I am watching when Duvall plays RF with some interest, because if he can handle playing it in Fenway resigning Duvall and trading Verdugo + prospects for pitching could help out two positions.It's hard for me to see how the offense is going to improve in 2024, apart from guys just hitting better. Let's say their main lineup is back for next year.
C Wong - .708 ops, 88 ops+ - definitely room for improvement from him, but this may be what he is offensively
1b Casas - .870 ops, 131 ops+ - clearly trending in the right direction to be an absolute monster at the plate; 2024 could/should be even better
2b Urias - .667 ops, 81 ops+ - no idea what he ought to be or if he will even be the 2b next year
3b - Devers - .848 ops, 124 ops+ - his ops+ is exactly what his career ops+ is; I think he can do better, but this is basically normal Devers
SS - Story - .507 ops, 35 ops+ - this is THE key position. RH bat, doing absolutely nothing at the plate, if he gets it going, that's huge
LF - Yoshida - .821 ops, 118 ops+ - really solid bat all year long; he's not GREAT, but he's just solid
CF - Duran - .828 ops, 120 ops+ - room for improvement, but it's also possible this is max Duran
RF - Verdugo - .790 ops, 111 ops+ - having a year that's slightly better than his career numbers
DH - Turner - .835 ops, 122 ops+ - solid, professional hitter; not GREAT, but solid
So of this group, I see two guys who have the potential to be monsters offensively: Casas and Devers. They are LH heavy, with Casas, Devers, Yoshida, Duran, and Verdugo. Their worst hitters this year are all RH bats - Wong, Urias, and Story. We may see Teel arrive by the end of 2024 to be a much better offensive player than Wong, and we also might see Rafaela and/or Abreu a lot more next year (hopefully!). But that's a lot of guys who bat lefty.
They'll need Story to be much better, which of course he's capable of. It would be foolish to expect him to hit like he did in Coors (.972 career ops), but it's not unreasonable to think that he can be at least a high .700s ops guy (like, .780-.790).
What this team doesn't have is a RH masher. Is that guy out there to be had?
The Sox have some really good pieces if they want to move them, but move them for...what?
What would, say, Verdugo + a prospect get you? Or...what would it take to get Luis Robert of the White Sox? Obviously a LOT more than Verdugo + prospect.
I just ran Verdugo + Rafaela + Duran for Roberts through the MLB trade value machine, and it wasn't accepted. No idea how accurate that is, but that would feel like giving up a TON, but I think it wasn't accepted because Roberts is worth more than all three combined. So maybe a guy like that simply is unattainable for Boston.
Which is fine. But there aren't a ton of RH bats that are between, say, Justin Turner and a guy like Roberts. They could make a move for Pete Alonso maybe, but they'd have to pay an arm and a leg and he'd have to share 1b/DH with Casas (which could work I guess). Maybe a guy like Jorge Soler of the Marlins? 35 homers this year. $9m salary for 2024. Currently 31 years of age. He might be a guy that could improve the offense. But he's not good defensively, and the Sox don't really need more bad defensive players.
So this is going to be tricky for them. As is, they've got tons of solid bats, and a couple of LH guys who could mash, but very little real RH power.
I'd also be in favor of resigning Turner with an eye towards him taking 25-30 starts at both 1B and 3B, with Raffy and Casas DHing when they don't just get a day off.