There are just over two weeks until the Boston Red Sox open their 2025 season against the Texas Rangers, and plenty of players battling for positions in the field still await the coaching staff’s final lineup decisions.
Boston’s batting order would be rather easier to predict, with a few heavy hitters who belong at the top of the order. On March 12, Red Sox manager Alex Cora confirmed fans’ suspicions when he announced his team’s first three batters.
“If I can say the top three right now, it will most likely go Jarren (Duran), Raffy (Devers) and Alex (Bregman),” Cora told reporters.
The skipper specified that he hopes to bat Bregman third to separate Devers and Triston Casas, two lefty sluggers, in the batting order. The Red Sox specifically targeted Bregman to increase the right-handedness of their offense, and his outstanding numbers at Fenway Park (.375/.490/.750 slash line, 1.240 OPS over 21 appearances) also warrant the No. 3 spot on the batting order.
Alex Cora announces Jarren Duran, Rafael Devers and Alex Bregman will lead off Red Sox’s batting order
Duran has been a solid leadoff hitter for the Sox over the past two seasons, and his 2024 stint as the team’s best player (8.7 bWAR) shows that he deserves the job again. He routinely stretches singles into doubles and doubles into triples with his 96th-percentile speed and has the potential to steal bags with the best of them. Bregman and Devers batting behind Duran could drastically increase his run production, provided Devers is healthy.
Devers still hasn’t appeared in a spring training game for the Red Sox, as he’s still recovering from shoulder injuries he played through all of 2024. The lefty’s Grapefruit League debut has been delayed multiple times, but he’s expected to play his first spring training game on March 15.
The delays in Devers’ recovery progress haven’t been explicitly classified as additional injury troubles but as timing issues and a preference to face big league pitchers. Many teams give their minor league or depth arms reps in spring training games to see where they fall in the pitching pecking order, but Devers can face Boston’s best pitchers in simulated games at JetBlue Park. Still, Red Sox fans hope to see the infielder in game action as soon as possible.
Duran, Devers and Bregman will be a deadly top of the order for opposing pitchers when all three are healthy. The rest of Boston’s bats, including a finally healthy Trevor Story and Casas, Ceddanne Rafaela with improved swing mechanics, Masataka Yoshida, top prospects, and more, could be among the strongest offensive lineups in the American League East.
