LAS VEGAS — The Red Sox’ DH position accounted for just 11 home runs after Boston traded Rafael Devers to the Giants on June 15.
Overall, the lack of home run power needs to be addressed this offseason. The Sox finished 15th in home runs (186) in 2025. They hit just 49 home runs during August and September, the third fewest behind only the Cardinals (43) and Pirates (45).
Free agent DH Kyle Schwarber led the National League in home runs (56) in 2025. But he would provide the Red Sox little flexibility at DH because he hardly plays in the field anymore.
He played just 107 innings in the outfield (all in left field) over the past two seasons. He made 154 starts at DH in 2025 after starting 144 games there in 2024.
Free agent Pete Alonso, who hit 38 homers and 41 doubles for the Mets in 2025, would give Boston more flexibility because he is able to play both first base and DH.
“I think flexibility is very valuable,” chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said at the GM Meetings here at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on Monday. “There is certainly a talent threshold that is elite enough to warrant just penciling somebody in. If David Ortiz were available in his prime, then certainly that’s just something that you commit. But given we have as an example, four outfielders that we think are capable of playing every day. The DH spot could be an opportunity to keep guys fresh and keep bats in the lineup.
“Masa (Masataka Yoshida) in September and into the postseason was an offensive force at the DH spot,” Breslow said. “And so we’ll evaluate that. I do think flexibility just given the versatility of the roster gives (manager) Alex (Cora) more ways to deploy and keep guys fresh and optimize matchups. But we’ll see what the market dictates and what makes the most sense for the roster.”
The Red Sox’ lack of power during the final two months was in part because of Wilyer Abreu and Roman Anthony missing significant time. Abreu missed from Aug. 18 through Sept. 21 with a right calf strain. Anthony missed the final 22 games of the season with a left oblique strain.
Still, power was a major issue following the Devers trade and something that needs to be addressed this offseason.
“I don’t want to get so anchored to this idea that the only way to score runs is home runs,” Breslow said. “We showed that that isn’t the case. That said, a disproportionate number of runs are scored in the postseason via the home run. And that’s not something that we can ignore. And there is just something about a bat in the middle of the lineup that forces another team to game plan against it that I think has a compounding effect on the rest of the roster.
“We didn’t slug nearly as much as I think we can or we will and will pursue opportunities to improve that,” Breslow added. “Free agency is one of them, trades are another. We lost Roman, we lost Wily for significant stretches. And those are two guys who can hit the ball out of the park consistently.”
The cleanup position in the Red Sox lineup produced just a .245 batting average with a .298 on-base percentage, .388 slugging percentage and .687 OPS. Only the eighth spot in the batting order had a lower slugging percentage (.345).
“I don’t know how much sense it makes to say we need to get more production out of our No. 4 hitter vs. looking at our offense in its totality and identifying opportunities to get better. You could zoom out and look at a top 10 offense in terms of wOBA and runs and OPS and those types of metrics. You can also say we struck out far and away more than anybody else with runners in scoring position. And we had opportunities to cash runs in and we didn’t do that. So I think we need to find any possible way to improve our team offensively and defensively.”
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