The Red Sox outfielder had a breakout rookie campaign.
The Positives
Does Wilyer Abreu have the sweetest swing on the Red Sox? I think he does and I don’t think there’s a close second. Let’s take a look:
Ah yes, that’s the good stuff. His swing combines grace and violence in equal measure, and I love the way he keeps both hands on the bat and immediately whips it back in front of him at the conclusion of his swing, like he just hammered an ancient gong. It’s a thing of beauty.
But his swing doesn’t just look good, it produces. Abreu was elite both in bat speed and hard hit percentage. He finished with the tenth-highest slugging percentage amongst all right fielders, thanks in large part to his 33 doubles, which were second in all of baseball at the position.
In the outfield, while he lacked the flash of the uber-athletes Ceddanne Rafaela and Jarren Duran, who often played next to him, he was consistently excellent. He rarely makes mistakes and he has both the range to patrol Fenway’s massive right field and an arm that haunts opposing third base coaches.
Put it all together and Abreu, while still just a rookie with plenty of room to improve, is close to the perfect complimentary piece, the type of guy who hits sixth or seventh on a contending team and makes opposing fans hate him by the end of a series.
The Negatives
I said he’s close to a perfect complimentary piece, because there’s one massive hole in his game: He was unplayable against lefites, slashing just .180/.254/.279 in 67 plate appearances. Of course, that’s a minuscule sample size, and we’ve seen Alex Cora exercise an abundance of caution (an overabundance of caution?) when breaking in young left-handed hitters before. Triston Casas, you may recall, was hardly allowed to even look at a southpaw during the first half of 2023, a season in which he ended up putting up a perfectly respectable .817 OPS against lefties. But nevertheless, proving that he can produce against lefties is the only thing that stands in between a future as a career platoon player on one hand, or as a borderline All-Star on the other.
Best Moment
There’s really no question about this one.
The Big Question
Is Wilyer Abreu even going to be on the Red Sox next season?
For all the plaudits I just rained down upon his mulleted head, Wilyer Abreu is not even guaranteed a starting spot on the 2025 Red Sox. Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafalea, and Masataka Yoshida have all secured their big league positions, one way or another. The Red Sox will have a difficult decision to make on whether to an extend a qualifying offer to Tyler O’Neill. And Roman Anthony, the number one prospect in all of baseball, is not merely knocking on the door, but ripping it off the hinges (and, oh yeah, so is Kristian Campbell). The Red Sox have a lot of talented outfielders right now and there’s a very good chance one or more of them are dealt this winter. Abreu, having already proven himself as a big leaguer at the age of 25, would surely bring something nice back.
2025 and Beyond
Honestly, who knows at this point? I would be very, very surprised if Craig Breslow doesn’t make at least one trade from the Red Sox outfield depth this offseason. Until that happens, we won’t know whether Abreu will be the starting right fielder for the Red Sox for the next five years, or whether he’ll compete for that job in Seattle or Miami.