Red Sox: Top 5 First Basemen in franchise history
By Mike El-Far
While Yastrzemski is most known for being one of the best left fielders to ever play, he also was a phenomenal first baseman. Yaz ranks 5th all-time in games played at first base for the Red Sox, which is even more shocking considering he played over 1900 games at left field.
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Yaz made the shift to primarily playing first in 1973 because young Dwight Evans getting a call to the majors. He was relied on even more at first a couple years after when Jim Rice, the highly touted prospect, was called up to the majors. Obviously the Sox wanted to have Evans and Rice playing in the outfield, and also wanted to keep the powerful bat of Yaz in the lineup every night.
While Yastrzemski had only five seasons where he was primarily a first baseman, he had seven seasons where he played 50+ games at first. During those seven seasons, he managed to have a .287 average. Also, he averaged 21 home runs and 87 RBI’s.
Simply put, Carl Yastrzemski is one of the greatest players to ever play for the Red Sox. His legacy has become entrenched in Fenway Park. Not including him on this list would be a little crazy, but the fact it is not his primary position is why he is ranked at 5.