Alex Cora Makes Bold Claim Regarding Overlooked Red Sox Bat

BOSTON — The Red Sox still have faith in Masataka Yoshida.

Yoshida experienced varied outcomes in first his two seasons in Boston, with torrid stretches often being overshadowed by an inability to stay healthy. Red Sox manager Alex Cora saw those injuries have a major effect on his lineups in 2024, but plans to get things back on track in 2025.

It’ll just take some improvement from “The Macho Man.”

“Our outfield defense was great last year, but in a perfect world, if he was healthy, he was going to play the outfield,” Cora said on Saturday. “The throwing part of it wasn’t there so that’s the reason he actually didn’t play. Hopefully, we can get him there and we can use him in the outfield, too.”

Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela, Rob Refsnyder and Tyler O’Neil held things down in the outfield last season, but with the latter now gone, the plan is to plug Yoshida back into his natural position.

Yoshida’s defense was and continues to be the biggest knock on his overall game, but being able to be league-average in that spot would be huge. Cora, for instance, wants that flexibility because it would give him more opportunities to deploy what he believes is one of the American League’s better bats.

“He’s a good hitter,” Cora said at Fenway Fest. “When he’s healthy, he’s one of the best left-handed hitters in the league. I think his whole shoulder thing — when you take a look at the numbers, whenever he wasn’t feeling great there were a lot of ground balls and a lot of quick outs. …We still believe in the hitter. We still believe he’s gonna hit the ball in the air — so when he’s healthy, he can help us. If he can play in the outfield, that would be great for our roster.”

Boston has a large number of left-handed options currently slated to play everyday roles in 2025, so versatility is paramount for players who are still looking to solidify their spots.

The Red Sox have been linked to the likes of Alex Bregman and Nolan Arenado, while Roman Anthony and Kristian Campbell are knocking on the door of the big leagues. Yoshida can’t survive as a designated hitter once one, two or three of those players eventually get to Boston, because he’d then be competing for at-bats with the likes of Rafael Devers and/or Triston Casas.

Yoshida also had offseason surgery, with the expectation that he’ll begin taking dry swings at some point in early February. The Red Sox expressed optimism that he’d be ready for Opening Day, but that likely would be in a designated hitter role.

Cora clearly likes the bat, but if he wants to have any chance at deploying it regularly, some major changes will need to take place.