Thoughts on the Boston Red Sox and a Potential Signing of Teoscar Hernandez

The Boston Red Sox are reportedly working to get a deal done with free agent outfielder Teoscar Hernandez.

Hernandez, 31, spent last season with the Seattle Mariners but has also played for the Toronto Blue Jays and Houston Astros. He's a lifetime .261 hitter with 159 homers. He made the All-Star team for Toronto in 2021 and hit a career-high 32 homers that season.

While a deal is not official, let's look at all the different layers that are present here.

1) Signing Hernandez would instantly upgrade the Red Sox offense. Even in a relative down year for him in 2023, he still hit 26 homers and drove in 93. He also hit .295 when not playing in hitter-suppressed T-Mobile Park, so you'd have to assume the damage he could do at Fenway Park would be extensive.

Adding him to the lineup would give the team a right-left combination with Hernandez and Rafael Devers, as well as a right-left combo would Tristan Casas and Trevor Story. The lineup would become more balanced and more powerful, and that doesn't even include having Masataka Yoshida in the lineup also.

2) As good as Hernandez could make the offense, and as appealing as that is, offense isn't really the need for this team. The Red Sox badly need starting pitching. If they sign Hernandez, it feels like a bit of signing someone just for the sake of signing someone. However, they could also use a Hernandez signing to make one of their young outfielders available for trade.

3) On that point, the team currently has Wilyer Abreu, Yoshida, Ceddanne Rafaela, Rob Refsnyder, Tyler O'Neil and Jarren Duran available as outfield candidates. If they were to add Hernandez, they'd almost certainly need to move someone from that group. If that person is used to get starting pitching, a Hernandez signing makes much more sense.

The Red Sox finished last in the American League East a season ago and haven't made the playoffs since 2021.

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