Welcome again to the Mayor’s Workplace, our weekly sequence during which Jake Wallinger sends one naughty member of Red Sox Nation to Mayor Michelle Wu’s office for self-discipline, public shaming, and penance as all of us try to construct a stronger baseball crew and metropolis.
This week, it’s a poor hitting designated hitter who’s nervously twiddling his thumbs within the ready room.
When Chaim Bloom courted Japanese outfielder Masataka Yoshida to Boston with a 5-year/$90 million deal within the winter of 2022, this merely can’t be what he envisioned. In 273 video games for the Boston Pink Sox, Yoshida has hit .281/.337/.427 for a wRC+ of 110. Whereas on the floor that isn’t horrible, it’s a far cry from what you’d like out of a now full-time designated hitter.
Yoshida’s stats from 2023 and 2024 don’t soar off the web page in a unfavorable method. He was serviceable sufficient in each years for 2 middling ballclubs. I’m not denying that. The place Masa’s go to to Metropolis Corridor stems from is his extreme underperformance and disastrous roster-fit for the 2025 Boston Pink Sox.
After 25 video games and nearly 100 plate appearances, Yoshida’s 2025 triple slash is .235/.280/.365. That’s, for lack of a greater phrase, pitiful. He’s placing out 18.3% of the time and strolling 3.2%, up and down, respectively, from his percentages of 12.4% and 6.4% final season. Principally each pattern relating to Yoshida’s bat is a regarding one.
If it had been April, or Could, and even June, that might be one factor. However it’s not. It’s late August and the Boston Pink Sox are smack dab in the course of a pennant race. They actually can not afford to attend and see if Yoshida’s bat comes round. Each at-bat of each recreation means a lot proper now, and your designated hitter going 1 for 4 with a single on a nightly foundation is solely not going to chop it.
However Yoshida’s bat is simply a part of the issue. The place Masa’s place on the 2025 Pink Sox comes into actual query is when one takes a have a look at the protection. Yoshida is, by primarily each metric, a really poor defender within the outfield. That is, to place it flippantly, not best. Having a full-time DH with an wRC+ of 73 isn’t a superb use of the place! It’s designated hitter. Not designated roll over to second-er.
The domino impact of Yoshida and his currently-below-average-bat taking on the DH spot is much more upsetting. Jarren Duran, very clearly the Pink Sox’ weakest defensive outfielder (outdoors of Yoshida, in fact) being unable to maneuver to DH prevents the Pink Sox from fielding their prime defensive outfield (when wholesome) of Anthony-Rafaela-Abreu. This in flip pushes Ceddanne Rafaela, the one outfielder with any capacity to play the infield, to second base. In the event you learn last week’s Mayor’s Office, you understand it is a huge dialog in and of itself, however the primary level is that Ceddanne Rafaela must be in middle discipline each single day.
The extent to which the Pink Sox are kneecapping the remainder of the on a regular basis lineup to facilitate getting a .645 OPS designated hitter into the lineup is genuinely baffling. The one hope is that Alex Cora sees the writing on the wall and commits to the crew’s finest defensive and offensive lineup going ahead. Both method,
Mr. Yoshida, Mayor Wu will see you now.
