Yoshida and the DH Spot
Yoshida becoming the main DH puts added pressure on him to be a middle of the order bat.
The Red Sox announced earlier this week that Masataka Yoshida is likely to get most of his ABs from the DH spot this season. If this is really the plan, this puts a ton of pressure on Yoshida to be the bat he was in the first half of last season.
Yoshida’s rookie season in Major League Baseball was really split in half. During the first half of the season, Red Sox fans witnessed a hit machine and a player who was seemingly on base all of the time.
First Half: .316 / .382 / .492 / 10 HR
In the second half of the season, Red Sox fans experienced a much different Yoshida. Second half Yoshida went into long slumps and was a weak ground ball machine to the second baseman.
Second half: .254 / .278 / .386 / 5 HR
It was well documented that Yoshida felt fatigued in the second half, especially when he was traveling to the West Coast. On a couple of occasions, Yoshida did not appear in the lineup for 2-3 days as he was either getting a break or working on things in the batting cage. You could tell when Yoshida was starting to fatigue because he began chopping balls to second base on the regular. 2023 was Yoshida’s first season playing a 162 game season and I think he deserves to show what adjustments he will make in the off-season to counter the fatigue.
A full-time DH means that Yoshida needs to produce big numbers offensively. The only DHs Red Sox fans really know are David Ortiz and JD Martinez, who put up Silver Slugger caliber seasons on multiple occasions. It appears Boston will not add another impact bat this off-season as Jorge Soler signing with the San Francisco Giants takes the last logical addition off of the board. The Red Sox front office never replaced Justin Turner, who hit 23 home runs and drove in 96 runs. Not replacing Turner puts additional pressure on the players returning, especially Yoshida, who will mainly focus on his offense.
The most surprising part about this decision to make Yoshida the main DH is for much of the off-season it appeared Boston’s front office did not want to occupy the DH spot with 1 player. Having the ability to rotate players and give guys half of the night off was something I thought Alex Cora was hoping to have this season. With the defensive struggles of Rafael Devers, I thought they may look to get him off of his feet for a day or 2 a week while also improving the defense at the hot corner for those games.
The current front office leader, Craig Breslow, did not sign Yoshida to a 5 / 90 deal. With 4 years remaining on Yoshida’s contract, I find it hard to believe Boston will want to use Yoshida as the main DH for those remaining 4 years. Yoshida must look like the guy who produced a 136 wRC+ in the first half if he is going to make it worth playing him at DH for the majority of the games. Producing at an elite level will also increase his trade value, if that is something Boston’s front office group wants to explore in the future. If Yoshida has another inconsistent year like last year and doesn’t play defense, he will have very little trade value with 55.8 M dollars remaining on his 3-year deal.
How Masataka Yoshida responds in 2024 is just another big question that we will wait to have answered. Moving Yoshida to a permanent DH role could help him unlock his potential of becoming a consistent middle of the order bat or Yoshida could be the same inconsistent player fans watched last season suggesting he was massively overpaid by Chaim Bloom. The Red Sox desperately need this move to work.