Red Sox fill-in first baseman hitting .304 after choosing Boston over Yankees as free agent

Revue de presse

By Chris Cotillo | ccotillo@MassLive.com, le 5 juin 2025

BOSTON — The Red Sox’ signing of veteran infielder Abraham Toro on January 28 wasn’t met with much fanfare. Fans had their sights set on much bigger-name infielders like Nolan Arenado and Alex Bregman during that antsy point of the winter, anyway, and Toro looked like little more than Triple-A depth in what was already a crowded infield mix.

Five months later, though, Toro has been a rare bright spot for an underperforming Red Sox team. After not being seriously considered for the Opening Day roster and beginning the year in Triple-A, the 28-year-old has done his best Dom Smith impression in the wake of Triston Casas’ season-ending knee injury and given the Red Sox a little something since being called up on May 3.

Toro hasn’t turned around the season or thrust himself into the All-Star conversation. But while making 14 starts at first base and two more at third since Alex Bregman went down with a quad injury, he has hit .304 (21-for-69) with three homers, four doubles and an .803 OPS. He was even thrust into the cleanup spot Sunday in Atlanta and hit fifth Tuesday against the Angels.

P.S. Aujourd’hui, après 25 matchs, il frappe pour 0,333 (29-en-87) avec 4 circuits et 8 doubles et un ops de 0,915!

For a Red Sox lineup that strikes out way too much and has trouble with runners in scoring position, Toro has, out of nowhere, provided a little spark. He has walked just once (on Tuesday, in fact) but only has 11 strikeouts, too. With runners in scoring position, he’s 5-for-14 (.357) with four RBIs.

“It’s the quality of the at-bat,” said manager Alex Cora. “It’s not a quick one. He’s looking for pitches. When he strikes out, it’s not a non-competitive at-bat. He knows the situations.

“He plays the game. He understands what he needs to do. He’s been in this situation before and he has been a positive influence for the group.”

Toro came up in the Astros organization and was a bench player on the Bregman-led contenders of the late 2010s. He even got a late-game at-bat in Game 3 of the 2020 ALCS. Since, he has bounced around to the Mariners, Brewers, Athletics and now the Red Sox. Playing on the 107-win Astros in 2019 and 90-win Mariners in 2021 and 2022 and 92-win Brewers (sparingly) in 2023 taught him what it means to win.

“I’ve been on a couple playoff teams with Houston and Seattle. Being in that environment helps you to be ready for any kind of pressure,” Toro said.

This winter, after posting a .643 OPS in 94 games with Oakland last year and spending part of the season in the minors, Toro found himself with a limited market. Limited so much so, he said, that his only options were two sides of baseball’s most storied rivalry: the Red Sox and Yankees.

“Not my top two choices,” he said laughing. “Those were the only two offers I had.”

“The fact they were the only teams, and it’s the biggest rivalry in baseball, it was funny.”

For players looking for non-roster invites to spring training, opportunity is usually the deciding factor. Toro, who had primarily played second and third base throughout his career, Boston represented an interesting fit. At the time, before the signing of Bregman, Rafael Devers was expected to be Boston’s starter at third but there wasn’t much depth behind him. Second base was an open question with Kristian Campbell, David Hamilton and Vaughn Grissom in the pre-spring mix before Campbell won the position battle and debuted on Opening Day.

Toro’s chance has come largely at first base, a spot where he had only played 90 innings before this season. He signed with the Red Sox, though, because of their manager’s reputation for mixing and matching and finding ways to get bench players involved in creative ways.

“For me, a lot of it was Cora because I’ve seen him over the years,” said Toro, who was an Astros minor leaguer during Cora’s lone season as Houston’s bench coach in 2017. “He’s a guy that uses everybody on the team. A guy like me, maybe being a bench guy, it was something that was pretty attractive.”

Toro joined the big league roster in a first-base timeshare with Gonzalez, then Sogard after Gonzalez went down with a quad injury of his own. Sogard emerged as the top option for about a two weeks, starting nine of 12 games at first from May 10-23. Since, however, with the offense scuffling, it has been Toro with a heavy workload. He has started nine of 10 games since May 24.

“It’s being ready no matter what,” Toro said. “At first, if I was playing or not playing, my preparation was good. It’s something I’ve learned over time, being more mature and taking it one at-bat at a time.

“The adjustment I’ve made is just learning the situation at the plate. The situation will dictate what you need to do. For me, if no one’s on, it’s get on. If there’s a guy on second, how do I bring him in? It’s that simple.”

On Friday night in the Bronx, Toro will get his first chance to play in a game between two rivals who briefly competed for his services.

“Very excited,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot about it. Can’t wait.”

Photo ci-dessus : Abraham Toro chose the Red Sox over the Yankees as a free agent this winter. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)AP

Revue de presse publiée par Jacques Lanciault