The Boston Red Sox, to the surprise of many reporters and insiders, opened the 2026 season without trading an outfielder from their group of five on the major league roster. Boston's skipper Alex Cora often shuffles his lineups to find what works best, but his outfield logjam has been the main reason for this year's lineup changes.
It's not difficult to argue that the Red Sox's constant outfield and designated hitter changes are part of the reason for its slow offensive start this season — having to flip between Roman Anthony, Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu and Masataka Yoshida each day means one of Boston's top bats will always be on the bench.
Had chief baseball officer Craig Breslow traded an outfielder over the offseason, the Red Sox wouldn't be in such a complicated situation. Duran is the player who should've been dealt elsewhere and it should've happened at least a year ago when he was playing at his peak.
Duran hasn't kept up with the rest of the Sox's outfield bats through the first three weeks of the season. He's batting .164/.243/.254 with 21 strikeouts and six walks through 17 games. His whiff rate ranks in the second percentile, he's batting .125 against fastballs and whiffing 54 percent of the time against breaking pitches.
Red Sox holding onto Jarren Duran is coming back to bite them as outfield logjam keeps some of their best bats on the bench
The outfielder hasn't been able to use his speed to his advantage, either. He's hit just three doubles and stolen only three bases, probably because he's struggled to get on base in the first place.
The Red Sox have only recently started playing Yoshida over Duran, which is the best choice for the sluggish offense. Duran has played in 17 games while Yoshida has played in 14 with his .324/.477/.412 slash line. Boston has scored just 89 runs through 22 games, the eighth-least in the league, and Yoshida's team-leading on-base percentage would undoubtedly help push more runs across.
Not only is Duran's playing time adversely affecting the offense because it keeps Yoshida from playing more, but his trade value is even lower than it was at the beginning of the season. The Red Sox (incorrectly) assessed Duran's trade value based on his 2024 production, when he was an All-Star and MVP-vote recipient. Clearly, other teams don't value him so highly, seeing as he's still in Boston's outfield, another year closer to free agency.
There are still months of baseball to be played and trends change in an instant. Duran could go off on a tear tomorrow and become Boston's hottest hitter. If someone in the outfield gets injured, the Red Sox will be thrilled to have kept five outfielders on the roster.
But for now, Duran hasn't played well enough to have an everyday lineup spot over Yoshida. His early scuffles have led many fans to wonder what kind of infield or rotation reinforcements they could've gotten for him on the trade market over the winter.
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