Red Sox Inquire About Seiya Suzuki After Ranking 26th in Homers

Featured image (file photo): Seiya Suzuki batting for the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Sept. 7, 2025. Photo: Keiteay, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0. This photograph is not from the current offseason.

The Boston Red Sox have inquired about free-agent outfielder Seiya Suzuki, Boston Globe columnist Peter Abraham reported this week from Major League Baseball’s General Managers Meetings in Las Vegas. The report describes interest, not an offer or an agreement, as Boston looks for right-handed power after finishing the 2026 season with 163 home runs.

What the reports say

Heavy.com writer Michael DeRosa, in a story republished Thursday by Yahoo Sports, described the Red Sox as “making a push” to sign Suzuki. That wording is Heavy’s characterization. Abraham’s language, as quoted by Yahoo Sports, Sports Illustrated and MLB Trade Rumors, was narrower.

“The worst-kept secret at the GM Meetings is that the Red Sox are shopping Jarren Duran (a year too late, but nonetheless),” Abraham wrote, according to those outlets. “Sox have also inquired about free agent Seiya Suzuki to add to a lineup that finished 12th in the AL in home runs last season.”

NBC Sports’ Eric Samulski, writing Thursday and citing Abraham, also reported that the Red Sox “inquired about free agent Seiya Suzuki.” Samulski wrote that Boston’s interest “has been widely known,” and that the club is looking to add right-handed power in the middle of the order. MLB Trade Rumors’ Steve Adams, also on Thursday, summarized the same Abraham report as the Red Sox having “reached out” to Suzuki. TheScore likewise attributed both the Duran and Suzuki items to Abraham.

The inquiry is a report, not a confirmed negotiation or a deal. The Red Sox have not issued a public statement on Suzuki, and there has been no reported agreement on years or dollars. Shopping Duran, which NBC Sports’ Matthew Pouliot also attributed to Abraham on Wednesday, is likewise unconfirmed by the club and is not a completed trade.

This is the second time this offseason Suzuki has been linked to Boston in published reporting. On Oct. 28, Sports Illustrated quoted MassLive’s Chris Cotillo as writing that “one source with knowledge of Boston’s thinking said recently that Suzuki has big fans in the organization.” Cotillo, in that account, grouped Suzuki with Randy Arozarena as leading options “if the Red Sox do try to make a free agent splash.” That October item was also a source-based report, not a confirmation of a bid.

Abraham had already flagged Suzuki as a possible fit before the inquiry report. In a Nov. 9 Globe column previewing the meetings at the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, he wrote that the Red Sox’s clear weakness was a lack of power and that Suzuki “has the righthanded power that would fit the Sox.” He also noted that the free-agent hitting class is thin beyond Arozarena and Jake Bauers. That column described a positional fit, not a club outreach.

By the numbers

Baseball-Reference’s 2026 team statistics confirm Abraham’s home-run ranking. The Red Sox hit 163 home runs, 12th among the 15 American League clubs and 26th among the 30 major league teams. The major league average was 186 home runs. By The Boston Report’s calculation from those Baseball-Reference figures, Boston finished 23 home runs below the league average, or about 12% fewer, and 60 behind the New York Yankees, who hit 223.

The rest of the offensive profile matches the power problem Abraham described in his Nov. 9 column, when he wrote that the Red Sox were 23rd in the majors in scoring, 26th in home runs and 20th in slugging percentage. Baseball-Reference lists Boston with 689 runs, 23rd in the majors, and a .398 slugging percentage, tied with the San Diego Padres for 19th. The league averages were 726 runs and a .400 slugging percentage. Boston’s 4.25 runs per game were below the league’s 4.48.

That shortfall was visible in October. The Yankees swept the Red Sox in the American League Wild Card Series, winning 9-0 and 9-2 at Yankee Stadium, MLB.com reported. Boston scored its only two runs of the series in Game 2. MLB.com reported that the Red Sox had gone 26 innings without a postseason run before Willson Contreras homered in the sixth inning of that game, a streak dating to Game 2 of the previous year’s American League Wild Card Series.

Suzuki, 32, is a right-handed-hitting outfielder and designated hitter who has spent all five of his major league seasons with the Chicago Cubs after signing out of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. In 2026 he played 143 games and hit .270/.368/.473 with 26 home runs, 31 doubles, 86 RBIs, 96 runs and 81 walks in 545 at-bats and 634 plate appearances, according to Baseball-Reference. His .841 OPS and 131 OPS+ were both above his career marks of .823 and 128. Baseball-Reference credits him with 5.1 wins above replacement, a career high.

The 26 home runs were not his peak. He hit 32 with 103 RBIs in 2025, his career highs, but his average (.245) and on-base percentage (.326) that year were the lowest of his major league career, and his WAR was 2.6. By TBR calculations from Baseball-Reference, his 2026 home-run total was six lower than in 2025, about a 19% drop, and his RBI total fell by 17, or about 17%. Over the same span his on-base percentage rose 42 points, his walk total rose from 71 to 81, and his WAR nearly doubled, to 5.1 from 2.6. Baseball-Reference’s fielding runs shifted from −5 in 2025, when he made 102 starts as a designated hitter, to +14 in 2026, when he started 110 games in right field.

He has now hit at least 20 home runs in four straight seasons (20, 21, 32 and 26 from 2023 through 2026). Over those four years, TBR calculations from Baseball-Reference show a combined .270/.353/.480 line with 99 home runs. In 2026 he also set career highs in runs (96), walks (81) and on-base percentage (.368), and he matched career highs in hits (147) and doubles (31).

How Suzuki would fit, and the Duran question

Any move for Suzuki would run into a crowded Boston outfield, a point several of the same reports raised as analysis rather than as a club plan. Samulski wrote that even if the Red Sox trade Duran, they would still have Roman Anthony, Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela, and that Suzuki would have to be willing to play designated hitter part of the time to fit. MLB Trade Rumors made a similar observation, listing Abreu, Anthony, Duran and Masataka Yoshida as left-handed corner-outfield or DH options around Rafaela in center field.

That is why the Duran report matters to the Suzuki rumor. Abraham called Boston’s effort to shop the 30-year-old outfielder the “worst-kept secret” of the meetings. Pouliot, citing Abraham, wrote on Wednesday that the Red Sox were shopping Duran in Las Vegas and that they had been open to moving him last winter but did not receive the right offer.

Duran’s 2026 season was the weakest of his career as an everyday player. In 151 games he hit .207/.266/.361 with 20 home runs, 21 stolen bases, a 76 OPS+ and 0.4 Baseball-Reference WAR, per Baseball-Reference. Two years earlier, in 2024, he was an All-Star who finished eighth in American League Most Valuable Player voting after hitting .285/.342/.492 with 21 home runs, 34 steals and 9.0 WAR. In 2025 he hit .256/.332/.442 with 16 home runs, 24 steals and 4.9 WAR. By TBR calculations from those figures, his OPS fell 207 points from 2024 to 2026, and his batting average dropped 78 points. He went 0-for-3 with a walk in the 2026 Wild Card series. Baseball-Reference lists him as a second-year arbitration player for 2027 who would not reach free agency until 2029.

None of that means a trade is imminent. No destination has been reported in the accounts reviewed for this article, and Duran remains on the Red Sox roster.

Cost, draft picks and a looming lockout

Even if the reported interest is genuine, a contract would be expensive, and the calendar is short. MLB Trade Rumors wrote that Suzuki’s production gives him “a clear path to a pricey four-year deal in the $25MM range annually, with a real chance at landing a five-year contract.” That is a projection, not a reported offer from Boston or any other club.

MLB Trade Rumors also reported that Suzuki received a $23.15 million qualifying offer and is “a lock to reject” it, which would tie him to draft-pick compensation. The site wrote that because the Red Sox are a luxury-tax payer, signing him after a rejected qualifying offer would cost them their second- and fifth-highest selections in the 2027 draft and reduce their international amateur bonus pool by $1 million. Those conditions have not been tested by a signed deal, and the Red Sox have not confirmed how they would treat the compensation.

The timing tightens the decision. In his Nov. 9 column, Abraham wrote that the General Managers Meetings were baseball’s last big gathering before a lockout, with the collective bargaining agreement set to expire at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 1 and transactions then frozen. The Boston Report covered the start of those meetings and the approaching deadline earlier this week. Abraham also wrote that next month’s Winter Meetings were likely to be canceled, leaving this window as the main chance for clubs to position themselves before a shutdown.

The power need itself is not new. After the season, the club’s 163 home runs and its 26th-place rank were already the central theme of Boston’s early offseason discussion, as laid out in The Boston Report’s earlier look at the Red Sox power-bat question. What is new this week is Abraham’s report that the Red Sox have now inquired about Suzuki, and his separate report that they are shopping Duran. Until the club or Suzuki’s representatives confirm a bid, a visit or a deal, both items remain reports from the meetings, not completed business.

Sources

• Michael DeRosa, Heavy.com, via Yahoo Sports, Nov. 12, 2026
• Eric Samulski, NBC Sports, Nov. 12, 2026
• Matthew Pouliot, NBC Sports, Nov. 11, 2026
• Steve Adams, MLB Trade Rumors, Nov. 12, 2026
• Peter Abraham, The Boston Globe, “GM meetings are key for Sox before lockout,” Nov. 9, 2026
• Patrick McAvoy, Sports Illustrated, Nov. 12, 2026, quoting Abraham
• Patrick McAvoy, Sports Illustrated, Oct. 28, 2026, quoting Chris Cotillo of MassLive
• Bryan McWilliam, theScore, on Abraham’s Duran and Suzuki reports
• Seiya Suzuki player page, Baseball-Reference
• Jarren Duran player page, Baseball-Reference
• 2026 Major League Baseball team statistics, Baseball-Reference
• Bryan Hoch, MLB.com, Yankees sweep the Red Sox in the 2026 AL Wild Card Series