Could the Boston Red Sox move on from a star slugger with a big chunk of money left on his contract?
Mastaka Yoshida, the 31-year-old contact-hitting prodigy the Red Sox signed to a $90 million contract from Japan, had a tough second season in Boston, culminating in labrum surgery that could delay his start to the 2025 season.
Yoshida has become the subject of trade speculation because the team is overloaded with left-handed hitters and he doesn't play the field. Moving on from Yoshida might require Boston to either eat some salary, attach a prospect, or accept virtually nothing in return. Regardless of how difficult it might be to trade a player recovering from offseason surgery, Caleb Moody of Just Baseball believes the Red Sox may have no other choice. He urged Boston to find a team to take on Yoshida's contract in a recent "For Yoshida, the answer is simple: It’s time the Red Sox find a trade and part ways with him. His $18.6 million AAV over the next three years makes him a bit difficult to trade, but there could be a bad contract swap out there, or they could accept a minimal return in order to free up that lineup space," Moody said. "If Yoshida is able to play outfield for whatever team he gets dealt to, his contract becomes less of a burden, especially considering the solid year he had at the plate." It wasn't an awful year for Yoshida on the whole, considering he missed over a month due to one injury and played through another for a significant portion of the second half. He topped his 109 OPS+ from 2023 with a 112 mark in 2024, and struck out just 52 times in 108 games. Still, paying over $18 million a year for a designated hitter with limited home run power is a significant overpay. And Yoshida has repeatedly expressed his preference for playing the outfield, which is understandable considering that was the job he was initially signed to do. Yoshida can be an excellent big-league hitter still, and the Red Sox might one day come to regret trading him away. But with the way the winds are blowing, a trade seems like the most likely outcome to help all sides progress forward.Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding Boston Red Sox On SI, please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org
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