Red Sox Give Masataka Yoshida Update After Caleb Durbin Deal

The Boston Red Sox solved the club's hole in the infield on Monday.

Boston pulled off a swap with the Milwaukee Brewers to bring young infielder Caleb Durbin to town. The 25-year-old is entering his second season in the big leagues after slashing .256/.334/.387 with a .721 OPS in 136 games played for Milwaukee. Durbin also hit 11 homers, drove in 53 runs, stole 18 bases, walked 30 times, tallied 25 doubles and scored 60 runs. A good overall season that had him finishing third in the National League Rookie of the Year Award race.

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One thing that was interesting about the Durbin deal was the fact that they were able to solve the infield problem without having to include an infielder in the pact. On the bright side, that means the club was able to keep Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu. With these two, plus Roman Anthony and Ceddanne Rafaela, Boston has the best outfield in baseball, although one of them likely will fill the designated hitter spot each night.

The Red Sox had a busy day

Oct 16, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Milwaukee Brewers third baseman Caleb Durbin (21) celebrates in the dugout after scoring against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the second inning during game three of the NLCS round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

One person who is negatively impacted by this roster surplus is Masataka Yoshida. If one of the outfielders were traded, that would've seemingly opened the door to at-bats as DH. Now, with Durbin coming to town, it seemingly would mean that Boston is done making massive changes. At this time last year, the Red Sox had a surplus, but Yoshida was injured so it wasn't felt as much to kick off the season. That's not the case right now, though. On Monday, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow confirmed that Yoshida is healthy right now, as shared by Pete Abraham of The Boston Globe.

"Breslow said they regard Yoshida as 'completely healthy,'" Abraham shared.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora addressed the DH spot in the aftermath of the deal on Monday as well, as shared by MLB.com's Ian Browne.

"We'll see where we're at when the season starts and we'll have conversations," Cora said. "But as you guys know, and there's something I learned from the great Tito Francona, the situations always take care of itself. Hopefully something health-wise doesn't happen, but it's part of the business. It's part of the game. So I think we were deep. We have some good players, and as of right now, we cannot play the five of them in the lineup, so there's going to be some tough decisions.”

The Red Sox solved the infield issue, but there remains a question around Yoshida.

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