Alex Bregman is off to quite the start in his first season as a Boston Red Sox. He's slashing .320/.393/.563, and he's brought years of experience and a playoff pedigree to a new team.
After trading four top prospects for Garrett Crochet, the Red Sox essentially committed to winning in 2025. Their offense still didn't have the power needed to compete in the American League East, which is where Bregman came into play.
But the Bregman signing created multiple ripple effects around the Red Sox's roster, from the infield to the outfield, which haven't gone away. Bregman's takeover of Boston's third base job pushed Rafael Devers to designated hitter, and things spiraled from there.
Devers still isn't right at the plate after his position change. Granted, he missed the end of last season with grueling double shoulder injuries that carried into spring training, but a position change he was openly reluctant to make has probably not helped his plate presence. Devers is batting .194/.331/.327 through 27 games, and Boston's offense isn't right without him playing like his old self.
The Red Sox also still haven't used Masataka Yoshida this year, who is still stuck in injury purgatory. Boston used Yoshida as its DH last year after multiple testimonies that his defense isn't up to par to play the outfield every day. The Sox planned to reverse course this year after the Bregman signing pushed Devers into the DH slot, but their existing outfield of Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela is so defensively sound that they may be struggling to justify throwing Yoshida back into the mix.
Roster ripple effects from the Alex Bregman signing will continue to plague the Red Sox
Boston's treatment of Yoshida has been inexplicable. He's one of the most consistent bats in the lineup, with a .285/.343/.433 slash line over 248 games across two seasons, and he could serve the team well while its bats struggle to reliably produce. Still, the Red Sox won't free him from injury purgatory — on April 15, reporters asked manager Alex Cora if Yoshida is ready for a rehab assignment, and he said only "not yet."
The Red Sox may also be hesitant to put Yoshida back in the outfield because he'll be another obstacle in Roman Anthony's way to the big leagues. The top prospect has been raking in Triple-A — he's clocked a .308/.444/.590 with a 1.034 OPS through 22 games — and it's going to be hard for the Red Sox to argue that he needs any more time in the minor leagues. Boston's outfield is already loaded and Rafaela, the one person it may be able to justify benching or demoting to accommodate Anthony, signed a contract extension last year. Anthony can't come up to the big leagues at DH because the Red Sox relegated the face of their franchise there and boxed Bregman into third base by calling Kristian Campbell up so early. Campbell has been successful with the Sox early on, but his presence, admittedly, creates some traffic jams on the roster.
The Red Sox may have to pull off a miracle trade of either Rafaela or Yoshida to fit Anthony into its current outfield, and banishing Yoshida to Fort Myers to heal his shoulder when he could've been a perfectly capable DH seems like the wrong way to bolster his already negligible trade value. Boston could send Rafaela to the minor leagues, but that seems unlikely since he's been extended and is its best outfield defender. Truthfully, none of the Red Sox's options seem great.
But the Red Sox had to sign Bregman. After losing out on Juan Soto and Tyler O'Neill's deal with the Orioles, Boston needed a bat to balance its roster. The Red Sox have also missed the playoffs in the last three seasons, and signing Bregman showed a commitment to winning that the team hasn't seen in half a decade.
Having more good players than roster spots is a great problem for the Red Sox, but it's a problem nonetheless. Boston is going to have to do a lot of maneuvering to get its best players on the roster, and with Anthony slugging at a torrid pace and the Red Sox's bats as inconsistent as they've been, it may not have much more time to think.