New Red Sox outfielder Adam Duvall is confident that advice he received from a well-known former teammate at the beginning of his career will help him successfully man center field in Boston.
Early in Duvall’s stint with the Reds from 2015 to 2017, Joey Votto gave Duvall a tip he has tried to carry throughout his nine-year big-league career. The six-time All-Star told Duvall, who then played both infield and outfield, to always prioritize defense. It’s something that has stuck with him.
“I’ve always taken pride in my defense,” Duvall said Wednesday. “It has always been the cornerstone of what I want to be seen as. When I was first coming up, I had (Joey Votto) tell me, ‘If you can play good defense every single day, they’ll keep you in the lineup. When you start messing around on defense and let your guard down a little bit and the next thing you know, you’re not hitting a little bit, they’ve got to find a switch for you.’ That stuck with me.
“I’ve always put a lot of pride in my defense,” he continued. “I’ve worked a lot at it. I worked a lot on my speed, trying to retain my speed as I got older. I’ve been able to do that.”
Duvall’s defensive capabilities will, quite literally, take center stage for the Red Sox in 2023. With Trevor Story out for a significant part of the season, Kiké Hernández will move to shortstop. That means Duvall, who signed a one-year, $7 million deal, will be the primary center fielder despite only playing 75 of his 722 career games at the position. Primarily a corner outfielder throughout his career, Duvall didn’t see an inning in center until 2020 and has never done it on a full-time basis. His 44 games in center in an injury-shortened 2022 were a career-high. Despite the lack of experience, Duvall has shown signs he can handle the position.
“It’s a position that is somewhat new to me, meaning the last two or three years, but it’s one that I find fascinating and pretty fun because I enjoy tracking down balls,” he said. “I enjoy going and getting balls and trying to steal hits and keeping guys from getting extra bases.”
Duvall won a Gold Glove in right field in 2021 and posted strong metrics as a defender last year in all three positions, according to Statcast. He was in the 88th percentile in outs above average, the 78th percentile in arm strength, the 74th percentile in outfield jump and the 67th percentile in sprint speed. The Red Sox believe the 6-foot-1, 215-lb. righty is plenty capable of taking over for Hernández, who emerged as one of the game’s best defensive outfielders in the last two seasons. Over the last seven seasons, Duvall leads National League outfielders with 59 defensive runs saved and ranks second with 48 assists.
“Defensively, he has been really, really good,” said chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom. “I think he probably has been one of the best corner outfielders in the big leagues... Making our club deeper is going to allow us to take care of (Duvall) so that he can be effective for us out there in center field. We do expect him to play out there a lot. It’s something he’s excited about and something that Alex and the staff are excited about it. It doesn’t have to all be on him but he can be a really big part of the solution out there.”
Duvall said he expects a “small” learning curve at the beginning of the season, not only because of his lack of innings in center but also because of the unique dimensions of Fenway Park. He plans on using Hernández, who was part of Boston’s pitch to recruit him, as a resource often. The work, he said, has already begun.
“I think the biggest challenge will be the dimensions,” Duvall said. “I’ve even thought about going back and watching certain plays and how I can learn to play the ball off the wall and the ball in the gap and those things before I even step foot in the stadium. I’m thinking of ways I can try to familiarize myself with the park and the dimensions and how to play certain balls before I even get there.”
- Sports betting is coming to the state of Massachusetts. Learn more about the anticipated online sportsbooks such as FanDuel MA and DraftKings MA
Entering the winter, the Red Sox would have preferred to have Hernández in center with Xander Bogaerts returning as the shortstop and Story remaining at second. But with Bogaerts gone and Story hurt, they had to get creative. They’re making a big bet that Duvall can step into one of baseball’s premier positions.
“I’m up to the challenge and I’m looking forward to it,” Duvall said.
Ad Choices