Boston Red Sox Sign Former A’s Third Baseman

The Boston Red Sox have been in the news plenty this offseason when it comes to what will happen for the club at third base. Could Rafael Devers switch positions, moving him away from the hot corner? Is Boston bringing in Alex Bregman? As things sit right now, Devers is still at third and Bregman is still unsigned.

Yet, the Red Sox brought in a little bit of depth this week, signing free agent infielder Abraham Toro to a minor-league deal.

Toro has played for four teams in his big-league career, beginning with the Houston Astros in 2019, then being traded to the Seattle Mariners in 2021 as part of the Kendall Graveman deal. Seattle traded him to Milwaukee after the 2022 season in the Jesse Winker deal, and then the Brewers moved him to Oakland following the ’23 campaign.

Toro made the A’s Opening Day roster and ended up taking over third base for the club when J.D. Davis landed on the IL in April. Toro ended up going 22-for-84 (.262) that month, and followed that up by hitting .315 with a .351 OBP in May in 28 games played. Once the calendar flipped to June, he started to tail off, going 20-for-125 (.160) the rest of the season as his playing time dwindled.

By the end of August, Toro was DFA’d, and spent the rest of the ’24 season in the minor leagues as the A’s looked for a more long-term solution to their own third base dilemma.

While third base is primarily where he played for the A’s, he has also seen a good bit of playing time at second base throughout his career, and that could be Toro’s best bet to seeing some playing time in Boston.

Roster Resource over at FanGraphs currently has David Hamilton as Boston’s starting second baseman, while Vaughn Grissom helps to form a platoon at the position. They have Hamilton taking on right-handers, while Grissom deals with the lefties.

Toro is a switch hitter, which could come in handy if there is an injury to either of those players, though he fared better against southpaws. Against right-handers Toro hit .227 with a .287 OBP and an 81 wRC+ (100 is league average), while he batted .286 with a .313 OBP and a 106 wRC+ against left-handers.

The addition of Toro, 28, is a depth move for the Red Sox as they hope to get back into the postseason picture in 2025. One way to do that is to bring in a bunch of great players, which Boston has dabbled in with the signing of Walker Buehler and the trade for Garrett Crochet.

The other way to improve the club is to build up the team’s depth, and as we saw from Toro in 2024, he can be a good lightning in a bottle player for a prolonged period of time. If an opportunity opens up for him and he hits like he did in the early days in Oakland, then that could be the difference between Boston playing in October and sitting at home.