Amid an early-season run of mediocrity — or worse — by most Red Sox position players, Wilyer Abreu has stood out for his solid play, a development that is particularly fascinating given that much of the offseason featured speculation about the right fielder as a trade candidate.
Despite a strong 2024 campaign in which Abreu hit .253/.322/.459 over 447 plate appearances and won a Gold Glove, his presence in Boston this year was not a given. With the Red Sox determined to upgrade their roster with star-level talent, and mega-prospect Roman Anthony on the cusp of the big leagues, Abreu seemed on his way out.
Abreu tried not to waste time thinking about the range of scenarios governing his future.
“I didn’t really pay attention to it. I feel like that’s out of my control,” Abreu said via translator. “I just focus on the things that I can control, and [rumors] don’t really bother me at all.
“I know what I needed to do. I just needed to focus on what I can control. That’s what I did.”
For Abreu, that meant absorbing the lessons of an uneven rookie year with a focus on strength training and nutrition, looking to stay healthy and productive for the full season. Despite a stomach bug that cost him some weight at the start of spring training, Abreu has felt like a different player in the batter’s box.
“At this point, I feel better than I felt last year. I feel more stable. I feel more in control of my at-bats,” said Abreu. “When you have your body under control, you make less movements. That allows you to hit the ball better and to see the ball better, and also to have more contact, which is my ultimate goal, and to minimize the strikeouts.”
Through 17 games, Abreu had tightened his strike zone in a way that has made him one of MLB’s elite performers this season. He entered Monday’s series in Tampa Bay with a .340 average, .468 OBP, and .600 slugging mark, products of an improved approach.
Entering Sunday, Abreu had significantly reduced his chase rate (swinging at 21 percent of pitches out of the zone, down from 28 percent last year), contributing to a huge drop in swings and misses (16 percent, down from 30 in 2024).
The result has been more walks (12), more hard contact on pitches in the zone, and an early-season eruption.
“He’s in a good place,” said assistant hitting coach Ben Rosenthal, who has worked with Abreu dating to their time in the Astros organization. “He’s talking about, ‘It feels like easy power. I’m not having to try.’ ”
With that increased bat life, Abreu has again forced a reconsideration of his potential.
When the Sox acquired Abreu and Enmanuel Valdez from the Astros at the 2022 trade deadline in exchange for catcher Christian Vázquez, he’d just started tapping into power that suggested a potential big league outfielder — but in a narrowly defined role.
But Abreu kept making progress, and the combination of mature swing decisions, emerging power, and strong defense pointed to more than a role player. Though unheralded on his ascent to the big leagues, Abreu seized his opportunity at the end of 2023 and convinced the Sox that he was worthy of a roster spot in 2024.
He then took advantage of an early-season shuffle — in particular, Ceddanne Rafaela’s move to the infield — to lock up a lineup spot any time the Sox faced a righthander.
Now, he’s shown that he may be more than a solid everyday presence.
“He exemplifies what we want a lot of our players to do,” said farm director Brian Abraham. “You have information internally, have projections, you have a lot of different things that create a view of what a player is and can be. And then sometimes the player, based on the work that they put in, based on improved skills, those projections can change and improve. Wilyer is a really good example of that.”
That description arises from a combination of strong baseline skills and the aptitude to improve. At 25, Abreu is offering evidence that he is still evolving.
There are no guarantees that what Abreu has shown is a harbinger of a breakout. The last decade has seen a wide array of hot starts by players ranging from Connor Wong (2024), Michael Chavis (2019), and Sandy Léon (1.157 OPS through his first 17 games of 2016!) give way to more modest performances.
That said, Abreu is showing that after an offseason of speculation he might be moved to clear a path for other prospects, the Red Sox might not want to look beyond the player who has been an early-season force.
“The ceiling, hopefully, you’d like to see a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger. I think that’s within reach for [Abreu] as he learns the league, still, and he gets used to himself,” said Rosenthal. “Wilyer’s here right now, and he’s really good. … We have good prospects, too. Their time will come, no doubt. But right now, Wily is here and exciting to watch.”
Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him @alexspeier.