The Boston Red Sox’s winter is already being drawn around one name.
After the Yankees swept them out of the Wild Card Series, the Red Sox are still chasing their first World Series since 2018, and the cleanest path forward in the projections is a right-handed slugger who can live in left field and the designated-hitter spot: Randy Arozarena.
That projection comes from Bleacher Report’s Zachary D. Rymer, whose 2026 offseason guide slots Arozarena into Boston’s Opening Day lineup behind Roman Anthony and Adley Rutschman and ahead of Willson Contreras.
Rymer’s case is less about splash than about fit. Boston hit only 163 home runs, fifth-fewest in the majors, with Contreras (27) and Wilyer Abreu (24) the only real power threats.
A right-handed bat who can punish the Green Monster is the hole the roster has not filled, and Arozarena is the free agent who matches it on paper.
The context makes the swing feel less reckless than it would have in April. The season opened under the worst possible conditions: Alex Cora and several of his top lieutenants were gone, and the club sank as many as 14 games under .500.
What followed was a 55-29 close that bought a second straight postseason berth, achieved largely without Garrett Crochet and with Roman Anthony only sporadically available. Depth carried them.
Contreras, Ceddanne Rafaela, Ranger Suárez and Aroldis Chapman all made the All-Star team, and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow got credit for building a roster that could survive the absences.
Chapman’s vesting option already locks him in for 2027. Sonny Gray’s mutual option is the larger question mark; if the 36-year-old walks or retires after an 18-5, 2.72 season, starting pitching becomes the other winter priority.
Arozarena is the offensive answer in Rymer’s model. He turns 32 on February 28 and will carry draft-pick compensation after rejecting a qualifying offer from Seattle, so the price will not be gentle. Industry estimates have clustered around five years and roughly $110 million to $125 million.
What Boston would be buying is consistency more than a peak: six straight 20-20 seasons, a right-handed swing that Fenway could nudge toward 30 homers, and the kind of October résumé the franchise has been missing since 2018.
Rymer’s projected order puts him third, with Anthony at designated hitter, Rutschman catching, Contreras at first, Abreu in right, Rafaela in center, and an infield of Trevor Story, Curtis Mead and Caleb Durbin. Jarren Duran, long a trade rumor, is the logical piece moved to clear the grass.
None of it is signed. Mutual options, a thin pitching market and the cost of a qualifying-offer penalty can all reroute the winter.
The argument from the projection is simpler: a team that clawed from 14 under .500 into October still lacks the bat that turns a wild-card club into a pennant threat, and Arozarena is the free agent drawn to fill it, at a number that would reset Boston’s outfield payroll for the rest of the decade.
