Red Sox Make Intriguing Masataka Yoshida Decision As Season Debut Nears

Throw Masataka Yoshida's name into the endless debate of the Boston Red Sox's season.

Ever since Triston Casas tore his patellar tendon on May 2, the first base position has been up in the air. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow asked Rafael Devers to learn the job, and the request offended him so much that it eventually led to his trade to the San Francisco Giants.

Highly regarded rookie Kristian Campbell has also taken grounders at first for weeks on end, debuting there in the minor leagues, but not yet in the majors.

But on Wednesday, for the first time as a Red Sox, there was Yoshida, donning a first base mitt and participating in infield drills at the position during his rehab start with the Triple-A Worcester Red Sox.

This was a highly intriguing development as Yoshida nears his season debut. Manager Alex Cora explained the purpose of Yoshida's reps at first before Boston's series finale against the Cincinnati Reds.

“He’s just taking ground balls, getting accustomed to it, just in case, in an emergency,” Cora said, per Sean McAdam and Chris Cotillo of MassLive. “He’s been doing it for a while. He hasn’t done it here. It’s something we asked him to do, and he was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it,’ right away. He ordered his first baseman’s mitt five minutes later and started taking grounders.”

Cora seemed to be doing his best to downplay the significance of the repetitions, though. He once again emphasized that Yoshida would likely only play the position in an emergency.

“I don’t anticipate him starting at first base,” said Cora, “but if something crazy happens, at least he can catch throws and knock down a ground ball.”

The Red Sox have cobbled together surprisingly decent production at first base since Casas' injury, thanks mainly to Abraham Toro and Romy González. Still, Boston ranks near the bottom of the league in wRC+ by first basemen (24th) and getting Yoshida's bat into the lineup is an important objective.

Yoshida went 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout on Wednesday night against the Syracuse Mets. He served as the WooSox's designated hitter, where he got all 98 of his big-league starts last year.