With Xander Bogaerts gone, there is still a mystery about who will be leading off for the Boston Red Sox this upcoming season.
When he put Triston Casas in the leadoff spot for Sunday’s Grapefruit League game against the Rays, Red Sox manager Alex Cora joked that he was baiting the reporters.
In reality, it is far from certain who will serve as Cora’s primary leadoff hitter this season. Strangely, it appears that this position will not belong to Masataka Yoshida, the coveted $90 million Japanese signing. Due to his exceptional batting eye, many media outlets predicted that Yoshida would be a wonderful fit at leadoff for Boston before his contract was even signed.
When you consider Boston’s lack of performance at the top of the order during the previous season, it was an obvious statement to make. Players like Tommy Pham, Kiké Hernández, Jarren Duran, Trevor Story, etc. made starts in the leadoff position for the Boston Red Sox in 2022 but were unable to have any significant impact.
The group did not work well together (19th in batting average, 27th in on-base percentage, and 24th in homers). Individually, only Refsnyder thrived, but he benefited by starting in that position against his best split — left-handed pitchers — and his sample size was limited (17 games). It is still unknown what the Boston Red Sox will do but they sure have many questions to answer in this upcoming season.
Read More:
Follow our dedicated page for MLB for instant news and updates.