This story was excerpted from Ian Browne’s Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
BOSTON -- For the last four seasons, the Red Sox had the ultimate platoon outfielder in Rob Refsnyder, who mashed left-handers with a slash line of .312/.407/.516 in 501 plate appearances in his time with the Red Sox.
The man referred to often as Bargain Bob on social media circles was able to cash in on his solid body of work in Boston, recently signing a one-year, $6.25 million deal with the Mariners, which is three times more than what he made last season.
The Red Sox will not only miss the right-handed hitter’s production, but also his leadership and class. Yet his departure leaves an opening for one Boston outfielder in particular.
Wilyer Abreu, entering his third full season as the club’s primary right fielder, has a chance to become an everyday player.
Given his defensive excellence and blossoming power, this could be an important development in the world of the 2026 Red Sox.
“I truly believe that this year … and I probably said it before … with Willy and some of the lefties, we have to see if they can do it,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora.
By “do it,” Cora means getting the job done against left-handed pitchers. Refsnyder was a security blanket of sorts for the Sox.
Though Romy Gonzalez has become almost as effective as a platoon lefty masher, he gets most of his reps in the infield. Refsnyder’s departure clearly leaves an opportunity in the outfield.
“It's about that time, especially with Abreu,” said Cora. “And if he can hit lefties and hit for power and play defense the way he's done the last few years, he can be the guy.”
In Abreu’s rookie year in '24, he had 67 plate appearances against lefties, slashing .180/.254/.279 with three doubles, a homer, five walks and 18 strikeouts.
There was slight improvement last year, as Abreu had nearly the same amount of plate appearances (68) against southpaws while producing a line of .230/.299/.377 with six doubles, one homer, six walks and 14 strikeouts.
In both cases, the sample size was too small to determine what Abreu can be against lefties.
“We need to have Wilyer figure out lefties. We’re going to push him to do that and I truly believe he can do that,” Cora told the Section 10 podcast earlier this offseason.
Though Jarren Duran -- who played in 160 games in '24 and 157 last year -- has gotten far more opportunities against lefties than Abreu, he has also struggled to duplicate the effectiveness he has against righties.
“We believe both of those guys are supremely talented,” said Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow. “They've handled opposite-handed pitching pretty well [at times]. But I think the answer to this is along the lines of how I responded to the question about Marcelo [Mayer], which is that guys reach a certain point in their career where they've kind of earned the right to play every day or to be in the lineup more against left-handed pitching. And I think both those guys are at that stage.
“I think that the training will be dictated by that. I think we'll do everything we can to prepare them to have success against same-handed pitching. And ultimately as it relates to writing the lineup every day, in the office, we try to give Alex as much information as we can, but he does a really good job of finding the right matchups, of recognizing when to give guys a little bit more exposure for left on left and when maybe to give them a breather.”