Some Things I Think I Think: It’s time for Red Sox to move on from Masataka Yoshida

∗ It’s not all Masataka Yoshida’s fault that his first three seasons with the Red Sox have been so disappointing.

There were injuries, including a major one to his shoulder requiring surgery. And no one forced the Red Sox to overbid (five years, $90 million) for him when he was posted to play Major League Baseball.

But it’s clear now, too, that Yoshida is far from the star he was envisioned to be. Yoshida does one thing well: he puts the bat to ball and makes contact. But he lacks power, isn’t a good (or fast) baserunner and is a subpar defender.

This spring, he’s also third on the Sox’ DH depth chart behind Jarren Duran and Roman Anthony. Unless either of those outfielders is injured or in need of some rest, what possible motive could there be to list him in the lineup over either Duran or Anthony?

Thanks to his underperformance — he has an OPS+ of just 109 — there’s little trade value with Yoshida, especially when you consider that he has $37.2 million coming to him over the next two seasons.

But it’s time for the Red Sox to consider that money to be sunken cost. They could attach a prospect to him in the hope that another team would take on the majority of the remaining money, but if it required them to part with David Sandlin to rid themselves of Jordan Hicks, what it would take to unload Yoshida, who’s due half again what Hicks was set to earn.

It’s not my money or yours, of course, but the best path here would be an outright release. It’s been done before and with more money out the door (Pablo Sandoval in 2017). And if the Red Sox are as intent on winning in 2026 as they say they are, it makes no sense to have Yoshida clogging up a roster spot.

By all accounts, Yoshida has been a good teammate. A release in spring training would allow him to find an interested team (at minimum salary) and enable the Red Sox to better utilize a bench spot.

∗ After enjoying a terrific season, the Patriots now have their work cut out for them.

History reminds us that only two-thirds of losing teams in the Super Bowl even qualify for the playoffs the following year and only eight teams in the first 59 Super Bowls got back to the championship game the next season.

Add in a much more difficult schedule (out of division opponents: Bears, Chiefs, Chargers, Jaguars, Broncos, Packers and a rematch with the Seahawks) and the need to upgrade both the offensive line and pass rush, the Patriots could well be a better team in 2026 and yet somehow win three or four fewer games.

Figuring out where to play Will Campbell could be a key. It might behoove the Pats to move Campbell to guard in the short term and spend for a more experienced left tackle.

∗ Early impressions of Team USA hockey team: They’ve managed to overcome slow starts and not panic when Latvia stayed with them in the first period Thursday and Denmark took a 2-0 lead Saturday.

But Jeremy Swayman isn’t helping his bid to be the choice in net later in the competition when he gives up a bad goal from beyond center ice the way he did against Denmark.

∗ Good for Adam Silver for talking so openly about tanking. The NBA commissioner acknowledged Saturday that the league needs to find a way to incentivize teams to put their best players on the court. He fined Utah and Indiana this past week for failing to do so.

One path that’s not, thankfully, being considered is abolishing the draft and making incoming players available as free agents. That would eliminate tanking but open up all sort of other issues.

∗ The nice thing about watching hockey at the Olympics, on the heels of last year’s 4 Nations tournament, is the knowledge that the World Cup of Hockey is only two years away.

There’s little like the skill or drama of international hockey, with the game played at its highest level.

∗ It only makes sense to be skeptical about whether the Red Sox can top their win total of 89 last year. There are concerns about the offense. But some projections have them as low as 82, which seems like an absurdly easy “over” wager.

∗ Veteran novelist Don Winslow said he was retiring from writing crime fiction after his City trilogy a few years ago. So it was a pleasant surprise to see him return with a collection of short stories, The Final Score. His lucky readers will take what they can get.

∗ The pettiness of NFL owners knows no bounds. Embarrassed by their players giving some team facilities poor marks in an NFL Players Association survey, they went to court to stop the surveys from being made public.

∗ The more that gets uncovered in the Emmanuel Clase case, the worse things look. It’s clear now that the amount of fraud that took place when Clase was on the mound was much deeper than anyone initially suspected.

And, I suspect, there will be more to come – both in this case and others not yet uncovered.

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