It felt as though Masataka Yoshida was being penciled in to hit leadoff for the Boston Red Sox this upcoming season before the ink had dried on his contract.
While Yoshida seems like a natural fit at the very top of the order due to his elite bat-to-ball skills and terrific plate discipline, Red Sox manager Alex Cora isn’t completely sold on that idea.
Instead, Cora hinted Sunday that he could Yoshida place the former Nippon Baseball League standout elsewhere in the batting order.
“This whole thing about Yoshida leading off, I don’t know (how it started),” Cora told reporters, per MLB.com’s Ian Browne. “If I mentioned it, I didn’t mean to. He might lead off, but he might hit in the middle of the lineup. That’s what he’s done his whole career. So I think it’s about personnel and who we have.”
In the two spring training games Yoshida has suited up for so far, Cora has elected to bat the Red Sox newcomer in the cleanup spot for both games. Yoshida displayed power from that spot against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday, belting a double into the right-center gap for his first hit of the exhibition slate.
Hitting in the heart of the order isn’t new to Yoshida as he primarily was slotted in at either the third or fourth spot with the Orix Buffaloes, per Browne.
It won’t be the easiest of tasks for Cora to construct his lineup with the Red Sox having several departures and additions this offseason. Cora already revealed he wants to split up two of his lefty hitters in Yoshida and Rafael Devers, whose position in the lineup already seems determined and rules out Yoshida batting leadoff.
“My main goal is to keep Raffy and Yoshida split up and try to keep Raffy in the second spot,” Cora said, per Browne. “That would be great.”
