Red Sox All-Star Jarren Duran may finally be breaking out of brutal early-season slump

Red Sox All-Star Jarren Duran may finally be breaking out of brutal early-season slump originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Boston Red Sox are starting to look like they may finally be clicking, after they finished a road sweep of the Kansas City Royals yesterday. Their pitching was elite as usual, only giving up five runs in the series. 

However, it seems like their dilapidated offense is actually cleaning itself up. One of their worst slumpers who was a key hitter in seasons past has finally made a return in All-Star MVP Jarren Duran.

Duran was a massive hindrance this season

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Before the season, it seemed like Duran was going to have a dominant year, as he was one of the best hitters for Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic. However, the total opposite happened. 

Instead, through his first 39 games he was hitting .174 with four homers and 18 RBI. He was making consistent contact, but it was always directly toward a defender, either for a fly out, ground out, or line out.

With this massive slump, finding a trade partner to get Duran off the team was becoming a bigger and bigger concern for the Red Sox.

Duran has found himself in the last five games 

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In the last five games, Duran has found his swing again, especially against the Royals. He’s slashing .368/.458/.957/1.405 with three doubles, a triple, and two home runs. Both those homers came against the Royals, and were critical for the sweep.

Duran has now pulled his seasonal stats up to .195/.266/.362/.628 with nine doubles, a triple, six home runs, 24 RBI and 10 steals in 44 games. While the hitting numbers still seem bad, keep in mind it’s much better than what he was rocking for a majority of this season. 

Duran could fill the final outfield hole 

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While Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela have right field and center field locked down, left field has been a revolving door for Boston. Roman Anthony, Duran, and Masataka Yoshida have all been taking reps as none of their bats were heating up enough to claim the spot full-time.

However, with Anthony on the IL, Duran could finally lock down the spot, and Yoshida could go back to being the full time DH. And if that’s the case, the Sox’ offense has a real chance of waking up, which could mean a real shot at contention. 

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