Masataka Yoshida, Red Sox agree to a five-year deal

Masataka Yoshida, Red Sox agree to a five-year deal

The Boston Red Sox and outfielder Masataka Yoshida have agreed to a five-year deal worth $90 million, ESPN’s Jeff Passan was first to report Wednesday.

According to Passan, the $15.4 million posting fee on top of $90 million deal means the Red Sox will be paying essentially $105.4 million for the prized free agent outfielder from Japan.

This is a great deal for the Red Sox. Yoshida is an excellent hitter with elite bat-to-ball skills, at least that’s what he showcased in Japan.

Last season, Yoshida slashed .335/.447/.561 — leading the Japan Pacific league with an elite 1.008 OPS, 55 points above the next-best player — with 21 home runs, 88 RBIs, 80 walks to just 41 strikeouts. In seven seasons in the JPPL, the 29-year-old slashed .327/.421/.539, sporting a 13.2 BB% and a 3.8 BB-K%. He’s only 5-foot-8, but his bat-to-ball skills should still translate tremendously to the major league level the more he becomes acclimated to MLB pitching.

Perhaps the biggest knock on his scouting report might be his defense. Per Sports Info Solutions‘ scouting report on Yoshida:

“While Yoshida has proven everything he can with the bat in NPB, the rest of his game has some questions. Defensively he is likely limited to only left field. Yoshida’s size makes him too small for first base, where longer reach is desired to catch errant throws from infielders,” Ted Baarda wrote, via SIS.

“His arm can also be a liability in right field, where he has played just over 600 innings since 2018, when we began tracking NPB data. In that time Yoshida has allowed runners to take an extra base (for example, go first to third on a single) on 64% of their opportunities in right field. Yoshida played only 23 innings in right field in 2021, and did not play there at all in 2022.

“As a left fielder, teams could look for a way to maximize his abilities defensively. Over the last five years, Yoshida has totaled -15 DRS in 3,103 innings in left, averaging -3 DRS in around 600 innings per year (we judge NPB players using MLB out probabilities).

In the range and positioning component of DRS he has rated above-average on “shallow” plays in each year, while scoring negatively on “deep” plays in each year. If a team wants to use him in the outfield, they could dig deeper to determine how to optimally position him in left field in hopes of masking his deficiencies.”

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Navigating either corner outfield spot in Fenway Park is tricky waters. Right field is as wonky as ever with Pesky’s Pole, and left field, while much smaller, is tricky because of the Green Monster. The only way he’ll get more used to the dimensions is to get as many reps — pregame, during the game and maybe even postgame, if he’s really wanting to get extra work in — as possible.

With JD Martinez as a free agent, Boston has a hole at designated hitter that Yoshida could possibly fill in the long-term.

“How much he can play in the field is also a concern,” Baarda added. “From 2018-2020 Yoshida played in every game for Orix, though he only played more than 100 games in the outfield in 2018. In the last two seasons he has missed some time and also seen more time at DH.

“In 2022, played left field in only 39 of his 119 games, slotting in as the DH in his other 80 games. A positive COVID test and a hamstring injury limited his ability to stay on the field. He did start at left field in 9 of Orix’s 11 playoff games, while playing DH in the other two.”

If Red Sox general manager Chaim Bloom wants, he could stick Yoshida at the DH and possibly dip into the market of outfield, which includes Brandon Nimmo, Jurickson Profar, Matt Carpender, Michael Brantley, Kevin Kiermaier or even Andrew Benintendi, who rose up in the Boston system and spent his first five MLB with the Red Sox.

If not, then he will slot in at one of its corner outfield spots with Alex Verdugo and Enrique Hernandez presumably filling the other two spots. Either way, Bloom and the Red Sox have options, and Yoshida should project to be a reliable bat who’s an on-base machine at the top (or middle) of the Sox order.

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