BOSTON — The Pink Sox nonetheless think about Masataka Yoshida.
Yoshida skilled diverse outcomes in first his two seasons in Boston, with torrid stretches usually being overshadowed by an incapability to remain wholesome. Pink Sox supervisor Alex Cora noticed these accidents have a serious impact on his lineups in 2024, however plans to get issues again on monitor in 2025.
It’ll simply take some enchancment from “The Macho Man.”
“Our outfield protection was nice final 12 months, however in an ideal world, if he was wholesome, he was going to play the outfield,” Cora stated on Saturday. “The throwing a part of it wasn’t there in order that’s the explanation he truly didn’t play. Hopefully, we are able to get him there and we are able to use him within the outfield, too.”
Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela, Rob Refsnyder and Tyler O’Neil held issues down within the outfield final season, however with the latter now gone, the plan is to plug Yoshida again into his pure place.
Story continues beneath commercial
Yoshida’s protection was and continues to be the most important knock on his general recreation, however with the ability to be league-average in that spot can be big. Cora, as an example, needs that flexibility as a result of it could give him extra alternatives to deploy what he believes is without doubt one of the American League’s higher bats.
“He’s hitter,” Cora stated at Fenway Fest. “When he’s wholesome, he’s among the finest left-handed hitters within the league. I feel his complete shoulder factor — whenever you check out the numbers, each time he wasn’t feeling nice there have been a variety of floor balls and a variety of fast outs. …We nonetheless consider within the hitter. We nonetheless consider he’s gonna hit the ball within the air — so when he’s wholesome, he may help us. If he can play within the outfield, that will be nice for our roster.”
Boston has a massive variety of left-handed choices at present slated to play on a regular basis roles in 2025, so versatility is paramount for gamers who’re nonetheless trying to solidify their spots.
The Pink Sox have been linked to the likes of Alex Bregman and Nolan Arenado, whereas Roman Anthony and Kristian Campbell are knocking on the door of the large leagues. Yoshida can’t survive as a delegated hitter as soon as one, two or three of these gamers finally get to Boston, as a result of he’d then be competing for at-bats with the likes of Rafael Devers and/or Triston Casas.
Story continues beneath commercial
Yoshida additionally had offseason surgical procedure, with the expectation that he’ll start taking dry swings in some unspecified time in the future in early February. The Pink Sox expressed optimism that he’d be prepared for Opening Day, however that seemingly can be in a delegated hitter function.
Cora clearly likes the bat, but when he needs to have any probability at deploying it usually, some main modifications might want to happen.
