It's clear that after another early playoff exit at the hands of the New York Yankees, changes need to come to the Boston Red Sox. We can say that Chad Tracy's managing, especially the way he handled his starters and some of the bullpen choices he made, wasn't great. At the end of the day, though, this team got outclassed 18-2 over two games, highlighting some serious roster deficiencies that must be addressed.
Bleacher Report took a stab at putting together an offseason blueprint for the Red Sox, and we can at least say that we love the plan that the staff came up with for Boston's outfield.
A big part of the vision was improving the club's right-handed power and looking to find a guy who could scratch that itch while spending time in left field or at designated hitter. The free-agent option suggested here was Seattle Mariners' left fielder Randy Arozarena.
Arozarena is a perennial 20-20 bat, coming off a career year in which he hit .281/.381/.484 with 26 homers and 26 steals. The righty slugger would be a perfect addition to the Red Sox's lineup and would help Willson Contreras out tremendously in the lefty-mashing department.
Bringing in Arozarena would require a trade to clear Boston's outfield logjam, and Bleacher Report once again has a brilliant solution. The plan would include dealing Jarren Duran to the San Diego Padres in exchange for bullpen strikeout artist Jeremiah Estrada.
In this scenario, the Red Sox are swapping a depressed asset in Duran for a with a 34.2% career strikeout rate from the right side who can help lock down the middle-to-late innings. Part of this hypothetical trade comes down to the fact that the Padres have long been intrigued by Duran, but it should also be noted that Estrada found himself on the IL three times in 2026, dealing with right elbow tendinitis, right knee inflammation, and a right shoulder impingement.
Still, to get anything from Duran at this point is a real win, even if it means gambling a bit on a high-upside reliever.
There's still one flaw in Bleacher Report's plan to fix the Red Sox outfield for 2027
As good as things look with Arozarena in and Duran going out, there's still an issue with the outfield depth that should be addressed. As the author of the piece, Zachary D. Rymer, notes, this yields a hodgepodge bench unit that still features Masataka Yoshida.
Having a backup DH is relatively pointless, especially one that doesn't hit for much power and is injury-prone. Even if it means eating Yoshida's $18 million salary, it's time to move on.
It might seem strange to say the Red Sox need to add an outfielder when this proposed gambit has them essentially swapping Duran for Arozarena, but as we saw with injuries to Roman Anthony and Ceddanne Rafaela, what can look like overkill suddenly can become necessary.
To that end, ditching Duran leaves Boston without a true option to fill in for Rafaela in center. And while Arozarena isn't the kind of defensive liability that Yoshida is, he's not exactly great with the glove and should get decent run at DH.
A relatively cheap free-agent target to supplement this group would be Tyrone Taylor, who, between his time with the New York Mets and Chicago Cubs, put together a .279/.325/.502 line with 11 homers in part-time duty. He's another right-handed bat with pop that can further fortify the roster and is at least an average or better defender across all three outfield positions.
The Red Sox need to get better against left-handed pitching and need to remove the redundancy in their outfield glut, and following this plan will help them accomplish both things while putting the team in a much stronger position to make a run in 2027.
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