Who will be the Red Sox next middle of the order, right handed power hitter?

[Sausage in Section 17]

It has been a somewhat exciting start to the season. Most of us did/do not see this current team as a true championship contender, but there have been many hopeful signs (to me anyway). The new management seems to have seized upon a different strategic approach, allowing our young pitchers to take a significant step forward. The further development/emergence of Abreu, Duran, and Rafaela gives hope that our OF should be solid for the next several years. While the IF has been more chaotic, and uncertain, we do have Mayer waiting in the wings, and if Grissom can bounce back, we may be set all around the infield for the next 5 seasons as well. With Connor Wong emerging as a possible All-Star, and Teel in the chute, catching also looks solid.

So what is missing? Any whiff of a right handed power bat, either on the current roster, or among our top prospects. Yes, Tyler O'Neill has started well, and has good power, but I would say the jury is still out as to whether he can stay on the field and produce this way consistently. I don't think too many of us want to see the Sox offer him a multi-year deal at this point. But other than O'Neill, pretty much every single one of our best hitters and/or top prospects hits left handed: Duran, Abreu, Casas, Devers, Anthony, Teel, and Mayer.

As this next "championship window" opens, who do you think the Sox should be targeting for a right handed power bat? We needed Manny, and JD Martinez in the middle of our lineups for our past title winning teams (2013 excepted). It does not appear that they have much in the minors that looks promising on this front, so my assumption, is that it will probably come through free agency. And given how many young players the Sox have seemingly locked into many positions, unless they swing a big trade, drawing from other strengths, this hitter will probably be our DH.

FYI: Among current RHH UFA's for next season: Pete Alonso, Paul Goldschmidt, Teoscar Hernandez, Josh Bell, Alex Bregman.

 

[chrisfont9]

What about Vladi Jr. in the next offseason? This winter's crop isn't terribly exciting or likely to happen -- hard to picture Alonso not getting paid by the Mets.

 

[BaseballJones]

The 2013 team didn't have one single dominant RH power bat, but they had a bunch of guys with pretty good power.

Napoli: 498 ab, 23 hr, 1 hr every 21.7 ab
Middlebrooks: 348 ab, 17 hr, 1 hr every 20.5 ab
Gomes: 312 ab, 13 hr, 1 hr every 24.0 ab
Victorino: 477 ab, 15 hr, 1 hr every 31.8 ab

By comparison, here's the 2007 team from the right side:

Youkilis: 528 ab, 16 hr, 1 hr every 33.0 ab
Lowell: 589 ab, 21 hr, 1 hr every 28.0 ab
Manny: 483 ab, 20 hr, 1 hr every 24.1 ab

 

[Sandy Leon Trotsky]

It has been a somewhat exciting start to the season. Most of us did/do not see this current team as a true championship contender, but there have been many hopeful signs (to me anyway). The new management seems to have seized upon a different strategic approach, allowing our young pitchers to take a significant step forward. The further development/emergence of Abreu, Duran, and Rafaela gives hope that our OF should be solid for the next several years. While the IF has been more chaotic, and uncertain, we do have Mayer waiting in the wings, and if Grissom can bounce back, we may be set all around the infield for the next 5 seasons as well. With Connor Wong emerging as a possible All-Star, and Teel in the chute, catching also looks solid.

So what is missing? Any whiff of a right handed power bat, either on the current roster, or among our top prospects. Yes, Tyler O'Neill has started well, and has good power, but I would say the jury is still out as to whether he can stay on the field and produce this way consistently. I don't think too many of us want to see the Sox offer him a multi-year deal at this point. But other than O'Neill, pretty much every single one of our best hitters and/or top prospects hits left handed: Duran, Abreu, Casas, Devers, Anthony, Teel, and Mayer.

As this next "championship window" opens, who do you think the Sox should be targeting for a right handed power bat? We needed Manny, and JD Martinez in the middle of our lineups for our past title winning teams (2013 excepted). It does not appear that they have much in the minors that looks promising on this front, so my assumption, is that it will probably come through free agency. And given how many young players the Sox have seemingly locked into many positions, unless they swing a big trade, drawing from other strengths, this hitter will probably be our DH.

FYI: Among current RHH UFA's for next season: Pete Alonso, Paul Goldschmidt, Teoscar Hernandez, Josh Bell, Alex Bregman.

Goldschmidt might be the JD Martinez of the bunch and be had for a good cost with some opt-outs/ins that end up not costing much. Bregman is interesting if he can show he's bouncing back and would allow Devers and him to platoon 3B/DH.
I'm not as sure as everyone else that O'Neill will be offered a bigger amount than a QO though (which is the most I think the Sox should offer.... or possibly an actual 1 year deal with a mutual 2nd?) He's pretty far away but I'm super bullish on Bleis being a beast.
Either way, I'd love for a RHH power bat DH/corner IF guy and having Bleis provide that for a longer time.

 

[Daniel_Son]

Maybe a trade for Brent Rooker? Not historically exciting but he's 3rd in ISO this year and posted a 136 OPS+ over the past 2 years so it might be somewhat sustainable.

 

[grimshaw]

Since 2023 these are the righthanded bats with a wRC+ of 120 or more who are either arbitration eligible, extremely unlikely to be available or will be free agents.

Brent Rooker Arb eligible 2025
JDM
Danny Jansen
Christian Walker
Donovan Solano
Vladi
Alonso
Chas McCormick Arb eligible
Teoscar just misses that threshold, but has a good history to better that and last year is looking like the outlier.
Luis Rengifo is a switch hitter and has taken off this season with the Angels but is entering his first year of arbitration.

Rooker or Rengifo would be the only names I'd be interested in, but Rooker would take a lot if he was even available and is basically land locked to DH. Rengifo would make sense for the Angels to move if they want to restock the farm but would also probably cost a ton if his bat keeps up.

Internally, Yorke, Blaze Jordan and Meidroth are the only potential prospects who would be ready in the next year, but none project to be sluggers.
Beyond 2025, Bleis, Cespedes, Zanetello, and Allen Castro are further down with various degrees of talent.

 

[moondog80]

What about Vladi Jr. in the next offseason? This winter's crop isn't terribly exciting or likely to happen -- hard to picture Alonso not getting paid by the Mets.

Vlad isn't terribly exciting either IMO. 2021-present he's 273/349/455. That's nice, but how long of a contract do you want to give him for that when the only position he can play (1B) is already tied up for a while?

 

[chrisfont9]

Vlad isn't terribly exciting either IMO. 2021-present he's 273/349/455. That's nice, but how long of a contract do you want to give him for that when the only position he can play (1B) is already tied up for a while?

Yeah I guess I can be swayed more to Bregman for positional value, as SLT pointed out

 

[Philip Jeff Frye]

Vlad isn't terribly exciting either IMO. 2021-present he's 273/349/455. That's nice, but how long of a contract do you want to give him for that when the only position he can play (1B) is already tied up for a while?

Yeah, its pretty amazing how he has not taken anything like a step forward, or even come close to repeating, his amazing 2021 season. My Blue Jays friends are starting to get pretty frustrated with him.

He's had a bit of a bounce back this season in terms of batting average and walk rate versus a very disappointing 2023, but here are his home runs since 2021 -

2021 - 48
2022 - 32
2023 - 26
2024 - 15 (5 so far, and we're about a third of the way through the season)

That's not good at all!

 

[CarolinaBeerGuy]

Vlad’s hitting peripherals are still very good. I’d sign up for him at DH. Maybe a change of scenery would do him some good. Plus, we know he hates the Yankees.

EDIT: He needs someone to work with him on getting a MUCH better launch angle. He’s been near the bottom of the league his whole career.

 

[nvalvo]

The farm is looking much more likely to generate an impact RH hitter in the medium term (i.e. late 2025, early 2026) than it was just a few weeks ago:

• Miguel Bleis you all know about. He made himself into a top-100 prospect by posting a .900ish OPS as an 18 year old in rookie ball back in 2022. But then 2023 was a disaster: terrible early performance, and an eventual season-ending shoulder surgery. This April was a bit ominous, as he hit .186/.288/.286. Was the shoulder really all the way fixed? But he followed that up with a May line of .318/.408/.506 — tons of XBH, reasonable K rate (~20%), great BB rate (~11%). After the lost season, he's not really young for low A at 20, so I would want to see him in Greenville ASAP, and I would really like to see him end the season in Portland.
• Kristian Campbell is my favorite prospect in the system; I think he's about to have a Mookie-esque trajectory through the minor leagues. He was signed as a speedy hit-over-power potential utility player out of GA Tech (where he hit .376). But then he suddenly shows up this spring posting max EV numbers harder than any ball the Boston Red Sox hit last season. In April it looked like he might have sold out too much contact for that power — his K rate ballooned to ~33%, leading to a weird month where he had a .750 OPS and also a 113-mph HR that traveled 460 ft over a batter's eye. In May, he took off: he got the Ks back down to ~25% and hit a simply-insane .350/.448/.650 line (and he went 3/4 tonight, so it's higher now). The BABIP is high, yes. He's 22 in high-A, which is on schedule for a collegiate draftee, but he's another guy we want to see in move up by mid-season IMO. He's fast, and I don't get the sense he was a great defender on the infield, so they've put him in CF, but I'm thinking of him as our future DH/super utility type. Even with the slow start, he's the best hitter in his league.

So, we have two 20–21 y/o hitters in various flavors of A ball who, after quiet starts to the season, have emphatically answered questions about their offensive future. For Bleis, was the shoulder going to be a problem offensively? Seems like no. And for Campbell, could he add power without losing the contact ability that made him interesting as a draftee? Holy $%!# yes. He has 8 HR! That's more than he hit as an undergrad!

I mention these guys' recent results not because I think a few weeks of games makes them saviors for the Red Sox in 2025 but because their performance is bringing their timelines nearer into sync with the Mayer/Anthony/Teel, which in turn impacts the sorts of players we should be targeting. I don't think a long-term FA deal to somebody far down the defensive spectrum lines up all that well with our roster unless it's somebody quite special. We should be trying to acquire a hitter with 2–3 years of control remaining whose primary position will be DH.

Some candidates have already been mentioned in the thread: Rooker would be a good candidate, as would Luis Rengifo. Maybe Milwaukee would consider flipping Rhys Hoskins, who has two years of interlocking options remaining — or maybe Hoskins opts out and we just sign him to a 2–3 year deal.

Or maybe we trade Yoshida for Trout and $50m, and find our new 140 OPS+ right-handed DH/corner OF bat that way.