The Boston Red Sox have had their share of infield drama this season. The 11th-hour addition of Alex Bregman opened a can of worms during Spring Training. Rafael Devers was his own powder keg, refusing to become the team’s designated hitter in the spring and first base when Triston Casas went down with a season-ending injury in May.
Mix in the struggles of Kristian Campbell and the arrival of top prospect Marcelo Mayer, and the guys on the dirt certainly haven’t been boring this season. While the Red Sox would probably like some continuity down the stretch, there is some room for improvement, and it gives Boston a directive to upgrade from a struggling infielder by the trade deadline.
Red Sox Must Find Abraham Toro’s Replacement Before the MLB Trade Deadline
For all the chaos that has reigned in the Red Sox infield, the biggest one may have been Casas’s injury. The 25-year-old was expected to rebound this season after battling a rib injury in 2024, and his power was slated to be a big part of Boston’s lineup. Unfortunately, a collision with Minnesota Twins first baseman Ty France resulted in a ruptured patellar tendon and has sent the Red Sox scrambling ever since.
Devers was the logical choice to replace Casas but he refused in part due to the Red Sox’s communication before bringing Bregman aboard this spring and the fact he hadn’t played in the field at all since being moved to designated hitter. A trade to the San Francisco Giants followed, but the carousel continued before landing on infielder Abraham Toro.
Signed to a minor league deal last winter, Toro wasn’t supposed to be part of the Red Sox’s plans. A career .226/.289/.361 hitter in seven seasons with the Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers and the Athletics, Toro was thrust into emergency duty when Casas went down.
The good news is Toro has fared well, hitting .271/.321/.418 with five homers and 20 RBI over 52 games this season. The bad news is that the carriage is turning into a pumpkin.
Toro was hitting .341/.353/.573 with four homers and 10 RBI on June 8. He’s hitting just .205/.287/.241 in his last 25 games, and he hasn’t homered since June 11. While his emergence kept the Red Sox from completely capsizing in the American League East, it’s time to think about getting a replacement that can help them get to October.
The issue is that there’s not a lot of first basemen available on the market. Ryan O’Hearn would be a stopgap solution as a free agent at the end of the year, but could come with an in-division tax from the last-place Baltimore Orioles. Josh Naylor of the Arizona Diamondbacks is another intriguing name, but he is also a pending free agent on a team that’s 5.5 games out of the final postseason berth in the National League.
But no matter how creative the Red Sox get, their first base situation will continue to haunt them until it’s solved. While they could ride Toro to the finish line, he’s most likely to play like the player that’s shown up over the past month and require Boston to be aggressive at the deadline.