The Boston Red Sox are jockeying for playoff position with a postseason berth nearly locked down, despite a tough remaining schedule to close out the regular season. With that said, it’s time to look at playoff roster construction.
Obviously, the stars will be there. The solid everyday starters will be there too. But sometimes, success in October comes down to the fringes of the roster — it’s the guys who fill one specific role and do it well who can turn the tide and come up big when the moment calls for exactly their specific skill set. Just ask Dave Roberts.
The Red Sox have a handful of players who, like Roberts did back in 2004, can prove to be secret weapons and shift the momentum in Boston’s favor in pivotal moments. These might not be the most prominent names, but they absolutely cannot be left off the postseason roster.
4 potential secret weapons Red Sox can’t afford to leave off postseason roster
Romy Gonzalez and Rob Refsnyder
Neither Rob Refsnyder nor Romy Gonzalez is unfamiliar to Red Sox fans, but the impact they can have as playoff secret weapons cannot be overstated. Both do one thing really well: mash lefties.
Refsnyder has a .983 OPS against southpaws this season. Gonzalez is even better at .992. Both of these key reserves show immense power against lefties as well, with Refsnyder slugging .577, and Gonzalez coming in at an eye-popping .609. That’s superstar-level production from both of these guys in this very specific role.
Gonzalez, in particular, has hit well when coming off the bench as a pinch hitter. The sample size is small, just 15 at plate appearances, but a .308/.400/.385 line in these situations shows that he’s comfortable coming in cold and keeping the line moving.
These two can give fits to the elite lefty starters they’ll face, and can also give opposing managers pause on bringing in left-handed relief aces, knowing that Boston can counter with one of these two should the situation call for it.
Nathaniel Lowe
Nathaniel Lowe was in the midst of the worst season of his career when he was unceremoniously cut by the Washington Nationals. As Boston has found out, Washington’s decision to cut bait was a gift, and the club would be wise to keep Lowe around beyond 2025.
Lowe’s presence on the roster would give Boston the everyday answer at first base against right-handed pitching, and similar to Refsnyder and Gonzalez, he is a factor in leveraging the platoon advantage. For his career, Lowe has a .265/.349/.437 line in 2392 plate appearances against righties. Even with his struggles for much of the season, he’s still slashing .243/.320/.427 against right-handers in 2025.
He might only be a strongside platoon option at this point, but it’s something he does really well, and his presence in the lineup can afford the Red Sox the flexibility to deploy other players elsewhere in situations that are more advantageous for them, making the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
David Hamilton
The Red Sox will have some tough decisions in how they configure their postseason bench, but one player who shouldn’t be left off is David Hamilton.
While he’s a light-hitting utility infielder, Hamilton possesses game-changing speed as evidenced by his 29.3 feet per second average sprint speed, which ranks in the 94th percentile in baseball. For reference, MLB stolen base leader, Jose Caballero of the New York Yankees, is over a full foot slower with a 28.2 feet per second average.
Hamilton has swiped 20 bags in 26 tries this year. Last season, he went 33 for 37 in stolen base attempts. The Sox decided to part ways with Abraham Toro over leaving the speedy Hamilton in the minors, despite the latter still having options if they needed to shuffle him up and down to Triple-A, showing how they value his speed
Simply put, Hamilton is built for success as a playoff pinch runner, and his speed could pay big dividends in critical moments.
