quiet part out loud, and I applaud Rob Refsndyer for being that guy. He’s right: the team sucks right now. It’s not fun to watch, so I can’t imagine it’s fun to be in the clubhouse or on the field. Maybe Refsnyder getting vocal will wake something up in the roster. If it doesn’t, then it’s going to be a long season to endure, especially since it appeared so promising at the outset. View full article

Absolutely. I also say on the podcast that the only pitcher who appears to be doing that is Buehler.

That also wasn’t the take. You skipped over a few sentences to combine some stuff and ignored the transition from Bello to Bailey. The take was Bello has to go longer than four and some change innings, then I pivoted to talking about Bailey and wondering about who is actually calling the pitches since we have multiple pitchers not getting their out pitch in situations where they should be striking guys out. If it’s Bailey calling pitches from the dugout then it’s a problem, if it’s Narváez calling them then it’s a problem. It’s entirely possible Bello just isn’t very good, likely right now even. But it’s also entirely possible that whichever person is calling the pitches needs to be held accountable too.

In the bottom of the fifth inning on Friday’s first, but actually only game due to a second weather postponement, Alex Bregman rounded first on a ball hit off the Green Monster, pulled up short, and immediately signaled for the trainer. Without hesitation, Cora replaced Bregman on the basepaths, and Bregman walked down the tunnel into the training room. Later in the broadcast, we learned that he left with ‘quad tightness’ and would likely not be playing in the second game of the doubleheader. Alex Cora expounded more on the injury to NESN’s Tom Caron, “Just tight right now. Given the night, get some treatment, and we’ll know more tomorrow… Hopefully, something minor, that he misses a few days. And if he goes on the IL, then hopefully it’s like 10 days. We’ll keep our fingers crossed, and like I said, we’ll know more tomorrow.” Cora also later said that imaging wouldn’t need to be done on the quad, hopefully pointing to a minor injury. Bregman gave a bit more detail about what he felt when asked. “I felt my quad grab. I didn’t continue running to second base for the double... I just stopped and returned to the bag to avoid making it any worse. I knew I needed to come out and see the trainer.” First, it’s great that the coaching staff listened to Bregman at that moment. You could see on his face that he was concerned, and there was no attempt to get him to stay on the field. Should Bregman be forced to miss the next few games, including both games of the new double header the team is set to play on Saturday, May 24, then the options at third are… less than ideal, to put it mildly. When asked, Cora floated Ceddanne Rafaela, Nick Sogard (who was scheduled to play third in the nightcap on Friday), Abraham Toro, and Connor Wong all as options. None of those names strike fear in the hearts of opponents, but they are all on the major league roster and have some experience in the infield. Rafael Devers? I’d pay good money to see that conversation between him and Craig Breslow. Devers has clarified that the team told him to “throw his glove away.” Even though there is now an opening at his preferred position, there’s no way we see him play third. The option that could send shockwaves through the clubhouse, though, is to call up Marcelo Mayer. He has experience at third, even though he’s been playing second lately, and could help spark a new onslaught of offense. I don’t think we will see Mayer called up unless Bregman’s injury is worse than expected. It seems like the team is dead set on Kristian Campbell shifting to first at some point and then Mayer taking over for him at second. Right now, though, we must be cautiously optimistic that Bregman’s injury isn’t as bad as initially thought. Cora and crew want to see how he feels Saturday morning before the first game of the double header and make a decision then. Should they feel that some time on the IL is necessary, we could finally have an opening that forces everyone’s hands and gets the hottest hitter in the minor leagues to Boston before this homestand ends. View full article

Wilyer Abreu has been the third-best hitter on the Boston Red Sox. The statistics may not fully support that, but the eye test proves it. When he steps up to the plate, you feel confident that he’s going to come through and make contact. He’s a Gold Glove right fielder and should be in the conversation for the award again this year. Coming into the season, he made some changes to his game that will benefit him in seasons to come as well. He’s hitting for more power, swiping more bases, and being far more patient at the plate. There are a few things that have helped Abreu tap into more power this season. First, his batting stance has opened up just a bit. He is now standing a bit more shallow in the box compared to last season, from 31” to 29.5”; he's added almost four inches of distance between his feet from 26.8” to 32.5”, and his stance has gone from 20 degrees open to 22 degrees open. This means he’s a bit more open, and he’s able to sit on his back leg more to tap into some power he has been lacking in his pro career. What this has allowed him to do is hit four fewer home runs so far this season, 11, than he did all of 2024, 15, raising his slugging percentage from .459 to .503. When he puts the ball in play, there’s a better chance that he’s going to put it over the fence or put a solid enough charge into it that he will wind up with a multi-base hit. Despite his sprint speed going from the 55th percentile in 2024 to the 48th percentile this season, Abreu has swiped half of the total bases from last season already. He’s not a speed demon, and he never will be, but already notching four stolen bases this season bodes well for his stolen base total as he keeps playing. What those stolen bases do, though, is put him in a position to score on most balls in play. He’s being more aggressive, and it’s paying off. What’s most impressive, though, is that Abreu is far more patient at the plate this season than he has been before. In 2024, he held a strikeout percentage of 28% and worked a walk rate of 8.9%. This season, he has lowered his strikeout percentage to 20.1% and increased his walk rate to 11.6%. He’s working deeper in counts and forcing pitchers to either come over the plate to him, where he should make them pay with his newfound power, or he’s laying off ball four and taking a walk. Either way, he’s putting himself in a position to get on base and score. It’s also paying off in his whiff percentage. In 2024, he whiffed 29.6% of the time. In 2025, he reduced that to 18.3%, well below the league average of 21.9%. Combine his power, base stealing, and patience at the plate, and suddenly we’re looking at a contributing player who deserves to be in the extension conversation. I’ve only touched on Wilyer Abreu’s offensive production here, but he’s still playing elite defense in right field. Wilyer should be looked at as a core member of the Boston Red Sox, and he’s proving over and over again why. It’s time for Alex Cora and the front office to trust him more than a platoon outfielder, let him play against lefties, and reward him with a contract extension. (h/t Baseball Savant and FanGraphs) View full article

I believe I can say with a decent amount of confidence that when the Red Sox traded for Carlos Narvaez, there was little reason to suspect he would make an impact on the big league club. The team had just recently traded top catching prospect Kyle Teel in a blockbuster deal for Garrett Crochet. Connor Wong was supposed to have his breakout season, and the team just needed someone who could fill in as a big-league backup catcher. Then Wong broke a bone in his pinky on a catcher’s interference call, and Narvaez was thrust into the starting job. He took the reins and hasn’t looked back since. It’s my belief that someone should never lose their position due to injury, and I don’t think that the Red Sox have done that to Wong. He was having a down season before the injury and has continued to underperform offensively, even if his defense has picked up a bit. At one point, Wong inspired a bit of confidence when he would walk up to the plate. Now though? You anticipate an out, and usually an unproductive one at that. The flip side is that when Narvaez steps into the box, you believe he can accomplish something. He seems to have a knack for big home runs, and at least has more competitive at-bats than non-competitive ones. Offensively, there’s still something to be desired with Narvaez. He’s currently slashing .280/.346/.466. Those aren’t bad numbers at all, but you’d like to see a bit more power for a guy who could be peppering the Green Monster with a pull-heavy swing. Where he shines, though, is behind the plate. Just look at the catching section of his Baseball Savant page; it’s on fire. The fact that his Caught Stealing Above Average is red hot while his pop time is just so-so is beyond impressive. You trust him to throw out base runners when they attempt to steal, or at least be close on the play. This begs the question, though: Is Carlos Narvaez the future starting catcher for the Boston Red Sox, or is he a stop-gap fill-in while the front office continues to look for another option? I think Narvaez has the tools to be a long-term starting catcher in Boston. He’s 26, so he fits with the younger core as catchers seem to age differently than other position players, and he seems to be coming into his own offensively. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him take another step forward this season and really take full control of the starting catcher position. The trade for Carlos Narvaez may be the sneakiest, best move of the offseason for Craig Breslow, and it hopefully means the Red Sox have the position locked up for years to come. View full article

Although Kristian Campbell has had a few days off in a row, there’s reason to believe that he could solve the biggest hole in the infield at the moment. Starting with the game Friday against the Braves, Campbell was practicing infield drills at first base. When asked about it, Campbell said, “Whatever makes the team better, that’s the position I’ll play. I’m used to second base, because I played that in college. But whatever makes the team at the time.” That’s the kind of attitude you want from your hopeful future All-Star who is under contract for the next eight years. Campbell is a gifted athlete. He’s started at second base, center field, and left field this season. It would likely behoove the Red Sox to pick a position for him to stay at, though. He's mired in a tough May slump — he's slashing .085/.104/.149 with a 31% strikeout rate this month — and, like most young players, would likely benefit from the stability of focusing on a sole defensive spot. Why not the position that is currently a black hole? Triston Casas won’t be back until sometime next season, and it's not like he was lighting the world on fire when he was healthy this year. Romy Gonzalez is taking longer to recover from his thigh contusion than anticipated, Abraham Toro looks overmatched against big league pitching, and Nick Sogard seems incredibly uncomfortable at first this season. Yes, Campbell will likely experience some growing pains if and when he switches, but he’s young and talented. He overcame most of his issues at second base fairly quickly, so there’s no reason to believe he won’t adjust to first base on the fly. Alex Cora has said that, as of now, Campbell won’t see game action at first unless the team is up by 15 or down by 10, but it looks like the possibility of a position switch is something the team is taking seriously. Outside of solving the general conundrum of who will man the cold corner, the biggest boost the team would receive from moving Campbell to first would be the fact that it would open the door for top prospect Marcelo Mayer to break into the big leagues. Mayer is a natural shortstop, a position that desperately needs to be upgraded, but he’s recently been starting games at second base for Worcester. His offense hasn’t taken a significant downturn with the position change, and his defense has still been great. Moving Campbell to first base means Mayer gets to bring one of the hottest bats in the minor leagues to the big league club. There’s an argument to be made to bring Mayer up to play shortstop, move Trevor Story to second, and have Campbell man first as well. Story played well at second during his first season in Boston (when Xander Bogaerts was still with the team), and the position (which is less physically demanding) would likely keep him healthier throughout a long season, but thus far, Cora seems dead set on having Story continue to play shortstop. It’s possible that moving Campbell to first won’t work, though it’s unlikely to be a worse experiment than whatever else the team is currently throwing at the wall. Campbell is willing to do whatever the team needs for him to do, and that’s an early sign of leadership. Getting him more work before games, and then hopefully in game situations where the Red Sox are up by a lot, only helps to expedite the call-up of Mayer. That will provide another youth injection into the team and finally, hopefully, solidify first base for future seasons. View full article

Anyone connected to the Boston Red Sox in some capacity wanted Jarren Duran to return to his All-Star, MVP-vote-getting 2024 form when the 2025 season began. So far, about a quarter of the way through the season, we’ve all been left wanting much, much more. Sure, I’ll give you that Duran hit a two-run home run in Saturday’s come-from-behind win against the Braves. Does that inspire confidence in him moving forward, though? Maybe a bit, but he has to go on an extended run offensively for there to be any real belief that the changes are effective. As Maddie Landis wrote last week, Duran has altered his batting stance in a way that is likely contributing to his downward-trending offensive performance this season. Duran has always been a tinkerer, and he’s recently re-added the leg kick that helped him find his power last season, so there’s a reason for optimism, but the bigger Duran problem for the Red Sox is actually his defense. Last year, Duran was an All-Star left fielder because of his range of contributions on both sides of the ball. This year, though, his defense has taken a significant step backwards. He leads all Boston outfielders with three errors, his range has taken a significant nosedive, and his arm value (via Baseball Savant) went from a scorching-hot 86th percentile to an ice-cold 25th. On top of leading all outfielders in errors, Duran also has the lowest outs above average of all the outfielders at negative two. His expected catch percentage is sitting at 88%, but his actual catch percentage is two percent lower at 86%. The last time he had a lower actual catch percentage than his expected percentage was 2022, the lowest point of his career. I’m not trying to equate that season to this season, as he’s proven since then that he’s a far better player, but it’s notable. What stands out though, is the amount of balls he hasn’t caught that have high catch probabilities. If we look at his responsible plays for 2025, we see a worrying trend. I’ve added the yellow highlights to the chart to show where Duran had a 99% chance of catching the ball and the play wasn’t made. So far, it’s only five plays, but that's still five plays where Duran should be expected to make the play every single time and he failed. Combine this with his range nosedive, and it’s not an out-there assumption to make that we’re seeing him lose a step on defense. It’s likely that soon we won’t be able to see him make up for bad routes to balls with his incredible speed. We need to remember that Duran is 28 years old — he’s the oldest member of the ‘young core’ of the team. He and Rafael Devers are the same age, even though it seems like Devers should be far older. If the goal is actually to get younger across the diamond, and that seems to be the initiative the front office is chasing, then it makes us (or at least me) wonder about Duran’s future in Boston. I don’t think he should be benched, yet. Let’s give him time to get readjusted to his added leg kick and try to figure things out defensively. I’ll stand by my take that I think Duran needs to be traded. Even with a down year, he will bring in a bigger haul than anyone not named Roman Anthony or Marcelo Mayer. I don’t foresee that happening until the offseason though. So, for now, Duran needs to get back to making good jumps and covering lots of ground with his speed, lest he be relegated to being a bench piece when Roman Anthony finally gets the call up to the major league team. View full article