Masataka Yoshida finally hit his first home run of the season for the Boston Red Sox on Sunday, which served to illustrate his predicament to some degree.
Yoshida, in the fourth season of a five-year, $90 million contract, has just 110 plate appearances in the Red Sox's first 52 games. He's only started 23 games, with four of them coming in the outfield, and the rest as the designated hitter. Had outfielder Roman Anthony not landed on the injured list on May 4, he might be on the bench nine out of every 10 games right now.
In the most trying season of an undoubtedly frustrating tenure with the Red Sox, Yoshida knows his time with the team could come to an end at any point if another team agrees to take on a significant portion of his contract. He also knows he has no control over that outcome, and very little control over whether his name is written on the lineup card every day.
Before Sunday's game against the Minnesota Twins, Yoshida was asked about the possibility of a trade. Speaking through translator Yutaro Yamaguchi, Yoshida gave a brief response that didn't tip too much of what the 32-year-old was feeling, but certainly didn't indicate that he was dying to stay in Boston at all costs.
"It’s part of the game, right? If it happens, it happens,” Yoshida said through Yamaguchi, via Christopher Smith of MassLive.
In his 36 games this year, Yoshida has slashed .263/.355/.379. That's a 112 OPS+, which is just about in line with his 110 career figure. But if the Red Sox knew he'd only be 10% above league average offensively, with no defensive or baserunning utility, they certainly wouldn't have opened up their wallets for him the way they did before the 2023 campaign.
Yoshida's awkward role in Boston will only get more awkward when Anthony returns from the IL, which could seemingly happen any time between this week and the All-Star break. Lately, he's even been benched in favor of Mickey Gasper, who was only recalled from Triple-A on May 7.
It's hard to envision the perfect trade materializing, but that doesn't necessarily mean the Red Sox will cut Yoshida loose just to make the roster less crowded.