Red Sox's Alex Cora Sends Jarren Duran Message Amid Recent Lack Of Starts

The Boston Red Sox outfield was a major talking point this offseason, given that the team had five players capable of playing daily, and now that the season is underway, the fluidity of the outfield is evident.

Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela and Roman Anthony have all seen very limited dips in playing time.

However, Jarren Duran has struggled to start the season and has started in just one of the last four games, including Tuesday's game against the New York Yankees.

The Yankees started Luis Gil, a right-hander, on Tuesday.

It would've made sense for Duran to start, but instead it was Masataka Yoshida in the designated hitter spot.

Alex Cora spoke on the decision to start Yoshida and why Duran was left on the bench against a right-hander.

"Chasing pitches, early on he was taking walks and now he’s chasing, we've got to make sure we swing at the right ones," said Cora on Tuesday, per MLB.com's Ian Browne.

"As a group, we did a good job (Monday), controlling the strike zone, putting the ball in play.

We just got to keep continuing to do that."
Duran is hitting .164 with a .497 OPS to start the season.

He is not the only struggling hitter, but the Red Sox have so many outfielders that the team can afford to bench him.

He has a 34.5% chase rate and a 40.2% whiff rate.

Going into Tuesday's game, Yoshida had 30 fewer plate appearances than Duran.

However, he is hitting .324 with an .889 OPS.

He is currently the better left-handed hitter and could see even more playing time if Duran spends more time on the bench.

Both Yoshida and Duran have fewer than 20 plate appearances against left-handed pitching.

More MLB: Why Red Sox's Slow Start Isn't As Bad As It Seems