FORT MYERS, Fla. — Wilyer Abreu won a Gold Glove and finished sixth in the voting for the American League Rookie of the Year voting in 2024. As he enters his sophomore season, there’s one specific area the Red Sox want him to focus on.
Boston expects Abreu, as long as he’s healthy, to play an above-average right field and hit well against righties, like he did last year when he hit .266 with 14 homers and an .825 OPS against them. The Sox, though, would like to see the 25-year-old give them something against left-handed pitchers. Manager Alex Cora protected Abreu by giving him just six starts — and 67 plate appearances — against lefties last season. He wants Abreu, a lefty hitter who held his own against pitchers of both handedness in the minors, to be part of the mix against all pitchers in 2025 after slow-playing his progression just like he has with other young Red Sox in recent seasons.
“Just like Jarren (Duran), just like Raffy (Devers), just like (Triston) Casas,” Cora said. “I mean, Casas is still a work-in-progress with the lefty part of it. But there’s a progression here. We felt good where we were last year, what he brings to the equation defensively. We cannot take it for granted. It would be good if he can play most of the games in right field at Fenway because we know how he plays it. We’ll see where we’re at. It’s still early to talk about what we’re gonna do as far as the personnel and who’s going to platoon and who’s not.
“We’ll try to see if he can face a lot of lefties in spring training. That’ll be good for him and we’ll decide what we do.“
The Red Sox had more room to play around with their outfield alignment last year with righties Tyler O’Neill and Rob Refsnyder in a mix that included Duran, Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela. Duran, Abreu, Rafaela and the lefty-mashing Rafaela are all back with top prospects Roman Anthony (a lefty) and Kristian Campbell (a versatile righty) also in the mix. In a perfect world, though, the Red Sox would see Abreu get more than the 447 plate appearances he received in 2024.
Abreu hit .180 (11-for-61) with one homer, three doubles and a .532 OPS against lefties. He struck out 18 times and walked on five occasions.
“That’s something I focused on, how to prepare to face lefties,” Abreu said Thursday through translator Daveson Perez. “I didn’t have the greatest numbers last year but I didn’t have a lot of opportunities. This year, I think it’s going to get a lot better if I have more opportunities against lefties.
“Last year was just a year of adapting for me. This year, I’m going in with a better understanding of how they want to attack me, what they’re going to do to me and a better understanding of how to prepare throughout the year.”
That Abreu is back with the Red Sox for another season was never guaranteed. With Duran and Rafaela back and both Anthony and Campbell on the rise, Abreu was thought to be an obvious trade candidate as the Sox pursued pitching upgrades. Instead, the club headlined its blockbuster trade for Garrett Crochet with prospects Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery. Abreu said he never really worried about where he’d be playing over the winter.
“That’s not something I was really worried about,” he said. “That’s not something I think a lot about. It’s just rumors at the end of the day. At the end of the day, if they were gonna make a move, they’d be the first to tell me … I don’t pay attention to that.”
Internally, the Red Sox have high expectations for Abreu, who is something of an underrated piece of a young core.
“Everybody knows he had a good season,” Cora said. “Offensively, it was good. He was probably a week away from going to Worcester. Then, Trevor (Story) got hurt, all of the sudden we moved Rafaela and he played Gold Glove defense.”
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