Could 'skew' of Red Sox roster make Alex Bregman chase even more critical?

In his first season with the Boston Red Sox, Alex Bregman posted decent numbers at Fenway Park. In 236 plate appearances, he slashed .246/.347/.414 and hit six of his 18 homers there.

Those numbers came in an injury-filled season where he played in just 114 games, bringing down his career numbers at the plate in Boston, where he's now slashing .283/.389/.509 in 77 career games.

As Bregman opted out of his three-year, $120M deal after one season in Boston, the question becomes how critical is it not only for the Red Sox to try to bring him back, but also to bring him back to add a right-handed bat to the order.

Without Bregman, Boston's roster is filled with left-handed hitters. That's something that Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow acknowledged in Las Vegas during the recent Major League Baseball General Manager meetings.

"A lot has been made of the skew of our roster to left-handed hitters and our park and how favorable it can be for right-handed hitters to put the ball in the air to the pull side, or lefties who can go the other way," Breslow said. "There are guys who can hit the ball out of any ballpark, but there are certainly profiles that fit Fenway better than others.

"We just want to make sure that we've thought through what the ballpark effects would be before making any decisions."

Do Red Sox need Alex Bregman to balance lineup?

Last season, Bregman was a batter who hit the ball more up the middle than pulling it, per Baseball Reference. In 197 at-bats, he went up the middle, slashing .294/.291/.442. Compare that to the 115 at-bats where he pulled the ball and posted a .374/.374/.765 slash line.

That follows a career trend where Bregman has hit the ball more up the middle during his 10-year MLB career (including nine with the Houston Astros), but posted higher numbers when pulling.

Boston will be trying this offseason to not only potentially replace Bregman in the lineup, but also the power potential that was lost when Rafael Devers was traded to the San Francisco Giants in mid-June. For the most part, the Red Sox were able to do that during the regular season, finishing ninth among MLB's 30 teams with a .421 slugging percentage.

However, once the postseason arrived, Boston slugged just .260 and hit one home run in its three-game wild-card loss to the New York Yankees.

"In a perfect world, I would suppose we would want to balance out the lineup a bit. That said, I think when you can hit the ball out of the park, it doesn’t really matter," Breslow said. "I think we have found that lefties can use the wall and create a good offensive environment and righties who can pull the ball in the air can do the same thing. There are a number of different ways for us to improve our slug, but I think this idea that we can do more damage on balls on play is certainly a correct one."

We will find out this offseason if that "perfect world" includes a right-handed power hitter like Bergman.

All quotations obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.