Red Sox’s Alex Cora Reveals Potentially Questionable Plans For Wilyer Abreau

The Boston Red Sox are about to start spring training, and their roster is starting to shape up.

After the addition of Caleb Durbin, very few questions remain about the regular starters. Durbin and Maarcelo Mayer will play second and third base. However, it’s unclear who will be where at this point.

The outfield remains a question mark. Jarren Duran, Roman Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu are all capable of being everyday players, but there are only three outfield spots. The Red Sox also have the designated hitter spot, but with Masataka Yoshida still in the mix, finding at-bats for those five players seems difficult.

However, Alex Cora did provide some early insight on how the Red Sox will approach the situation. Specifically, he commented on how he views Abreu. According to MassLive’s Christopher Smith, Cora said Abreu is seen as an everyday player, starting against both left and right-handed pitchers.

Cora also noted that Ceddanne Rafaela is locked into center field. The Red Sox essentially have three outfield spots and a designated hitter spot to use their four talented outfielders and Yoshida. Clearly, not all of them will be everyday players.

Abreu is an elite defender, but has not been great against left-handed pitching. He made just eight starts when the opposing team started a southpaw last season. He had a .676 OPS against left-handed pitching last year.

Abreu has a .589 career OPS against southpaws. However, Cora has made it known that the plan is to start him every day. Assuming Rafaela and Anthony are also everyday players, Duran and Yoshida figure to be at most risk of losing at-bats.

Abreu has not proven he can hit left-handed pitching in the big leagues. However, going into the season, it sounds like he is expected to play every day. Maybe this is the year he finally breaks through against lefties.