One glaring red flag should pour cold water on Red Sox pursuit of Nolan Arenado

The Boston Red Sox are an improved ball club from the .500 team that they were in 2024. They added to their rotation in a big way by trading for Garrett Crochet and signing Walker Buehler and Patrick Sandoval. They added to their bullpen with the Aroldis Chapman signing. An area Craig Breslow and Co. have yet to address is the position players.

The only position players Boston has added thus far on MLB contracts have been Carlos Narvaez and Blake Sabol, two catchers who figure to fight for playing time behind the team's starter, Connor Wong. That's all they've done.

On one hand, Boston's inactivity on the position player front makes some sense. The Red Sox have a strong lineup led by Rafael Devers, Jarren Duran, and Triston Casas. They also have several top position player prospects like Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, and Kristian Campbell who are close to being MLB-ready.

With that being said, Boston's lineup has one glaring issue - it's extremely left-handed heavy. Devers, Duran, Casas, Masataka Yoshida, and Wilyer Abreu, arguably their five best hitters, are all left-handed. Even Mayer and Anthony are left-handed hitting prospects as well.

Adding a right-handed hitter in the middle of their lineup has been something Red Sox fans have been waiting all offseason for, but that has not happened. With most of the enticing free agents off the board, Alex Bregman is pretty much the only middle-of-the-order right-handed bat left. He'd be a perfect fit, but the Red Sox don't seem to be super likely to land him.

If Bregman isn't coming to Beantown, Nolan Arenado might be the next-best option. While he fits the bill as a right-handed bat they can stick in the middle of their lineup, he's far from a perfect fit for a variety of reasons, one of which should convince Breslow to look the other way entirely.

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One glaring statistic should be enough to dissuade Craig Breslow from pursuing Nolan Arenado

First of all, Arenado's defensive fit isn't the cleanest. If they were to sign Bregman, he'd play second base - a position he's expressed a willingness to play. If they were to trade for Arenado, though, he'd almost certainly stick at third base. The Red Sox can make that work, and can even keep Triston Casas at first base, but that'd require using Rafael Devers as their everyday designated hitter, a position he does not want to play, and that'd also require benching Masataka Yoshida, a player making $18.6 million annually through the 2027 campaign.

The position fit isn't ideal, but the Red Sox could make it worse for the right player. Arenado is the right player defensively, but his bat is just not what the Red Sox need.

Not only is Arenado coming off his worst offensive season since his rookie year over a decade ago, but he was particularly underwhelming against left-handed pitching. The 33-year-old slashed .235/.266/.379 with five home runs and 17 RBI in 154 plate appearances against southpaws this past season. His OPS against righties (.743) was nearly 100 points higher than that against lefties (.646).

The Red Sox would primarily be looking to add Arenado to give their lineup some added balance. Sure, he hits right-handed, but his splits make it seem as if he's a left-handed hitter given his struggles against left-handed pitching. Bregman also had reverse splits this past season, but he did at least have an OPS of .712 against southpaws, nearly 70 points above Arenado's.

Arenado would improve the team's defense, but that's about it. He would not add the lineup balance Red Sox fans have been waiting for, and that fact should probably end Boston's pursuit before it picks up any more steam.