CHICAGO — Many members of the Red Sox’ young core came up — or will come up — with massive expectations attached to them. Triston Casas and Tanner Houck were first-round picks. Brayan Bello and Ceddanne Rafaela were both ranked near the top of of organizational prospect lists for years. Jarren Duran was a fast-riser whose big league debut was met with much fanfare. Kristian Campbell was a top 10 prospect in all of baseball when he made the Opening Day roster and both Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer, when they join the majors, will come with the same hype.
One uber-productive young player, however, hasn’t had such bells and whistles attached to his rise. Wilyer Abreu came to the Red Sox in a deadline trade that, at the time, was much more about what was going out (Christian Vázquez) than what was coming in. He debuted quietly in August 2023 and got his first major league chance only when Duran got hurt on a freaky play at Yankee Stadium. Abreu was never billed as a headliner on the 2024 team and was too quickly cast aside by many as a trade candidate over the winter. Through it all, all Abreu has done is produce.
A player who Alex Cora claims has “never struggled” in the majors has, somewhat quietly, emerged as a two-way star. Abreu will likely never be billed as a main cast member mentioned in the same breath as Rafael Devers, Duran, Garrett Crochet, Houck or Alex Bregman. In his mind, that’s perfectly OK.
“Where I’m rated doesn’t really matter to me,” said Abreu, via translator Daveson Perez. “I’m just focused on doing the best possible job that I can. If it means I’m flying under the radar, I don’t really pay that any mind. I just want to show up and do my job.”
In 28 games down the stretch in 2023, Abreu hit well enough (.316 average, .862 OPS) for the Red Sox to enter the winter with the goal of installing him as their every day right fielder in 2024. The trade that sent Alex Verdugo to the Yankees that December made it a reality. In 2024, Abreu was slowed a bit offensively by a mid-year ankle injury but still posted a non-pedestrian .253 average with 15 homers, 58 RBIs and a .781. He emerged as one of the game’s elite defenders and became the first Red Sox rookie to win a Gold Glove since Fred Lynn in 1975.
After a winter of trade rumors and a spring in which he barely played due to a gastrointestinal virus slowing his progression, Abreu has been Boston’s best offensive player through two-plus weeks. In 17 games, he’s hitting .340 (17-for-50) with three homers, four doubles and a 1.068 OPS. He ranks third in baseball in on-base percentage (.468), seventh in OPS and third in average.
“There weren’t a lot of expectations for me to get off to a good start with spring training, but I made sure to do what I needed to do so I was ready come the start of the season,” Abreu said. “For me to have that start was huge. It was huge for me, huge for the team. We didn’t have the hottest start at the beginning but for me to do what I did to put us in a good spot was something I was really proud of.”
In a lineup with Duran, Devers, Bregman, Casas, Trevor Story and, eventually, Anthony, Abreu won’t be expected to carry the load long. But his production was rewarded over the weekend when Cora not only gave him a rare start against a lefty starter but also moved him up to the cleanup spot, displacing the scuffling Casas.
For as painful as the 2022 trade that sent Vázquez to the Astros and all but signaled a white flag on the season was, the Red Sox are reaping the benefits nearly three years later. The long-term gains are something Cora is thrilled to reap even if the deal looked like a misstep by Chaim Bloom back then.
“It was a big trade,” said Cora. “We knew the players. Both of them are big leaguers… We knew both players were really good. We knew about the defense — Willy’s defense. Both control the strike zone. They hit the ball hard. We got a complete player. That was a big trade by Chaim. I think we’ve got a good one.”
Boston’s early extensions with Bello, Rafaela, Crochet and Campbell have signaled that chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, just two years into his tenure, is serious about making sure that Boston’s core will remain intact for a while. In that vein, two industry sources, in separate conversations, volunteered that the Red Sox have long had a desire to lock up Abreu as well. He’s under club control through 2029, though, and he indicated that nothing has gotten close.
“It’s not something I think too much about,” Abreu said. “That time will come when it comes. I’m focused on what I’m doing here.”
The understated, well-liked Abreu, who converses with teammates in both English and Spanish, is not a perfect player. The Red Sox still want him to be able to hit lefties on a consistent basis and become an everyday player who plays more than 132 games, like he did in 2024. But as Cora often said throughout last year, the club has a very good player on its hands — even if other players arrived with much more hype.
“I don’t consider myself the leader of the pack or anything like that,” Abreu said. “I do know we have a lot of great guys coming up and when they do come up, it’s gonna be really good for us with their talent and what they can do.
“It’s going to be good for a very long time with those guys who are coming up. We’re going to have a lot of success year after year because of it. Once they do come up, I think they’re gonna give the fans exactly what they want — and what they expect — which is to see this team play in the playoffs consistently.”
