As the Boston Red Sox scramble to bolster their offense in the waning days of the 2025 season, the spotlight has turned to one of their most perplexing dilemmas: Masataka Yoshida. The 32-year-old outfielder, signed to a hefty five-year, $90 million contract in 2022 under former chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, has become a symbol of unfulfilled promise, leaving fans and analysts questioning his future with the team.
Yoshida’s tenure in Boston has been a slow-motion disappointment. His first three seasons have each been more lackluster than the last, culminating in a 2025 campaign marred by a sluggish recovery from labrum surgery that sidelined him for the first three months. Since returning, Yoshida’s bat has been ice-cold, posting a dismal .227 batting average, a .279 on-base percentage, and a .326 slugging percentage. His 64 wRC+ and negative-0.5 fWAR paint a grim picture of a player struggling to justify his roster spot, let alone his $18.67 million annual salary.
With two years and over $37 million remaining on his contract, the Red Sox face a critical decision this offseason. On Monday, baseball analyst and content creator Robbie Hyde dropped a bold prediction: Yoshida’s days in Boston are numbered. Hyde suggested the Red Sox are likely to either trade the struggling outfielder or designate him for assignment (DFA), with the team prepared to eat most—or all—of his remaining salary.
“While he showed some promise early on, injuries have derailed him, and the numbers this year are just brutal,” Hyde said, citing Yoshida’s abysmal stats. “I don’t see Boston keeping him around. They’ll try to trade him, but if that fails, they’ll just DFA him.”
Swallowing such a significant amount of dead money is no small feat, but Yoshida’s limited skill set makes it hard to justify keeping him in an already crowded position player group. In his 2023 rookie season, Yoshida’s .800 OPS masked his lack of athleticism and defensive prowess, earning him some leeway. But as his production has plummeted, those deficiencies have become glaring. The Red Sox, desperate to retool their roster for a competitive 2026, can’t afford to allocate playing time to a one-dimensional player who isn’t delivering at the plate.
The Yoshida saga is a cautionary tale of high expectations and higher contracts. Signed as a star from Japan’s NPB league, where he was a consistent hitting machine, Yoshida was expected to bring that same offensive spark to Fenway Park. Instead, injuries and inconsistency have defined his time in Boston, leaving the front office with a costly problem to solve.
As the offseason looms, the Red Sox are at a crossroads. Trading Yoshida may prove challenging given his contract and recent performance, but a DFA could signal a clean break, albeit at a steep financial cost. Whatever the outcome, one thing is clear: Boston is ready to move on from this $90 million misstep and chart a new course for the future.