Brandon Glick

The Red Sox have taken a meeting with Snell, winner of the 2023 NL and 2018 AL Cy Young Award. Is he the right pitcher to front the rotation? Before diving into anything here, let’s acknowledge something. Blake Snell’s profile will remind a lot of people of another former Tampa Bay lefty who won the Cy Young award for the Rays and later came to the Red Sox: David Price. Price was utterly brilliant in Florida, maintained his elite performance in Detroit, and then settled in as a solid but unspectacular veteran with the Red Sox (and later, the Dodgers). The issue was that as Price’s performance declined, his price tag escalated. He signed a seven-year, $217-million contract with Boston in 2015, which was the largest contract for a pitcher in baseball history until Stephen Strasburg came along (talk about buyer’s remorse). Eventually, Boston got the Dodgers to eat most of the final few years of Price’s deal as part of the ill-fated Mookie Betts contract. Snell and Price may have had similar career journeys up this point, but they are vastly different pitchers. Price was heavily reliant on his sinker and cutter as his primary fastballs, mixing in the occasional changeup and curveball as his offspeed offerings. Snell threw his four-seam fastball a whopping 46% of the time last year, utilizing a changeup, curveball, and slider for the other half of his arsenal. Snell’s career has been up-and-down to this point, with absurd highs (one of only seven pitchers to have won a Cy Young in both leagues), and middling lows (4.06 ERA in 285 ⅔ innings between 2019-21). However, he’s found the next gear over the past three seasons, with a 2.82 ERA (2.98 FIP) in 412.0 innings between the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants. His 32.5% strikeout rate is among the top marks in the league in that window, as is his .191 batting average against. He’s also done a significantly better job in recent years in limiting the long ball, and his home run percentage (that is, the percentage of all plate appearances in which he allowed a homer) was down to a career-low 1.4% mark in 2024. Though he obviously benefited from playing in spacious Oracle Park, his home run rates were also down across the board in his final few seasons in San Diego. All that adds up to a pitcher who looks like a mighty fine target for the ace-starved Red Sox. Unlike other free agent aces — namely, Corbin Burnes and Max Fried — Snell doesn’t come attached to the qualifying offer this offseason, by virtue of having declined it following the 2023 season. With Nick Pivetta declining his QO, the projected Red Sox rotation looks like this: Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Bryan Bello, and Richard Fitts. The latter impressed in his cup of coffee at the end of this past season, and the first three are all established major-league arms, but none of those pitchers are Game 1 starters. Houck was a breakout star in 2024, but it remains to be seen how he holds up after he blew past his previous career-high in innings (178 2/3, previously 106). Lucas Giolito and Garrett Whitlock could return as contributors at some point, but they remain on the mend from UCL injuries. Snell, who’s made 19 or more starts in every non-pandemic season of his career (and has eclipsed 100+ innings in seven consecutive full seasons), is the kind of pitcher the Red Sox need, especially since he’d add some much-needed southpaw diversity to a righty-dominated rotation. And, as it turns out, the Red Sox front office agrees. Craig Breslow and company reportedly met with the 32-year-old this week, which should pique fans' interest after CEO Sam Kennedy’s claim that the team is willing to exceed the first threshold of the Competitive Balance Tax for the right players. By all accounts, Snell is one of the right players. Even as he nears his mid-30s, he’s a strikeout artist with improving control and a diverse arsenal. He’s going to run any team that signs him more than $100 million, but he may be preferable to the other elite pitchers on the market thanks to his recent performance and detachment from the qualifying offer. For a team that just traded away 2024 NL Cy Young winner Chris Sale, the Red Sox badly need to bring an upper-echelon arm into their rotation this offseason. It’s hard to imagine a better fit than Snell…unless they can shock the world in the Roki Sasaki sweepstakes. View full article

The Red Sox need to acquire an ace this offseason. Why not pluck one from a division rival? View full video

The Japanese phenom will officially be posted sometime this offseason. It may feel inevitable that he’ll be wearing Dodger Blue come 2025, though Red Sox fans shouldn’t lose hope just yet. It was only just last year that Yoshinobu Yamamoto left the Nippon Professional Baseball League and became the most coveted free agent in the sport. He was the most hyped Japanese baseball player since Shohei Ohtani, who had made the trek to the MLB six years prior. Notably, Yamamoto signed for 12 years and $325 million as a true free agent. Ohtani was made available via the international posting system and had to settle for a minor-league contract with the Los Angeles Angels. The latest Japanese superstar is coming to America, and he has elected to follow in Ohtani's footsteps. Per his current team, the Chiba Lotte Marines, Roki Sasaki, will be posted in the coming months. Sasaki became a household name while dominating the 2023 World Baseball Classic at 21. He struck out 11 hitters in just 7 2/3 innings, forming an unstoppable triumvirate of aces with Yamamoto and Ohtani that would pave the way to Japan's third WBC title. In total, his Nippon Professional Baseball résumé reads like that of a video game stat line: 29-15 record, 2.10 ERA, 505 strikeouts, 88 walks, all in 394 2/3 innings in 64 starts over four seasons. However, because no player is perfect, there are injury concerns with Roki Sasaki, including a torn oblique and lingering right arm soreness that cost him a number of starts in 2024. His career high in innings is 129 1/3 (set back in 2022), and he reached 111.0 this year across 18 starts. Nevertheless, he’s going to garner the attention of every franchise in the MLB thanks to his combination of dominance on the mound and the cheapness of his salary. What's fascinating about the Marines' decision to post Sasaki now is the financial ramifications of doing so. Because he's not yet 25 years old, the Japanese star can only sign a minor league deal this offseason. Depending on when he's posted, Sasaki will be eligible for a signing bonus between roughly $5-7 million, with smaller market teams having a larger pool of international bonus money available to them. Had Sasaki and the Marines waited until 2026 to access the posting system, the pitcher could have received a contract in excess of $400 million, with the Marines reaping the rewards of the associated 20% posting fee. Just last year, the Orix Blue Wave were given more than $50 million as part of the Yamamoto signing. The heavy assumption around the game right now is that Sasaki will join Ohtani and Yamamoto as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Those two combined to sign contracts exceeding $1 billion with L.A. last offseason, and it isn't hard to imagine Sasaki wanting to form the greatest international triumvirate in the sport's long history. He'd also be close to his idol, Yu Darvish, who pitches for the San Diego Padres. It should be expected that Sasaki will end up in L.A. The West Coast is often favored by Japanese players given its relative proximity to their home nation, and the Dodgers' status as baseball's best team should be appealing to a player who has yet to win a Pacific League pennant with the Marines. However, if Sasaki is willing to turn his attention towards the East Coast, the Boston Red Sox would make a mighty fine fit. Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow has already said the team knows it “needs to raise the ceiling of the rotation”. Sasaki is literally nothing but pure upside at this moment in time. The Red Sox were one of the earliest teams to sign Asian-born players, and they are one of just five major league franchises that has employed ten or more Japanese players. Ever since signing Tomokazu Ohka back in 1999, the Red Sox's pipeline of Japanese players is strong: Hideo Nomo, Takashi Saito, Hideki Okajima, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Koji Uehara, Junichi Tazawa, Hirokazu Sawamura, Masataka Yoshida, and Naoyuki Uwasawa. Yoshida’s 2025 status is up in the air at the moment, though he could be an asset in the pursuit of Sasaki, as they were both on the WBC champion Samurai Japan in 2023. The Red Sox could also hand Sasaki the ball on Opening Day as their ace as opposed to the Dodgers, who will be trotting out Yamamoto and Ohtani atop their rotation for the foreseeable future. If status matters to him, that could prove appealing. For what it's worth, the Red Sox also have more than $1 million in extra international signing bonus room than the Dodgers do. It might not mean a lot to someone who is already artificially limiting how much he can earn, but Sasaki will be demanding a majority of any team's bonus pool. Having more to spend means that Boston can give Sasaki more and have a little left over to spend on another player. Also, let’s not forget that Sasaki is still just 23 years old. The team he chooses in this pursuit doesn’t have to be his “forever team”. Ohtani picked the Angels in 2017 at the same age, and then he left for the Dodgers and the allure of $700 million. Sasaki could very well choose a team like the Red Sox where he’ll be the unquestioned star from day one, with the intention of parlaying that reputation into a $500+ million contract down the line when he hits free agency at 29 years old. Regardless of the how or why, the Red Sox need to go all out in their pursuit of Sasaki this winter. There are other excellent pitchers on the market—Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, and Blake Snell chief among them—but none come with the combination of youth, upside, and budget-friendliness that Sasaki does. The Dodgers may appear inevitable, but someone has to keep them from building the entirety of the Samurai’s rotation in the MLB. Why not the Red Sox? View full article

Lawson was promoted last month to the major league staff to work with assistant Ben Rosenthal and hitting coach Pete Fatse. What can he bring to the 2025 Red Sox? A few weeks ago, Boston decided to hire Dillon Lawson to the major league coaching staff after his one-year stint as the team’s minor league hitting coordinator. Before coming to Beantown, Lawson spent five years in the Yankees organization, holding various offense-related roles in the major and minor leagues, including his two-year tenure as the big league hitting coach. He also worked as a hitting coach at a few levels of the Astros’ system before that. Despite journeying to different organizations with different hitting philosophies, Lawson has made it a point in his career to help hitters control the zone. That means lowering chase rates, upping swing percentages on pitches in the strike zone, and working advantageous counts. With the team’s announcement that Luis Ortiz would not be returning next year, Lawson’s promotion was a perfect match of need and fit. Most fans will probably remember Lawson for being the first coach Yankees GM Brian Cashman ever fired in the middle of a season (in July 2023). However, people likely don’t recognize that the Yankees’ offense actually struggled more under replacement hitting coach Sean Casey (92 wRC+) than it did with Lawson (96 wRC+). Lawson did oversee Aaron Judge’s all-time great 2022 season (62 home runs, 210 OPS+), and the Yankees made the ALCS that year, eventually falling to the Houston Astros. That season, the Yankees finished first in the major leagues in home runs (254), though their team-wide batting average of .241 was middle of the pack. The team also had a bit of a strikeout problem that year, finishing 18th with 1,391. However, they did make up for that with a league-leading figure in walks (620). After being fired by the Yankees, Lawson refocused his efforts on helping players achieve better hitting habits, which in turn should limit the kinds of prolonged slumps that doomed the Red Sox late last season. Prior to the 2024 All-Star break, the Red Sox ranked eighth in the majors in homers (113), tied for fifth in batting average (.254), sixth in OPS (.746), and 15th in walks (299). However, their standing as the third-worst strikeout team would prove to be a bad omen for the second half, where they dropped in batting average (.249, tied for 10th) and OPS (.731, eighth). Of course, they continued striking out at a problematic clip, leading the AL with 640 following the Midsummer Classic. It’ll be up to the hitting staff to help tone down on those rally-killing punch outs, as well as the front office, which needs to bring in some veterans capable of wearing opposing pitchers down. Lawson’s emphasis on damage-causing contact on pitches in the zone should hopefully cause a ripple effect in the lineup where players are more selective in their approach at the plate. As the 2022 Yankees proved with Lawson at the helm, home runs are great, but their benefits are neutralized by waves of strikeouts. The Red Sox should have no problems fielding a competitive offense again in 2025. Whether or not that unit can avoid prolonged slumps could be the difference between the team making the playoffs, or another October spent watching the festivities from home. View full article

The Braves ace has a long history of elite pitching sandwiched between a few injury-plagued seasons. Would he make sense atop the Sox' rotation? View full video

The World Series-winning outfielder may leave the Dodgers in free agency. Do the Red Sox make sense as a fit, given their need for a power-hitting outfielder? View full video

The Orioles ace has hit free agency for the first time in his career. Should the Red Sox attempt to weaken their division rival by signing the former Cy Young award winner? Though Corbin Burnes was traded to the Baltimore Orioles back in late January, the ace right-hander is well known as one of the figureheads of the most recent iterations of the always-solid Milwaukee Brewers. He responded well to his new digs, accumulating 3.4 WAR and a 2.92 ERA in 194 1/3 innings, earning the start for the American League in the All-Star Game (his fourth consecutive appearance at the Midsummer Classic). The Orioles failed to advance past the Wild Card round of the playoffs, prematurely ending Burnes’s tenure in Maryland, assuming the notoriously frugal O’s don’t loosen their purse strings for a payday that will certainly reach well into nine figures. Now that Gerrit Cole is officially back with the Yankees, Burnes is probably the best pitcher who is expected to hit the free agent market this winter, though other former Cy Young winners—namely, Shane Bieber and Blake Snell—and other pitchers who’ve had strong performances in recent years (Max Fried, Jack Flaherty, Nathan Eovaldi) round out a stronger-than-usual crop of starters. If a team is in the market for an ace, a bounce-back candidate with a strong track record, or even just a plain old “high-risk, high-reward” play, this year’s group of free-agent hurlers is a good place to go window-shopping. It’s worth noting that for all his recent success, Burnes isn’t the same pitcher who won the Cy Young award in 2021. His durability since then has been beyond impressive (three straight seasons of 190+ innings), but his strikeout rate (35.6% in 2021, 23.1% in 2024), walk rate (5.2% to 6.1%), home run rate (1.1% to 2.8%), and average exit velocity allowed (84.9 MPH to 87.1 MPH) have all taken a turn for the worse. His numbers from this season are still excellent, but he’s more touchable now than when he could make a serious claim as the “best pitcher in the world.” For reference, his 3.55 FIP this past season was more than double his league-leading mark in 2021 (1.63). Still, his status as a preeminent ace in today's game will net him a contract that probably reaches $200 million, especially when factoring in his track record in the postseason. Everyone around here knows the Red Sox desperately need an ace atop the rotation. The team did have four starters eclipse 145 innings pitched in 2024, though only one (Tanner Houck) had an ERA below 4.00. Houck and Kutter Crawford were also the only two starters on the team with more than 12 quality starts last year; Burnes alone had 22, plus one in the Wild Card round against the Kansas City Royals. His ability to pitch deep into games while remaining effective is a skill that’s rapidly disappearing from the current zeitgeist, and teams will put a premium on it in free agency, even if his stats show evidence of a downturn. Most pundits have placed Burnes’s contract projections in the seven-year range, with most foreseeing a contract that’s nine digits long and begins with a “2”. The Red Sox have more than enough payroll space to make that addition, as long as Craig Breslow and company are willing to spend that much on a pitcher already in his 30s. If they can find a suitor to take Masataka Yoshida off their hands, their room under the luxury tax will grow even more, and put them in position for a free agent splash like Burnes. Breslow has already said the team knows it “needs to raise the ceiling of the rotation”. Nick Pivetta might be back after being extended a Qualifying Offer, but he isn’t the kind of lockdown starter the team needs. Brayan Bello has an exciting profile but hasn’t put it together for a full season at the major league level just yet. Lucas Giolito has three ace-caliber seasons under his belt, though the last one came in 2021 and he’ll be returning from a UCL injury that cost him the entire 2024 season. There’s prospect depth as well, though the top talents in the farm system are all position players (which is an organizational strength they could deal from in a trade). Burnes isn’t a perfect pitcher, what with his declining strikeout numbers and growing susceptibility to the long ball, but in a division where the Yankees have Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón, the Blue Jays have Jose Berrios and Kevin Gausman, and the Rays have a seemingly endless parade of elite young arms, the Red Sox need a veteran capable of going toe-to-toe with the other top pitchers in the American League. The fact that they’d be able to shore up their biggest roster need and weaken a top contender in the division at the same time seems too good to be true. What do you think? Should the Red Sox splurge on Burnes? Should they pursue another high-end free agent? Or do you think the team will attack the trade market in search of a controllable arm? View full article

Not long ago, the Red Sox infamously swapped Mookie Betts for Alex Verdugo (and a few prospects) in a cost-cutting move. Now, both outfielders have dueled on the game’s biggest stage while Boston watched from home. There are going to be a lot of lasting memories from the 2024 World Series, not the least of which was Alex Verdugo striking out against Walker Buehler for the final out of the season. Despite that less-than-stellar moment, he and Mookie Betts starred for the teams that battled for five games in this year’s edition of the Fall Classic: the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Verdugo gave New York a reliable third outfielder, slashing .208/.309/.313 while starting all 14 postseason games, walking just as much as he struck out. Betts, meanwhile, posted a .951 OPS this postseason, with four home runs and 16 RBIs, often batting between a pair of other MVPs in Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman. Whenever the Dodgers needed a ball put in play, Betts ensured it was done. In a series where the Dodgers won because of the little things, Betts exemplified a fundamentally perfect ballplayer. Of course, it’s been about four years since the fateful trade between the Red Sox and Dodgers that sent Betts to Los Angeles, which brought Verdugo to Boston (along with starting catcher Connor Wong and failed prospect Jeter Downs). The trade is as unpopular in Beantown now as it was back then, though the Red Sox did recoup a little value by trading Verdugo to the Yankees in exchange for starter Richard Fitts, reliever Greg Weissert, and minor-league pitcher Nicholas Judice. Watching the two outfielders have both individual and team success in the postseason while the Red Sox sat out the festivities again was painful, but it also serves as a reminder for what needs to happen over the next few years as Boston tries to recapture some championship magic. Every team needs a guy like Betts to lead the organization as not just a superstar, but a reliable face of the franchise. A player who can not only fill a need in the middle of the lineup or atop the pitching staff, but take criticism from the media and keep the clubhouse in check. Rafael Devers is the obvious candidate on the current roster with a $313.5 million contract in hand, though his OPS hasn’t climbed above .900 in any season since 2019. And while his quiet leadership has grown on the team, sometimes players need a fire lit under them. We don’t need to belabor how good Betts is here, so the short version is: he’s an eight-time All-Star, six-time Gold Glove recipient, has both a batting title and an MVP to his name, and is the only active player with three World Series rings. Devers may be great, but he’s not at that level (yet). The 2023 Rangers had Corey Seager (2x World Series MVP). The 2022 Astros had Yordan Alvarez (.973 career OPS) and Jose Altuve (four top-10 MVP finishes). The 2021 Braves had Freddie Freeman (MVP, 8x All-Star). And the 2020 Dodgers had Betts and Seager. Having a player of that caliber is becoming a prerequisite to win the World Series. Verdugo, on the other hand, is far from the caliber of player that Betts or even Devers is. His best season came during the Covid-shortened 2020 campaign, and he’s consistently worth 2-3 WAR per season. He’s not the star that will make or break a season, but as a complement to an Aaron Judge or Juan Soto, he’s a seamless fit. Unless you’re the Dodgers, no team can afford to buy every superstar on the market. Teams need to surround their north stars with consistent role players who do the little things well. In 2024, the Red Sox were led by Jarren Duran (6.7 WAR) and Devers (4.1 WAR), according to FanGraphs. They had just three other hitters amass even 1.5 WAR for the season—Wilyer Abreu (3.1 WAR), Tyler O’Neil (2.5 WAR), and David Hamilton (1.7 WAR)—none of whom accrued more than 475 plate appearances. Now, WAR is far from a be-all end-all statistic, and defensive value can be measured more accurately in plenty of other ways, but it does highlight how the Red Sox are lacking both a league-leading superstar and a stable of valuable players behind them. Healthy seasons from Trevor Story and Triston Casas will go a long ways towards lengthening the lineup, and a sustained breakout from Duran could give the Red Sox a pair of elite hitters atop the order. Plus, the biggest addition for the team this offseason should probably come on the mound, where a staff ace like Corbin Burnes would go a long ways towards turning the roster into a postseason contender again. Still, the Red Sox are in the process of building up to the caliber of team the Yankees or Dodgers were this year. There’s no doubt the team should have made more of an effort to keep Betts in town, and there’s no denying how valuable Verdugo was to the outfield. With an entire offseason about to begin, Boston can make more strides in replacing the production they traded away. View full article

How have the eight prospects the Red Sox sent to the AFL performed through the first 10 days of action? The annual offseason Arizona Fall League is underway, and an octet of Red Sox youngsters are representing the organization on the Mesa Solar Sox. As a reminder for those familiar with the happenings of the AFL — or as a primer for those getting into it for the first time — the league features six teams, each of which is composed of prospects from five different major league teams. As such, the Mesa Solar Sox are the home of not just prospects from the Red Sox, but also the Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay Rays, Oakland/Sacramento/Las Vegas Athletics, and Los Angeles Angels. You can find more on each AFL team here. Boston sent eight players to the Solar Sox this offseason: right-handed pitcher Cooper Adams, who posted a 5.08 ERA in 79.2 innings with the High-A Greenville Drive; 20-year-old catcher Brooks Brannon, who had a .697 OPS in 230 at-bats this year; utility player Max Ferguson, who played in just 28 games this MiLB season; lefty pitcher Zach Fogell, who has a career 2.82 ERA in the minor leagues; right-hander Danny Kirwin, an undrafted free agent; outfielder Caden Rose, a seventh-round pick in 2023; and pitchers Conor Steinbaugh and Tyler Uberstine, who have combined to throw three total innings in the AFL through Wednesday, October 16. Astute observers will recognize that those players aren't top-tier prospects (only Brannon appears on the team’s Top 30 list, and he slots in at 27th), which is mostly par for the course in the AFL. This league represents a chance for teams to send players who need more reps to a competition with other prospects of varying skillsets. If a player missed time with injury during the regular season, is working on a new plate approach, is tinkering with a pitch or delivery, or simply just needs more in-game action, the Arizona Fall League presents the perfect opportunity for that. Thus far, the standout performer of that group has been Ferguson, who is slashing .316/.350/.368 through 19 at-bats thus far. He’s already had his signature moment too, hitting a walk-off RBI single on Opening Night of the AFL. It’s a welcome sign for the 25-year-old, who struggled badly this season in his limited time with both Triple-A Worcester and Double-A Portland. He’s never hit better than .228 in any season of his career thus far, and his power has waned since hitting a career-high seven home runs during the 2022 season. Any additional production in Arizona could be necessary if he wants to return to the upper levels of the minor leagues in 2025. Kirwin also had a stand-out performance in his appearance, striking out five batters in three innings and allowing only one run. The undrafted pitcher is known for his fastball but secured four of his K's with his slider. Developing a second plus pitch could fast-track his development and put him on the big-league radar by 2026. Brannon and Rose, the other two position players in Arizona, have mostly struggled thus far. Brannon is slashing just .188/.235/.250 in 16 ABs and Rose has only earned 12 at-bats to the tune of a .650 OPS. It’s too early to deem their time in the desert as a bust, but they’ll need to step up their performance, lest they wish to lose playing time to other prospects on the Solar Sox roster. Fogell, Steinbaugh, and Uberstine all have 0.00 ERAs in limited work thus far, though only the eldest of that group (Steinbaugh) has worked a clean inning. Adams has struggled in his maiden AFL appearance, allowing two earned runs in just three innings of work, surrendering a .364 batting average allowed to opposing hitters. As of Thursday, the Solar Sox are in first place with a 6-2 record. The Arizona Fall League continues this week and all the way through the championship game on November 16. View full article

Masataka Yoshida's shoulder injury proved to be as serious as previously feared, and the Boston designated hitter's availability for the start of the 2025 season is in question. Since signing a five-year, $90-million contract in December 2022, Masataka Yoshida has mostly lived up to his profile, but failed to deliver on the great ceiling that his seven-year run in the NPB with the Orix Buffaloes portended: a .327/.421/.539 slash line with 133 home runs. Over his first two seasons with the Red Sox, the former outfielder has played in 248 of a possible 324 games, accrued 2.8 WAR, posted an OPS of .775 and OPS+ of 111, and produced 82 extra-base hits. That’s hardly a porous performance, but for a guy making $18 million per year — tied for the third-highest figure on the team last year, behind only Rafael Devers and Trevor Story — it pales in comparison to what the team needs. Of course, Yoshida was dealing with multiple injury issues this past year, including a left thumb strain that sidelined him for nearly six weeks during the first half. Over the past month, fans have also become privy to a previously undisclosed shoulder injury that required Yoshida to get an MRI in late-September. On Wednesday, we found out the severity of that injury, as the team announced that Yoshida had shoulder surgery nearly two weeks ago. Naturally, shoulder injuries are a big deal for hitters, and the timeline for previous labrum surgeries offers a wide range of possible outcomes for Yoshida’s recovery. Baseball Prospectus’s Recovery Dashboard, lists six position players who underwent shoulder labrum surgery since 2016, as well as how long it took for them to return to game action in the major leagues. Year Player Days 2016 Greg Bird 183 2019 Miguel Andujar 140 2023 Brendan Rodgers 128 2023 Garrett Mitchell 162 2023 Logan O'Hoppe 119 2023 Vinnie Pasquantino 114 Average 141 Median 134 The average player rehabbed for roughly 4.5 months, so assuming an average recovery, that would put Yoshida’s return at February 21, 2025. That’s exactly one week after pitchers and catchers report on February 14, and two days after the first full-squad workouts begin on February 19. Now, there’s a wide range of outcomes in that table, and the best-case scenario appears to be a sub-four-month rehab period, while the longest recovery window was more than six months. That means Yoshida could be ready to roll before Spring Training starts, or he could be out until late April. Most importantly, this is a small data set of players with similar surgeries. The severity of Yoshida’s injury is unknown to the public, and his exact timeline could differ for any number of reasons. Thus, fans should expect the Red Sox to act in accordance with the information they have. If they know Yoshida will be out for longer, a free agent move for another big bat (Alex Bregman? Teoscar Hernández?) would be even more advisable than it already is, and could also put Boston squarely in the trade market for a big bopper to slot in alongside Devers and Tristan Casas in the heart of the order. Alternatively, if there's reason for optimism about Yoshida’s health prior to Spring Training, the BoSox could use that as an excuse to not open up the purse strings this Winter. This news also further wrecks Yoshida’s trade value, which was already a huge question mark last offseason, when the then-primary left fielder was deemed to have an “untradeable contract”. Yoshida simply won't command much in a trade as a designated hitter without a ton of over-the-fence power. However, improved plate discipline (his strikeout and walk rates improved from 2023 to 2024), and an increased fly ball rate (19.4% in 2023, 24.4% in 2024) could have at least given the Red Sox some added leverage in discussions. There's an argument to be made that Yoshida managed an above-average season at the plate despite playing hurt all year, and that he could improve once he's fully healthy. Still, no team will be champing at the bit to acquire $54 million in remaining salary for a player who went under the knife just two weeks ago. For now, Yoshida will remain in Boston while rehabbing his injury, and the Red Sox will wade into one of the most important offseasons in recent memory with one of their highest-paid players as a gigantic unknown. View full article