MLB Rumors: Red Sox ‘Expected To Be Aggressive’ Pursuing Slugger

The Red Sox missed out on Juan Soto, but that doesn’t mean they’re done looking for a power-hitting outfielder.

Quite the contrary.

Boston is “expected to be aggressive” in its pursuit of Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández, according to ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez.

Hernández has long been viewed as a perfect fit for Fenway Park, where he has a career slash line of .282/.344/.606 and 14 home runs across 45 games played. The Red Sox understandably would like to see what that would look like over the course of a full season and remain very much in the mix, according to multiple reports. MLB Network’s Jon Morosi believes they have a legitimate shot, while MassLive’s Chris Cotillo and Sean McAdam referred to the slugger as an expected “fallback option” after losing out on Soto.

The Dodgers’ acquisition of Michael Conforto won’t take them out of the running to retain the 32-year-old, but Gonzalez reported that it could “complicate” things. The New York Yankees are said to be in a similar boat as their arch-rival, viewing Hernández as a potential replacement for Soto.

Hernández’s free agency is expected to become another bidding war, though a far less pricey one than Soto’s. The Red Sox would do themselves a ton of favors by making sure they’re involved and could have an upper hand based on what we’ve heard about the slugger’s affinity for playing in Boston.