Red Sox chairman is ‘looking forward’ to outfielder Wilyer Abreu ‘having 400 at-bats’ next season
Red Sox chairman Tom Werner is excited for the 2024 Red Sox. He went as far to tell reporters that “the glass is more than half full” at Winter Weekend in Springfield.
Whether or not he truly believes that or he’s trying to say the right things to reporters, only time will tell how the season unfolds.
Werner is also excited to watch rookie outfielder Wilyer Abreu next season.
“I’m excited about our core,” Werner told NESN’s Tom Caron. “If you look around our diamond, Triston Casas — and we’re talking about people who are growing and hopefully will have a better year this year than last year because they’re more mature — Triston Casas at first base. … If Trevor Story is healthy this year, he’s an All-Star, and obviously (Rafael Devers) at third.
“I’m looking forward to Wilyer Abreu having 400 at-bats,” Werner said. “There’s a lot to be excited about. We admit that our pitching wasn’t strong last year but I expect improvement. I expect the people who are on our team and we have a young core — will be a step closer to being excellent.”
Abreu will compete for a 26-man roster spot this spring and should make the team barring an injury or another outfielder being added to the roster.
Despite a small sample size in 2023, Abreu had a strong showing after he was called up in August. He went 24-for-76 (.316) with a .388 on-base percentage, .474 slugging percentage, .862 OPS, two homers, six doubles, 10 runs, 14 RBIs, nine walks and 23 strikeouts in 28 games for Boston. Abreu walked just 10.6% of his at-bats facing big league pitching.
The Red Sox will need Abreu and other young bats to step up next season. Justin Turner and Adam Duvall, two sluggers from last season’s lineup remain unsigned and other hitters will need to make up their production.
Tyler O’Neill is now in the mix but he essentially replaces the production left behind from Alex Verdugo. Boston traded Verdugo to the Yankees in December for three pitchers.
At the end of last season, Abreu was asked about being a lock for the 2024 roster and the rookie downplayed that and said he needs to earn it.
“Obviously I’d like to be on the Opening Day roster but that is not guaranteed,” Abreu told MassLive’s Christopher Smith through an interpreter in September.
“You have to earn it. I’m just going to try to put myself in the best position to earn that role and to make the team. We know that nothing is guaranteed. You have to come to spring training ready to fire, ready to earn that spot and that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to prepare physically and mentally to fight for that spot.”
Abreu played the majority of the season for the WooSox, he saw action in 86 games while missing time with left and right hamstring strains.
This winter, the Sox and Abreu will work on a conditioning plan that will allow him to dial in his strength and avoid future injuries.
“I think my routine (with baseball activities) in the offseason has been successful enough that it has put me in this position,” Abreu said. “I know since early in my career, I’ve had a lot of hamstring problems and that is something that I need to work on to avoid those problems in my hamstring for next year. But besides that, I think my routine and my offseason plans are really good. And that’s what I’m going to stick with. I’m going to try to get ready physically to be ready to play 162 games next year and to try to avoid those hamstring injuries.”
One thing that helps Abreu’s case for the 2024 Opening Day roster is his ability to swing at strikes and not offer at pitches out of the zone. With the WooSox this season, he posted a 16.3% walk percentage and 19.7% in the bigs. He walked a total of 114 times.
“That’s something I’ve been working hard on the past few years,” Abreu said. “I think that’s something that has been helping me do more damage. So just understanding what you can do with good pitches vs. what you can do with bad pitches, that’s something that has helped me a lot mentally. There’s only so much you can do with a bad pitch. But I know with a good pitch I can do damage and that’s what my focus has been: Try to get a good pitch to do damage, to handle it instead of swinging at bad pitches and the result is obviously not going to be the same.”
Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisHenrique
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