Wilyer Abreu churned out one other 3 bWAR season in Boston. He would possibly on the buying and selling block. He would possibly win one other Gold Glove. He will get huge hits.
Gold Glove protection. Abreu received the AL proper area Gold Glove in 2024 and is a finalist for 2025. Again-to-back Gold Gloves isn’t nothing. It’s the truth is lots. For as maligned because the Crimson Sox protection is (largely confined to errors, the Sox rated higher by different metrics) Wilyer Abreu has been a wonderful match. Proper area at Fenway Park is huge. It has corners. It has a bullpen. It has the Pesky Pole. It’s a problem and Abreu handles it with aplomb.
However he’s not only a fielding fiend who hits on the backside of the lineup. Abreu was second in dwelling runs behind solely Trevor Story, with 22 to the latter’s 25. After all, with a number of IL stints Abreu performed in simply 115 video games to Story’s 157. But when he’s a bit more healthy, that’s 30-home run energy.
Is Abreu deserving of the dreaded “damage susceptible” label? Perhaps. However greater than damage susceptible he appears to be hit with dangerous damage severity luck. Final 12 months, the small journey down the dugout stairs took longer than anticipated to heal. His calf damage in August appeared gentle at first. The Sox didn’t even put him on the 10-day IL as a result of they thought he simply wanted a number of days out of the lineup. It ended up being over a month. Sluggish therapeutic isn’t actually one thing you possibly can blame on a participant. Accidents aren’t all the identical guy-to-guy. But it surely’s going to be one thing Craig Breslow and different groups put into their valuations on the commerce market towards, say, the 160 and 157 sport workloads of Jarren Duran.
The opponent: Cincinnati Reds
The feat: a grand slam and an inside-the-park dwelling run.
Can this man keep wholesome? In his two full seasons, Wilyer Abreu has suffered some fluky accidents and a few much less fluky accidents. Will he ever journey down the steps once more? In all probability not. Might the calf subject that took away a month flare up once more? Perhaps? However we don’t know the medical causes. That could be a one-off and never the signal of some leg points. He’s nonetheless actually good even with the missed time! Think about if he performed in 150 video games. Hopefully we get to seek out out.
The Crimson Sox have quite a lot of points to deal with this winter. Separate from all of the Alex Bregman drama, the primary want is a quantity two starter who can slot in behind Garrett Crochet within the rotation. There would possibly be a pitcher who meets that definition on the free agent market. However identical to final 12 months, there might be quite a lot of bidders. Which places Craig Breslow again in the identical boat: discover a commerce. And one factor the Sox have in spades is outfielders. They should clear, for positive, two spots for Ceddanne Rafaela and Roman Anthony. There’s room for yet one more full-time, common, beginning outfielder.
There was quite a lot of speak about transferring Jarren Duran however the different identify is Wilyer Abreu. Personally and outfield of Anthony, Rafaela, and Abreu could possibly be actually good! Is it higher than Duran, Rafaela, Anthony? I don’t know. Heck, commerce Duran and Abreu and now you would possibly actually have sufficient (both each moved or a three-team cope with prospects from Duran/Abreu going to the workforce with the pitcher) to get somebody not-quite-but-close-to Garrett Crochet.
