FORT MYERS, Fla. — Jarren Duran got booed at times during his difficult 2022 season and he felt the pressure. In August 2022, he admitted “a lot of fans want me out of here” and he even asked for forgiveness.
But Red Sox fans warmed up to him quite a bit in 2023 as he hustled his way to 34 doubles, batted .295 with a .346 on-base percentage and posted the second best fWAR (2.4) on the Red Sox behind only Rafael Devers (3.1). He’s not completely sure how fans feel about him now but he hopes they have embraced him and his style of play.
“I think they did. I hope they did,” Duran told MassLive on Saturday at JetBlue Park. “I don’t know. I’m just hard on myself so I never think that people like me. So I just always try to keep my head down. But it’s always nice when they are cheering for me and stuff like that. And I love that. I hope they know I’m working my butt off every single day for them. It’s for them. It’s for the city. It’s for the team. It’s for the boys. And I’m just working every day as hard as I possibly can for everybody and for all of them. I just hope that they know that.”
No other Red Sox player took a bigger leap from 2022 to ‘23 than Duran. But he didn’t escape criticism completely. His season ended prematurely scaling a wall at Yankee Stadium trying to rob a home run. He underwent season-ending surgery on his left big toe flexor tendon.
Some people felt he shouldn’t have put his body at risk on a play he had no chance of making. But Duran wouldn’t change anything about the effort he gave on the play.
“If you’re going to criticize me for that, you’ve got nothing better to do than to nitpick everything,” Duran said. “But they didn’t see it from my shoes that the way he swung, he didn’t look like he got it. The sun was right there. I had no angle on it. I’m pretty sure it was like a game before or so (Aaron) Judge hit one into left-center that I almost got. And it was hit the exact same way. The same flight. It looked the same, felt the same.
“You know how many times I’ve climbed up a wall trying to reach for a ball like that?” Duran said. “And it just happens one time. It’s just a freak accident. I played almost the rest of the game until I just couldn’t physically swing anymore. So I was willing to risk my toe to play. … So if you want to critique me for making a dumb mistake like that, I guess you’ve never played in that adrenaline rush. Like, ‘Hey, man. I’m trying to make a play for my pitcher, save a run, do anything I can to win.’”
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Duran arrived at spring training with his mullet dyed blond, showing he’s ready to have some fun again this year.
“I just thought maybe I could pull it off,” Duran said. “And if I don’t like it, it’s just hair. I can dye it back. … Everybody pokes at me and jokes with me because I’m obviously not the kind of person to go do that. But so far it’s been good. Everybody likes it so far.”
Will it stay the whole year?
“We’ll see how it starts,” he said. “If I struggle with it a little bit in the beginning, I’m definitely getting rid of it.”
Duran’s offensive game revolves around his speed. He said that the most fun part of his game for him is extending singles into doubles. Duran’s 34 doubles tied for second among Red Sox hitters last year. He was only three behind the leader (Alex Verdugo, 37) and he did it in 240 fewer plate appearances. In July, manager Alex Cora estimated that 10 of Duran’s then 26 doubles were turned from singles into doubles because of his speed.
“I think extending hits in doubles is always fun because it’s not easy so I have to put extra effort into it,” Duran said. “All that hard work in spring training and the effort you put in kind of shows on the hustle doubles. Because I’m not taking my single for granted. I’m always looking for that next thing that could help the guy behind me. Because if he hits a blooper, I’m scoring.”
First base coach Kyle Hudson (he’ll coach third base this year) was aggressive in wanting Duran to use his speed to extend singles into doubles. But Duran also made good reads.
“Me and (Hudson), we joked about it all the time about how he’s always yelling at me to ‘go, go go,’” Duran said. “But going through high school and college and stuff like that — and my dad — it was always taught to just hustle. So it’s just kind of how I’m wired and stuff like that. I’m always looking to push the envelope. For me, it’s easier to go and stop than to stop and then go. So if I get a single and I go slow (around first) and I’m like, ‘I can actually take that,’ that’s harder for me than if I was to go 100% and then stop and go back to first.”
His average increased 74 points from 2022 to ‘23 while his on-base percentage increased by 63 points and his slugging percentage increased by 119 points.
“I think it was me just trusting the approaches,” Duran said. “Because before, I just didn’t trust myself. So as soon as I saw a strike, I was like, ‘I’ve gotta go’ because I didn’t want to fall down in the count early. I had no confidence in myself. Because if I got down one (strike), and I’m already down in the count, I was thinking negative. But this past year, I wasn’t afraid to take a strike. Even if it was a strike, even if it wasn’t what I was looking for, I was OK with that because it’s not a pitch I can do damage on.”
Duran worked on pitch selection with both the analytics department and Red Sox hitting coaches.
“Just knowing which pitches are best for me and what to handle. And just really zoning in on what I can do damage with,” he said.
Duran also feels he did better against inside pitches.
“I think I hit the inside better because it was more reaction for me last year,” he said. “Before, I was trying to force things. I think I hit better last year just by knowing what I hit (best) and looking for pitches in certain spots.”
Cora mentioned Duran’s defense improved as last season progressed.
“I think it was just trusting myself that I can do this because there was always a little bit of doubt,” Duran said. “But I think it was just trusting that what I was doing was going to work and not doubting myself.”
Duran said he didn’t even want to call off Xander Bogaerts coming out from shortstop to the outfield for shallow fly balls in ‘22. But Hudson, who also serves as the Red Sox’ outfield coordinator, stressed the importance of Duran taking charge as the center fielder.
“Huddy always told me, you’re a priority over everybody,” Duran said. “That really helped me because the year before, I was always nervous to call a guy off for a ball.”
Cora has said that rookie Ceddanne Rafaela will be the center fielder if he makes the team. Duran focused on playing all three outfield positions during the offseason.
“It’s hard to pick out certain things (to get better at) because it’s baseball. Every year is a new challenge,” Duran said. “Just try to be an all-around better baseball player. But obviously my mentality coming into this year is that I want to be an all-around better baseball player. Because we have so many outfielders. We have so many weapons and tools and guys that can play everywhere. It’s like, OK, if they need me to play left, I need to be good at left. If they need me to play right, I need to be good at right. So I don’t want to just focus at center because Rafaela is a stud in center so what if they need me to cover left? So I was just teaching myself to be an all-around better baseball player so that I can play wherever they need me and help out the team any way I can.”
