If there was one player mentioned more than most this past offseason, it was Jarren Duran. As a trade candidate.<\/p>\n
The thinking was, supposedly, simple: too many outfielders<\/p>\n
Roman Anthony is set to be on the Red Sox forever. He\u2019s a capable corner guy. There\u2019s not a completing reason to move him to first base or DH as he turns 22.<\/p>\n
Ceddanne Rafaela is the best centerfielder in baseball. He\u2019s staying.<\/p>\n
And Wilyer Abreu? He\u2019s coming off a Gold Glove 2025 and was acquired for half a season of Christian Vazquez (thanks for everything, 2018 etc., but also that was a steal!).<\/p>\n
Which brings us back to Duran.<\/p>\n
He had an All-Star 2024, including winning the ASG MVP. He slashed .285\/.342\/.492 and was a 21 homer\/34 steal guy.<\/p>\n
2025 was a step back to 16\/24 with a .256\/.332\/.442 line.<\/p>\n
But there were trades for pitchers, first base, third base, and no move of Duran. He was to be slotted in as the left fielder, part-time DH, and center field replacement when Rafaela was out of the lineup.<\/p>\n
And he started the season brutally. Remember his initial callup in 2021? The rough times? He posted a .578 OPS. in 2022. It wasn\u2019t until 2023 that he played 100 games in the majors. This time he was better: an OPS of.828 and a sign of the big 2024 yet to come! But in 2026, even after Tuesday\u2019s game, Duran is sitting on an OPS of .593. That\u2019s part of a .189\/.262\/.331 line with 5 homers and 10 stolen bases. He\u2019s on pace for around a 16 and 30 season. That\u2019s pretty close to his 2025 output, though he\u2019s way down on doubles with just 8 in 43 games.<\/p>\n
After a tw0-hit Opening Day, Duran\u2019s slash line was .400 across the board. Combined with four walks over the first four games of 2026 and his OBP was tacked up high for a while even as the slump would begin. Duran would walk just two more times during Alex Cora\u2019s stint as manager.<\/p>\n
While it is nearly Memorial Day, we are still early enough in the season that one good day can make change. Duran would fall down to a .162 batting average during the first game of the Yankees first visit of the season to Fenway Park. He\u2019d get three hit the next day and soar to .194. Then with another three hit day, this time against the Tigers in Detroit, he\u2019d climb all the way to .203. His first time above the Mendoza Line since April 5th. After the Tigers he\u2019d go hitless in the entire series with the Phillies. A series the Red Sox would lose games with scores of 1-2 and 1-3. Games where hits could have really made a difference.<\/p>\n
Is he hitting righties? Not really, .168\/.241\/.298 vs. .270\/.335\/.477 career. How about lefties ? Well, also no, at .229\/.270\/.314 vs. .232\/.283\/.335 in his career. For all the talk in the offseason and Spring Training about Cora wanting guys like Duran and Abreu to get more plate appearances against lefties, for Duran it hasn\u2019t really worked, And righties are carving him up.<\/p>\n
Which is all part of the point.<\/p>\n
Jarren Duran is still here. He wasn\u2019t traded.<\/p>\n
Essentially no matchup is currently favoring him. But he had another twohit night and he\u2019s up to .189 again. Could he be over .200 for Memorial Day? And then approach something near his .260 career batting average going forward? The Red Sox have to hope so, because he\u2019s still in their plans and they need someone who looks at least like 2025 Duran if they\u2019re going to coax more runs out of this lineup without a major trade, an idea which Craig Breslow has already splashed water on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there was one player mentioned more than most this past offseason, it was Jarren Duran. As a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,4,89,1322,2543],"class_list":["post-704139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-red-sox","tag-baseball","tag-boston","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-bostonredsox","tag-mlb","tag-red-sox","tag-red-sox-analysis","tag-redsox"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116608035925020530","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}