When looking at the 2021 Red Sox, Jarren Duran represents potentially one of the most important decisions in the entire roster-building equation.
Is Duran ready for major-league duty? It’s a puzzle that the Red Sox have to put together under less-than-ideal circumstances.
Undoubtedly, the pre-COVID-19 plan was for the outfielder to spend the majority of 2020 at Triple-A Pawtucket with an eye on being part of the solution for the big-league club come 2021. Duran would have gotten that next-level experience, while being subjected to the kind of ups and downs that are so valuable to almost-major leaguers.
Instead, he lived live at the Red Sox’ alternate camp having to prove himself via a wave of intrasquad scrimmages. The verdict heading into this offseason?
“He had an unbelievable offensive camp,” said PawSox/WooSox manager Billy McMillon.”Stole a ton of bases, hit a lot of home runs. Impacted the baseball hard day in and day out. I think he continues to get better in the outfield and as that continues to get better I think that’s going to help clear the path for him. He’s OK. He’s solid. But you can see there is some room for improvement there and we did some things working on footwork and routes to the ball and he kind of cleaned that up a little bit. To me, the question is can he do that consistently and if he hit a lull with his offense is he going to stay as positive as he was all camp. I never saw him down during the camp. He hit really well for the entirety of the camp. He’s a very intriguing, very interesting guy.”
Duran had already left a positive impression on the Red Sox big-league coaching staff for much of his stint in Grapefruit League play before ultimately going into a slump in the final days of Spring Training 1.0.
Throughout the two months of development at McCoy Stadium, however, Duran kept on the track many believe he belonged on the way to potentially finding a spot on the Red Sox’ roster next season. The issue now involves how Chaim Bloom and Co. will view the 24-year-old when it comes to the Sox’ offseason plan of attack.
With Jackie Bradley Jr. hitting free agency and Andrew Benintendi attempting to rediscover his swing, the Duran question is one that has become more important than ever.
“I think what the organization should do or would do is think about where we were initially thinking about starting those guys last year and give an honest account on how they developed, what they got better at and see if that’s worthy of a jump at another level,” McMillon explained. “For instance, (Triston) Casas likely was going to start at Salem this year so with the month at the alternate site is that enough to warrant a skip of High A? I don’t know if we can make that determination Oct. 2. But I think what he did do and guys like that it reinforced that these guys have an idea and they are trending in the right direction. I don’t know if I would want to have a guy jump too many levels because if he is a guy we think he is than maybe he starts at the level we thought he would last year and it’s a brief stay there before he gets promoted.
“Duran is going to be an interesting one because he had such a wonderful camp and he did have some time in Double-A last year, I’m not quite sure where we might start him. But I think there is still some development that needs to take place and as he continues to grow he’s guy who has a tremendous amount of upside.
“I think the player development, the coordinators, (farm director) Ben Crockett, I think we’re all going to have some serious discussions and try and find that balance between not putting too much on the players’ plate but giving them a good enough challenge where they can reach their potentials.”
