Is Red Sox IF prospect Yoeilin Cespedes primed to bounce back in 2026?

Earlier this month, Baseball America identified one prospect from each organization in need of a bounce-back 2026 season after a disappointing 2025.

Their pick from the Red Sox? Infielder Yoeilin Cespedes, who celebrated his 20th birthday on September 8.

Originally signed for $1.4 million as a highly-touted international free agent coming out of the Dominican Republic in January 2023, Cespedes made great strides to begin his professional career. Out of the gate, the Azua native was recognized as a Dominican Summer League All-Star and the Red Sox’ Minor League Latin Program Position Player of the Year. He followed that up by setting fire to the rookie-level Florida Complex League to kick off his 2024 campaign.

After batting .319/.400/.615 with five home runs and 24 RBIs in 25 FCL games, Cespedes received a promotion to Low-A Salem last June. Due to lingering soreness in his left hand, however, Cespedes was placed on the injured list before appearing in a game for Boston’s Carolina League affiliate. He was then ultimately diagnosed with a broken hamate bone and underwent season-ending surgery in July as a result.

On the heels of a frustrating end to an otherwise promising first season stateside, Cespedes rehabbed through the winter and entered 2025 as Baseball America’s sixth-ranked Red Sox prospect. He broke camp with Salem in the spring and made his long-awaited Low-A debut in early April. In his first 70 games, he batted just .213/.264/.350 with 15 doubles, four triples, five home runs, 33 RBIs, 31 runs scored, six stolen bases, 21 walks, and 65 strikeouts over 303 plate appearances leading up to the MLB All-Star break in mid-July.

Coming out of the break on July 18, though, Cespedes began to produce more encouraging results. The aggressive right-handed hitter ended the year by slashing .252/.341/.424 with nine doubles, one triple, five home runs, 21 RBIs, 25 runs scored, five stolen bases, 20 walks, and 36 strikeouts in his final 40 games (174 plate appearances) for Salem.

Overall, Cespedes hit .227/.292/.376 with 24 doubles, five triples, 10 home runs, 54 RBIs, 56 runs scored, 11 stolen bases, 41 walks, and 101 strikeouts over 110 games (477 plate appearances) as a 19-year-old in Low-A this season. That includes a .222/.292/.351 line in 381 plate appearances against right-handed pitching and a .244/.292/.477 line in 96 plate appearances against left-handed pitching.

Among 47 qualified hitters in the Carolina League this year, Cespedes notably ranked first in pull rate (59.8 percent), seventh in isolated power (.150), eighth in line-drive rate (25.2 percent), ninth in fly-ball rate (42.6 percent), and 14th in slugging percentage, per FanGraphs.

Defensively, Cespedes saw all of his playing time on the field this season come at either second base or shortstop. The compact 5-foot-8, 181-pounder logged 773 2/3 innings at the former and 54 innings at the latter, committing 17 errors in 43o total chances. Interestingly, he did not play any shortstop after May 7. He also made 12 starts at DH.

Cespedes now finds himself ranked as Boston’s No. 14 prospect by Baseball America, which theorizes that he will “need to harness his bat-to-ball skills and ample bat speed more consistently” to take a step forward in 2026. Barring a trade or other surprise move this winter, he is expected to make the jump to High-A Greenville to start next season.