Masataka Yoshida's injury could vastly affect Red Sox's offseason plans

Masataka Yoshida spoke to Boston Red Sox media after the team's final game of the season on Sept. 29.

Earlier that day, Carlos Yamazaki of Tokyo Sports reported that Yoshida may undergo surgery on his right shoulder soon. Boston's designated hitter told reporters his shoulder has been nagging him for quite some time and that he feels pain with swings and misses.

Yoshida is the second Red Sox player who played through a lingering shoulder issue this year. Rafael Devers' season ended early due to the long-term shoulder issue he'd been fighting since spring training.

Yoshida will undergo an MRI on his right shoulder to determine if surgical intervention is necessary for his recovery. If he does need an operation, it could throw a wrench in the Red Sox's offseason plans.

The 31-year-old veteran of Nippon Professional Baseball is likely among Boston's most likely trade candidates for the winter. Before the 2023 season, he signed a five-year, $90 million contract that the penny-pinching Red Sox front office may be keen to offload. An offseason surgery could slash Yoshida's already troublesome trade value.

Masataka Yoshida may need shoulder surgery, which could kill some of his trade value for the Red Sox

Yoshida batted .280/.349/.415 with a .764 OPS over 108 games in 2024. He posted 140 games the year prior and batted around .300 for much of that campaign. Yoshida is not a defensive savant, however, so he only received one inning of playing time in the outfield in his second year with Boston, which may have lessened his trade value even more.

An inflexible, $18 million-plus designated hitter isn't ideal for many lineups, the Sox included. But when Yoshida is on, he's near untouchable. He's one of the hardest batters to strike out in MLB and Boston's batting order was palpably longer during his hot streak. He's also developed into a Yankee killer, which is always a plus in the Sox's lineup.

The Red Sox and Yoshida's fellow outfielder Tyler O'Neill have expressed "mutual interest" in another deal, but their pastures are already crowded with more outfield talent sure to come. Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Wilyer Abreu, Rob Refsnyder and maybe Roman Anthony could all need spots in Boston's outfield next year, and adding O'Neill and Yoshida back into the mix maintains this year's traffic jam and ineffective use of team funds.

If the Red Sox can't offload Yoshida or another outfielder this winter, pursuing another deal with O'Neill may not make sense and the team may not have enough flexibility in the lineup to make it worth the money. Yoshida has proved in his two seasons in the big leagues that he can be a key piece to the Sox's batting order, but they're heavy on outfielders and lefties with more coming up through the system.

Hopefully, Boston had some other players in trade considerations for this offseason, as Yoshida's value could be slashed if he goes under the knife. The Red Sox are so nearly competitive that another year of complacency in the winter will not do.

More Red Sox reads: