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Meet The New Guys - Each And Every One Of Them

Spring Training is officially underway. Let’s meet the newest members of the 2023 Red Sox.

Masataka Yoshida Boston Red Sox Press Conference Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images

Baseball players aren’t just pixels on a screen. Every day from April through October, they are a part of our lives. And over the course of 162 games, we get a pretty interesting idea of each of their personalities, if not the complete picture. We learn what makes them laugh and which teammates they laugh with. We see what makes them great. We see what they struggle with — and we see how they deal (or don’t deal) with those struggles.

The 2023 Red Sox will feature many new faces, some of whom we don’t even know about yet. Ultimately, what they do on the field, and in the dugout, and in the streets of Boston, and on Instagram and Twitter, will make up the story of the 2023 season. But we don’t know what that story is yet.

As we wait for that story to unfold, consider this a prelude. Here’s an introduction to the 14 new faces likest to make the biggest impact on the Red Sox over the next eight months.


Masataka Yoshida

Who Is He And Where Did He Come From?

He’s Masataka Yoshida, and the Red Sox just signed him to a 5-year, $90 million deal, on top of a $15.4 million posting fee paid to the Orix Buffalos (Ichiro’s old team, BTW, though at the time he played there, they went by the much cooler name of the Orix Blue Wave). He’s been a star in Japan and, for whatever it’s worth, he freaking idolizes Bryce Harper. Like, it’s not enough for him to just wear Harper’s #34, he has to go and do stuff like this:

What Position Does He Play?

He’s a left fielder, and, defensively speaking, he’s not known as a particularly good one. But it’s worth noting that, per Defensive Runs Saved, he was graded as above average going forward, but below average going back, so playing him in front of the Monster seems like it could optimize his defensive potential.

Is He Any Good?

Well, the first thing to know about him is that he is a plate discipline God. He has not put up an OBP under .400 since his rookie season. He also has elite contact skills, as, over the past two seasons, he’s struck out just 68 times. For reference, the Major League hitter with the fewest strikeouts over the last two seasons is Luis Arraez with 91 (though there’s a caveat here, in that the Japanese season is slightly shorter than its MLB equivalent; Arraez played an additional 36 games over those 2 years). He’s not a massive power hitter (he’s never hit 30 home runs in a season), but he has enough power complementing his on-base skills that he’s led the Pacific League in OPS each of the past two seasons. What’s more, he put those numbers up while reportedly being shifted quite a bit, which is less common in Japan than it has been in recent years in the States and, of course, will be banned next season.

Here’s some praise from former teammate Adam Jones that probably won’t lead to anyone overreacting at all:

I say he’s like the Japanese Juan Soto. He can hit the ball to all fields, all speeds. Like Juan Soto, he hits everything — and walks. He doesn’t swing out of the zone.

Okay! Sounds pretty good!

But here’s the thing, the ultimately unsatisfying answer to the question of “is he any good” is: we don’t know. Take the internet time machine back 12 months and you’ll find all sorts of praise about Seiya Suzuki that he hasn’t lived up to yet. Take it back even further and you’ll find countless people convinced that Ichiro would never make it in the big leagues. When it comes to hitters making the transition from NPB to MLB, we just don’t know.

The popular response to question of “how good is NPB” is to say that it’s somewhere between AAA and the big leagues, but that’s a reductive answer. There was no one in AAA who was good as Yu Darvish was before he came over, and the same was true with Hideki Matsui, and, certainly, Shohei Ohtani. The fact is that NPB contains some of the absolute best baseball players in the world, while simultaneously containing players who couldn’t make a big league roster. We don’t yet know where on that spectrum Yoshida falls, and we likely won’t know for a while.

Uncertainly is frustrating, and we don’t like it because it forces us to confront the reality that we have less control over the universe and our place in it than we like to imagine. But sorry, that’s just what comes along with being a human on planet Earth.

Show Me A Cool Highlight

It doesn’t get any cooler than a walk-off home run in the championship series, does it?

What’s He Doing In His Picture Up There?

Sternly reminding his bat that he doesn’t care how cool it looks, if it doesn’t get some damn hits soon, it’s going in the fireplace.

What’s His Role On the 2023 Red Sox?

He’s probably going to start the season leading off and playing left field, though he’s likely to see a lot of time at DH, as well. What this means for Alex Verdugo remains to be seen.


Corey Kluber

Who is he and where did he come from?

He’s Corey Kluber, a former Cy Young-winner from Birmingham, Alabama who, for some completely incomprehensible reason, spends his winters in Winchester, Massachusetts (ohhhh, how fancy!)

The Sox signed him to a one-year, $10 million deal with a team option for a second year.

What position does he play?

He’s a pitcher, which you should have figured out from the “former Cy Young-Winner” thing.

Is he any good?

He was outstanding once (again, the Cy Young thing); an elite, big-game pitcher who never, ever walked anyone. His 2017 season was one of the single best seasons of the 21st century. That year, he led the league in pitching WAR, WPA, wins, ERA, ERA+, shutouts, strikeout-to-walk ratio, hits-per-nine, walks-per-nine and, obviously, WHIP, while finishing second in strikeouts-per-nine and fourth in innings pitched.

But, if you happen to own a calendar (oh, look at you, fancy-pants, you must live in Winchester!), you’ll note that that was six years ago. He started just eight games in the 2019 and 2020 seasons combined, thanks to a broken arm and a shoulder injury (though he is not a Tommy John recipient, as many people assume). He’ll be 37-years-old next April, and has lost a full four miles-per-hour on his fastball.

The good news is that he was fully healthy last season and is still an elite control guy, having issued just 21 walks in 31 starts for the Tampa Bay Rays. The bad news is he was mediocre overall, finishing the year with a 4.34 ERA. Part of his mediocrity was due to bad luck, as his FIP was nearly a full run lower, but it was also partly due to the fact that he got absolutely smoked by the AL East:

So, uhh, yikes.

Show me a cool highlight.

Hey! He threw a no-hitter! And not all that long ago!

What’s he doing in his picture up there?

Brushing his shoulder off after some punks from Woburn called it “Wimpchester.”

What’s his role on the 2023 Red Sox?

He’ll be in the rotation, at least to start the year.


Adam Duvall

Who is he and where did he come from?

He’s Adam Duvall, Kentucky-born power hitter. The Red Sox signed him to a one-year, $7 million deal off the free agent scrap heap. Duvall has spent the bulk of his career with the Reds and the Braves, with short stints with the Giants and Marlins sprinkled in.

What position does he play?

What an interesting question! For almost his entire career, Duvall has been a corner outfielder, playing the majority of his innings in left. Given that he’s entering his age-34 season, it would seem unlikely that he would move up the defensive spectrum to centerfield at this point in his career, right?

And yet, it seems like that might be exactly what happens in 2023.

As the Red Sox roster currently stands, Kiké Hernandez will be forced to move from centerfield to shortstop, in order to cover for the ailing Trevor Story. Neither of the Red Sox two presumptive corner outfielder starters — Alex Verdugo and Masataka Yoshida — have the defensive chops to cover center field (and frankly, it’s not clear whether either one of them is good enough to play Fenway’s expansive right field, either.) Barring a trade, this would leave Duvall as the opening day center fielder.

Duvall has made 68 starts in centerfield over the course of his career, with the vast majority of those (43) coming just last year. He did grade out as a good center fielder, finishing the 2022 season with 4 outs above average at the position (for reference, Trent Grisham led all center fielders last season with 17 OAA, which he compiled over the course of 124 starts compared to Duvall’s 43). While defensive metrics should never be taken as gospel — especially over small sample sizes — these numbers track with Duvall’s career-long reputation as an above average outfielder, who has a strong arm and gets good jumps on the ball.

And for what it’s worth, Duvall is also on record as saying he loves playing center, though he admitted that it’s tougher on the legs, and there was some speculation that it may have hurt his offense last year (more on that below).

Is he any good?

Another interesting question! For most of his career, Duvall has been a big home run hitter, albeit one with a limited offensive profile due to low batting averages and on-base percentages (his career slash line is .230/.289/.465.) He’s topped 30 homers 3 times, was an All-Star in 2016, and led both the World Champion Braves and the entire National League in RBI as recently as 2021.

However, his power has been trending down for three years in a row leading to 2022, which was one of the worst years of his career. He had an absolutely brutal start to the season, hitting .186/.251/.266 with only 2 home runs over the first 53 games of 2022. But don’t worry! He turned things around in impressive fashion, hitting .255/.317/.618 with a whopping 10 homer over the subsequent 34 games, before suffering a season-ending wrist injury sustained while crashing into the outfield wall.

In light of the discussion about his outfield defense, though, what is particularly interesting about last season’s turn-around is that it happened shortly after he moved out of center field and back to the corners.

What’s he doing in his picture up there?

Awkwardly waiting for laughter after telling the press “My name is Adam Duvall, but after moving to center field for the Boston Red Sox, they’re going to call me . . . Adam Can-Do-It-All.”

Show me a cool highlight.

This dude once hit a grand slam in the first inning of a World Series game. I’m not going to say it doesn’t get cooler than that (next time, try waiting 8 more innings, Adam) but that’s pretty damn cool.

What’s his role on the 2023 Red Sox?

We’ll see! He’s going to start the season somewhere in the outfield. Whether that’s centerfield or one of the corners will be determined by additional personnel moves that may or may not come.


Justin Turner

Who is he and where did he come from?

He’s Justin Turner, two-time All-Star, ginger beard god, and spreader of COVID. The Red Sox signed him to a one-year contract that pays $8.3 million, with a player option for a second year at $13.4 million

What position does he play?

Well, that’s an interesting question. For most of his career, he’s been a third baseman. But that position is currently filled by a young, power-hitting All-Star (for now, anyway). And last year, Turner played nearly as many games as the Dodgers’ DH as he did as their third baseman. Further, there’s been some idle internet speculation that he could provide some cover at second in the event that Trevor Story starts the year as the full-time shortstop. But that seems like a stretch given that Turner hasn’t played meaningful innings at second base since the first Obama administration, and hasn’t played there at all since 2015. He’s also 38-years-old (more on that below), with all of the physical frailties that come therewith. So in all likelihood, he’s now a DH.

Is he any good?

Well, did you think JD Martinez was good? Because in Justin Turner, the Red Sox have basically acquired JD Martinez, except one who makes more contact and can fill-in competently at the corner infield spots. Turner is sitting on 10 consecutive seasons with an OPS+ above 100. But, like Martinez, his days as an elite bat are behind him. He hit just 13 home runs last year, with his worst slugging percentage in 8 years (.438) and lowest OBP in 5 (.350).

He also looked completely and totally washed for the first three months of 2022, when he slashed just .227/.298/.375 over 70 games. The flip side of that, though, is that he put together a vintage, All-Star caliber second half to balance things out: .340/.412/.514 with 7 homers and 16 doubles in 58 games.

So which Justin Turner will we see next year? It’s impossible to know for sure, but what we do know, is that he’s thirty-freaking-eight years old. Amongst qualified hitters last season, he was the third-oldest position player in all of baseball, behind only Nelson Cruz and Yuli Gurriel. So while it’s possible that he puts up another competent season at the plate with an OBP that plays towards the top end of the lineup and a decent amount of thump, it’s equally possible he falls a sleep in an awkward position on the couch and then loses full range of motion in his neck for the next six weeks — that’s your late-thirties, folks.

Show me a cool highlight.

You’ve probably seen plenty of Justin Turner through the years (he’s played a whopping 86 postseason gams in his career), so here he is on a late night talk show instead. I can’t even think of the last active Red Sox player who was a late-night show (it had be Ortiz, no?) so look at that, he’s bringing something new already.

What’s he doing in his picture up there?

Screaming in pain after stepping on a lego that one of his teammates’ kids left on the field.

What’s his role on the 2023 Red Sox?

He’ll play DH, mostly, but also spell Devers at third and step in at first if Triston Casas continues to struggle against lefties.


Kenley Jansen

Getty Images

Who Is He And Where Did He Come From?

He’s Kenley Jansen, he’s been one the best relief pitchers in baseball over the last 13 years, and, frankly, I’m disappointed in you for not already knowing that.

Jansen actually started his professional career as a catcher, and was famously behind the plate when the Netherlands upset the Dominican Republic in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. But after slashing just .227/.298/.397 as a 20-year-old in A-ball, the Dodgers convinced him to give pitching a shot. Two years later, he made his Major League debut in the 7th inning of a tied game against the Mets, retired Angel Pagan, David Wright, and Carlos Beltran in order, and never looked back.

After 12 seasons in LA, Jansen hit the free agent market last offseason and inked a one-year deal with the Atlanta Braves. The Red Sox just signed him to a two-year deal for $32 million.

What Position Does He Play?

He’s a closer.

Is He Any Good?

At one point, he was arguably the single best closer in all of baseball. From 2010 through 2017, he saved 230 games with a 183 ERA+ and a 1.81 FIP. That’s a hefty stretch of dominance.

2017 represents a pretty clear dividing line, however, between being elite on one side and merely very good on the other. In the five years since he finished fifth in the Cy Young voting in that 2017 season, Jansen’s FIP has risen to 3.42, while his ERA+ has dropped to 133. In that time, he’s lost a full mile-per-hour on his cutter (which is, by far, his favorite pitch) and he’s developed some control issues. While his walk percentage was once an outstanding 2.7 percent, it’s steadily risen over the years, all the way up to an atrocious 12.9 percent in 2021, before settling back down to 8.5% last season. That said, he was still really hard to hit in 2022, finishing the season in the top 10th percentile in a bunch of super nerdy advanced stats, like expected batting average, expected slugging, and expected weighted on-base, along with the significantly less super nerdy strikeout percentage.

He’s also a 6’5” tank of a human being who almost never gets hurt. Suffice it to say, the Red Sox bullpen is a lot better today than it was yesterday.

Show Me A Cool Highlight

Here he is throwing an absolute seed from his knees to gun down Ryan Braun in the 2009 World Baseball Classic:

Uh, Thanks, But I Was Kinda Hoping For A Pitching Highlight. . .

Ugh, fine, here he is intentionally balking a dude:

You’re Not Getting This. . .

And you’re being basic, but here you go, here’s some pitching:

What’s He Doing In His Picture Up There?

Telling a lost toddler who wandered onto the field to come to papa, little buddy!

What’s His Role On the 2023 Red Sox?

He’s the closer, and everyone else gets in line.


Chris Martin

Who Is He And Where Did He Come From?

He’s Chris Martin, and the Red Sox will be his seventh Major League team, on top of a stint with the Fighters in Hokkaido, Japan (reminder: Japanese baseball is cool). He actually started in the Red Sox minor league system way back in 2011, after he played one season for the independent Grand Prairie AirHogs. And if the fact that he started his professional career with a team called the AirHogs isn’t wild enough for you, his story gets even more interesting than that.

Martin had pitched one season for McLennan Community College when the Colorado Rockies selected him in the 21st round as a “draft-and-follow” guy back in 2005. The “draft-and-follow” system no longer exists, but at the time, MLB teams were permitted to draft a player with no intention of immediately signing him. Because teams held a draftee’s rights for 12 months, the player would then return to school, while the MLB team monitored his progress as it decided whether to tender him a contract.

Pretty cruel system, huh? It sure was, and Chris Martin was the poster-child for just how cruel it was because, in his next season back at McLennan following the draft, he tore his labrum. The Rockies declined to sign him, and Martin gave up on his dream of playing ball and went to work at a warehouse.

After a few years of hauling refrigerators at Texas Appliances, Martin and a co-worker (who also happened to be a former high school teammate) began playing catch during their downtime. Martin was surprised to find that his shoulder was finally pain-free, and that he seemed to have a little extra zip on his fastball. He tried out for his local American Association team and, for one season under former big league outfielder Pete Incaviglia, put up a 1.86 ERA, leading to his free agent deal with the Sox. Eleven years later, the Red Sox have signed him to yet another free agent deal, this time for two years and $17.5 million.

What Position Does He Play?

He’s a right-handed middle relief pitcher, which is arguably the most boring position on the field, but one which is necessary nonetheless.

Hey, He’s Got The Same Name As That Guy!

He sure does!

Is He Any Good?

Well, if you ask Chicago Cubs fans, they would probably say no. In 31.1 innings for the Cubs last year, he gave up 38 hits and 5 homers. However, that short stint with the Cubs is really the only blemish on his resume since returning from Japan in 2018. And even so, he immediately turned around his season after being traded to the Dodgers last year. In 24.2 innings in LA, he surrendered just 12 hits and put up an eye-popping 290 ERA+. That improvement doesn’t seem to be a coincidence, either. Rather, it seems to have been the direct result of the Dodgers telling him to completely abandon his curveball:

Baseball Savant

To be clear though, Martin isn’t just a guy who had a couple of good months with the Dodgers. As stated above, he’s been very solid since returning from Japan. In fact, he’s arguably the single best reliever in baseball in one crucial area: control. He led all qualified relievers last year, giving up just .8 walks per nine innings pitched.

What’s He Doing In His Picture Up There?

Shouting “AHHHHH! I’m throwing a pitch!” while throwing a pitch.

Show Me A Cool Highlight

Here he is striking out four hitters in a single inning last year. For a pitcher, it probably doesn’t get much cooler than doing something that, on the face of it, sounds impossible:

What’s His Role On The 2023 Red Sox?

He’s going to open the season as a late-inning, high-leverage option. Hopefully, he’ll end the season as one, too.


Adalberto Mondesi

Who is he and where did he come from?

He’s switch hitter Adalberto Mondesi, and the Red Sox just traded Josh Taylor to the Kansas City Royals to get him (along with a player to be named later). He’s entering his age-27 season, and will be a free agent at the end of the year.

What position does he play?

He’s spent almost his entire career at shortstop, but has also seen a little time at second and third.

Is he any good?

It wasn’t all that long ago when people thought he was going to be really good. As the toolsy son of a former Major League All-Star, Mondesi received a $2 million signing bonus, became the first player ever to make his career debut in the World Series when he was just 20-years-old, and was named the #16 prospect in all of baseball by Baseball Prospectus in 2016.

Seven yers later, however, Mondesi has not lived up to the hype. As a hitter, he has atrocious plate discipline, with walk rates that rank towards the very bottom of the league. And unfortunately, he doesn’t balance out his free-swinging with good contact skills: in 2019 (the only season in which he played at least 100 games) he had the 11th-highest strike out rate in all of baseball. He does have considerable pop in his bat, though, having once hit 14 homers in just 75 games in the 2018 season.

His best attributes are his defense and his speed. As a defender, he’s been close to an elite shortstop throughout his career, with a strong arm and excellent range. On the base paths, he’s proven to be one of the very best runners in the game, having stolen 133 bases with an 84% success rate in 358 career games.

Unfortunately, the defining characteristic of his career thus far has been his susceptibility to injury. He’s already made seven trips to the injured list, and he missed almost the entire 2022 season with a torn ACL.

What’s he doing in his picture up there?

Wondering why there are doubles and triples but no quadruples.

Show me a cool highlight.

Let’s watch two-and-a-half minutes of pure speed, shall we?

What’s his role on the 2023 Red Sox?

It seems likely that he’ll come into Spring Training as the backup middle infielder as he works his way back from injury. It isn’t inconceivable, however, that at some point this season he ends up as the team’s primary starter at either second or short — and not solely as a result of inevitable injuries.

Mondesi still has the tools that made him such a highly regarded prospect; he’s still still in his athletic prime; and he’ll likely be a major beneficiary of the new pickoff rules and larger bases. If one of the presumptive outfield starters struggles, thus necessitating a move back to the grass by Kiké Hernandez — or if Mondesi simply manages to stay healthy and finally reaches something close to the potential he once had — he could earn an everyday role.


Richard Bleier

Who is he and where did he come from?

He’s Richard Bleier, dude who played for 10 different minor league baseball teams in 4 different organizations before he finally made the show as a 29-year-old rookie in 2016. The Red Sox just acquired him from the Miami Marlins in exchange for Matt Barnes and $5 million, designating Franklin German for assignment in the process.

What position does he play?

He’s a left-handed middle reliever.

Is he any good?

He’s not bad! Honest! And that’s true even considering the fact that, in today’s age of flame-throwing relievers, he’s a total unicorn.

Bleier does not strike out hitters — like, at all. He’s a pitch-to-contact guy who excels at keeping the ball on the ground, with the fifth-highest ground ball rate amongst all relievers since 2020, and the tenth-lowest home run rate. He complements that approach with pinpoint control, walking just 1.5 batters-per-nine over the course of his seven-year career. He’s also, unsurprisingly, very good against lefties, having yielded just a .225/.260/.313 slash line against them.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that the shift ban is going into effect this season. Intuitively, it would seem that ground ball pitchers will be hurt by this rule change more than anyone else. Over the course of his career, Bleier’s given up a .279 wOBA with the shift behind him, compared to .301 without it. However, there is probably some righty/lefty noise in there, in light of the fact that right-handed hitters are less likely to be shifted on in general. It’ll certainly be something to keep an eye on early in the season.

What’s he doing in his picture up there?

Pretending to be Jazz Chisholm on picture day last year. This isn’t a joke, that’s actually what he was doing:

Show me a cool highlight.

Even if you don’t remember the name Richard Bleier, I bet you remember this. Bleier was the guy who balked three times in a single at-bat against the Mets last year.

What’s his role on the 2023 Red Sox?

Bleier is one of just two lefties in the Red Sox bullpen right now. The other one, Joely Rodriguez, doesn’t really perform significantly better against lefties than righties, and tends to struggle with control. In all likelihood, then, Bleier is going to be the guy called upon to face tough lefties in medium-to-high leverage situations.


Joely Rodriguez

Who Is This Guy And Where Did He Come From?

He’s Joely Rodriguez, which you know if you’d bothered to read the headline. He’s spent parts of five seasons in the Majors and bounced around a lot, from the Phillies, to the Rangers, to the Yankees, and finally to the Mets last season — and that was all following a grinding, eight-year climb through the Pirates minor league system. The Red Sox signed him as a free agent, offering him a tiny little $1.5 million deal for one year, with a club option for a second. That tiny little deal could become not so tiny if he stays with the big league club all year, though; in that case, he’ll make $3.5 million next year.

What Position Does He Play?

He’s a left-handed relief pitcher, joining Josh Taylor as the only ones currently slated for the 2023 bullpen.

What’s He Doing In His Picture Up There?

Pointing to the Widow Van Delft’s gardener and saying “J’accuse! It was you who poisoned the widow’s tea cakes! Your resentment for her grew like the weeds you work so hard to kill. And you, so used to stamping out life in her garden, took it upon yourself to do the same in her parlor! You are the widow’s murderer!”

Is He Any Good?

Well, he’s definitely better than me, but I’m not the most useful measuring stick, am I? In terms of his skill-level relative to other left-handed relief pitchers in the Major Leagues, though, the answer, unfortunately, is no. By ERA+, he’s been seven percent worse than league-average for his career. He’s always displayed shaky control, but last year his control went from shaky to putrid, as his 4.65 walks-per-nine were the 15th worst in all of baseball. To be fair, though, those were fewer walks than both Hirokazu Sawamura and Jake Diekman gave up so . . . hooray for incremental improvements?

As we’ve already established, though, he’s a left-handed relief pitcher and these guys are, by definition, volatile. To be a relief pitcher is to dance on the edge of a knife, always one tweak away from success on one side of the blade, one stumble away from failure on the other. So in that respect, there certainly are signs that Joely Rodriguez could be good.

For one thing, he does a great job limiting hard contact and, by extension, home runs. He surrendered just 0.54 homers per nine innings last year, which was good for 38th in all of baseball. Any late-inning guy who can keep the ball in the ballpark is valuable. If he can limit the walks as well, then he has the potential to be a dependable, high-leverage reliever. In fact, that’s exactly what he managed to do over 21 games for the Yankees in 2021, after being traded to the Bronx from Texas. During that stretch, he lowered his walks-per-nine to 2.8 — the lowest mark of his career — and, as a result, gave up just 6 earned runs over 19 innings.

What’s His Role On The Team Next Year?

They’re going to throw him and a bunch of other relievers against the wall and see who sticks. In light of the fact that he’s a lefty with some promising batted-ball data, expect him to hang up there for a little while.

Show Me A Cool Highlight

Do you want to see an actual highlight? Or do you just want to watch him chill in the Coors Field batter’s eye with a Red Bull and some sunflower seeds? Yeah, that’s what I thought:

Joely’s A Fun Name, Isn’t It?

Can’t argue with that.


Jorge Alfaro

Who is he and where did he come from?

He’s Jorge Alfaro, possessor of a 70-grade arm to go with 80-grade hair, and the Red Sox just signed him on a dirt-cheap minor league deal. He spent the previous season out in San Diego, splitting his career between the Phillies and Marlins before that.

What position does he play?

He’s a right-handed hitting catcher.

Is he any good?

He’s actually really good at some things! And, unfortunately, he’s also really bad at others.

Let’s begin with the defense. For starters, Alfaro has an absolutely elite arm. He averaged over 88 MPH on his throws to second last year, making him the second-hardest throwing catcher in all of baseball, with a 96th percentile pop time (pop time measured as the amount of time in between a pitch hitting the catcher’s mitt and the ball then subsequently arriving at the center of the second base bag.) He’s also surprisingly quick and athletic for a big guy (he stole 8 bases while being caught just once in 2021), which allows him to make plays like this:

In terms of receiving, though, he’s nothing special. His framing is no better than league average at best, and he’s led the league in passed balls three different times over the course of his seven-year career (this includes last season, when his seven passed balls were the most in all of baseball, despite the fact that he started just 59 games behind home plate).

Offensively, he hits the ball really, really hard. Unfortunately, he doesn’t hit the ball all that often. Amongst hitters with at least 250 plate appearances last season, Alfaro had the 7th highest strikeout rate in all of baseball, at 35.8%. Sorry if what you’re about to read triggers some PTSD, but that was actually worse than both Bobby Dalbec and Franchy Cordero. Despite the strikeouts, though, he’s a pretty decent bat against lefties, putting up a .732 OPS against them over the course of his career, making him an intriguing platoon option.

His combination of tools and flair turned him into a cult hero last season in San Diego. After a number of walk-off hits early in the season, he even got a mural:

What’s he doing in his picture up there?

Doing whatever he can to cool down because, as everyone agrees, it’s just too damn hot in San Diego and Boston has much more hospitable weather.

Show me a cool highlight

Here he is pimping the shit out of a bomb he hit in the Dominican winter league last week. If this guy makes it to Boston, something tells me he’s going to be a fan-favorite.

What’s his role on the 2023 Red Sox?

Despite the fact that he was signed to a minor league deal, there’s actually a pretty decent chance he starts the year on the big league roster as Reese McGuire’s platoon partner against left-handed pitchers. Connor Wong still has minor league options, and it’s quite possible that, if Alfaro outplays him in Spring Training, the Sox will send Wong back to Worcester for more seasoning and give Alfaro a chance to show off his power arm and power bat in Fenway.


Wyatt Mills

Who is he and where did he come from?

He’s Wyatt Mills, sidearmer, Gonzaga alum, and guy who shares the same badass cowboy name with an LA-based artist who specializes in abstract portraiture that straddles the line between pop art and neo-expressionism:

Please Hold, by not our Wyatt Mills

The Red Sox acquired him in a trade, sending Lawrence, MA native and UCONN alum Jacob Wallace the other way and DFA-ing Eric Hosmer to make room on the 40-man roster.

What position does he play?

He’s a right-handed middle reliever, the least interesting role on a baseball team, made slightly more interesting by virtue of his throwing motion.

Is he any good?

As a big leaguer, he’s been horrible, as evidenced by the fact that he’s already 27-years-old but has only thrown 42 total innings. HOWEVER! . . . he’s shown promise throughout his climb up the minor league ranks, maintaining a groundball rate over 50% at every level and putting up a 2.60 ERA over 62.1 AAA innings.

He’s a tall sidewinder with a low release point that looks like it would be hell on righties. Like most relievers, he’s a slider-fastball guy, and while righties struggle to make good contact off him, lefties have absolutely destroyed him to the tune of a .365/.397/.596 slash line. In other words, he turns every lefty he faces into Juan Soto.

Show me a cool highlight.

Here’s an extended look at him in the minors, taken a few years ago from right behind home plate. How the hell do any right-handed batters hit him??

What’s his role on the 2023 Red Sox?

He’ll get a chance to win a back-end-of-the-bullpen job in Spring Training, but otherwise start the year in Worcester and make his debut when someone gets hurt.


Niko Goodrum

Who is he and where did he come from?

He’s Niko Goodrum, Georgia-native and member of the All-Time Best Baseball Names Team. The Red Sox just signed him from free agency to a minor league deal.

What position does he play?

Every position.

Wait, What?

You heard me: he plays literally every position except for pitcher and catcher (you know, the freak positions.) He’s spent the bulk of his career as a middle infielder, but has played at least 11 games at every other spot on the diamond. Aside from his name, it’s easily the most notable thing about him.

Is he any good?

He was signed to a minor league deal, so, no. While he briefly looked like a league-average hitter in his mid-twenties (which, had he been able to maintain that, would’ve made him a pretty valuable player given his defensive flexibility) he’s since cratered and carries a .226/.299/.389 career slash line. He has little power and he absolutely loves to strike out (well, he probably doesn’t love it, but he sure is used to it, having done it in over 50% of his limited plate appearances with the Astros last season.) Maybe after adding contact kings Masataka Yoshida and Justin Turner, the front office thought they needed to balance things out a bit.

Show me a cool highlight.

Goodrum once went 5-5 with 2 homers in a single game — and he did it in his hometown. Can you even imagine how amazing that feels? I don’t think I’d go to sleep that night; I’d want that day to stretch into infinity.

What’s he doing in his picture up there?

Trying to get the wave going, and side-eyeing the fans down the row who think they’re too good for it.

Why didn’t you tell me what Wyatt Mills was doing in his picture up there in his “Meet The New Guy” Piece?

Because you get what you pay for.

What’s his role on the 2023 Red Sox?

Depth guy who hopefully doesn’t play but who, when he does, makes everyone go, “wow, what a name!”


Raimel Tapia

Who is he and where did he come from?

He’s Raimel Tapia, the guy who hit the ball that Jarren Duran made that play on.

What position does he play?

He’s an outfielder. He’s spent the vast majority of his career in left, but he played 38 games in center field for the Blue Jays last year. Throughout his career he’s been an average defender — nothing more, nothing less — one who generally gets bad jumps, but can make up for it with good speed and a strong arm.

Is he any good?

If you’re a scout who’s been hot tub time machined here from 1979, then you would probably call Tapia a “good little player,” because he’s a good athlete who hits for a decent average (.277 for his career, with a.321 mark for the Rockies in COVID year). But that batting average is completely and totally empty. He doesn’t hit for power and doesn’t make up for it with plate discipline, either, with a walk rate that ranks near the very bottom of the league.

His best attributes are his ability to make contact (he had the seventh lowest strikeout rate in all of baseball in 2021), and his speed, as he stole 20 bags while only being caught 6 times in his final season in Colorado. He’s the very definition of an outfield depth piece.

For what it’s worth, though, he absolutely destroyed the Red Sox last year (and not just on that play), hitting .290/.318/.516 with 3 homers against the Sox.

What’s he doing in his picture up there?

Showing off his famed impression of Caravaggio’s Medusa, a masterpiece of tenebrism that subverts the traditional Greek myth by replacing the legendary Gorgon’s face with the artist’s own.

Show me a cool highlight.

Nope, not going to show you that play again. Instead, he’s a highlight reel of his 2020 season, which was by far the best of his career.

What’s his role on the 2023 Red Sox?

Honestly, I have no idea. He’s not good enough to start over any of Yoshida, Duvall, or Verdugo. He isn’t a better depth option than Rob Refsnyder. And he doesn’t have the potential ceiling of Jarren Duran. That would seem to indicate that he was signed to a minor league deal, but what’s strange about that is he’s probably good enough to sign an MLB deal as a depth piece somewhere. Maybe he just really loves Wormtown beer?


Jake Faria

Who is he and where did he come from?

He’s Jake Faria, a once-promising rookie who, unfortunately, has seen it all do down hill from there. The Red Sox signed him as a minor league free agent.

What position does he play?

He’s a right-handed pitcher, and while he initially came up and had some early success as a starter, he’s been almost exclusively a reliever at the Major League level since 2019.

Is he any good?

He was signed as a minor league free agent two weeks before Spring Training, so no, of course he isn’t any good. What’s interesting about Faria, though, is that it at least looked like he once was and would be.

After being rated as high as the eighth-best prospect in the Rays’ system, Faria was called up to the majors in the middle of the 2017 season. He made 14 starts as a rookie that year and was pretty damn good, finishing the year with a 123 ERA+. Then it all just. . . fell apart.

After opening the 2018 season as the Rays number three starter, he got off to a rocky start, spent significant time on the IL with an oblique injury, and then bounced back and forth between AAA and bigs upon his return. He began the 2019 in the bullpen, where he underperformed, walking 7 batters in 10 innings before being traded to the Brewers for Jesus Aguilar. His 8 innings in Milwaukee were about as bad as it gets: 18 hits, 3 homers, and 11 earned runs. Unsurprisingly, he was released and didn’t play at all in 2020.

He briefly made it back to the big leagues in 2021, this time with the Diamondbacks, and even got to make three starts (real ones, not as an opener). He was much better with the Diamondbacks than he had been in recent years — significantly lowering both his walk and hit rates from where it had been with Milwaukee — but it still amounted to below average production, and he was cut at the end of the year. He played last season with the AAA affiliate of the Twins, but didn’t even stick with the team past June.

Looking at the numbers under the hood, it seems much of his rookie year success was smoke and mirrors. He did a decent job missing bats that season, thanks to an effective split-finger fastball that held batters to just a .135 batting average and .203 slugging percentage. But he’s never been able to add much in the way of secondary offerings.

Show me a cool highlight.

This dude made into the 7th inning in his Major League debut! He must have been feeling real good about his future that night; it must be absolutely brutal to peak at the very start of your career.

What’s he doing in his picture up there?

Beaming both inside and out as he embarks on what he’s sure will be a long and fruitful career playing the game he loves, blissfully unaware of what that cruel bastard, fate, has in store.

What’s his role on the 2023 Red Sox?

It’s quite possible he doesn’t even make the Worcester roster out of Spring Training and you never think about him again. Otherwise, his most likely path to the Red Sox 40-man roster is a depth/swing-man reliever who only gets a chance if the bullpen suffers some injuries.