Which random dude would you add to the 2025 Red Sox?

MLB: Baltimore Orioles at Boston Red Sox — Eric Canha-Imagn Images

Because what’s better than naming random dudes?

In the middle of a topsy-turvy season, it’s become clear that the 2025 Red Sox have some holes in their roster. That’s the nature of the sport—every team has its own Achilles heel. You can’t wave a magic wand and fix all of your problems as a club in one fell swoop.

What this article presupposes is: maybe you can.

What if we could take one Red Sox player from yesteryear and place him on the team today?

That would be pretty sweet, huh? Imagine prime Pedro and Garrett Crochet as your 1-2 atop the rotation. Think of how much Roman Anthony would learn with Ted Williams in the clubhouse. It gets you fired up inside, doesn’t it?

Well, don’t get attached to that feeling for too long. The twist of this exercise is that we have to think of a random Sox player from the past to add to the 2025 team. No All-Stars, no MVPs, no Hall of Famers; just random dudes.

Here are our answers, what are yours?

Doug Mientkiewicz

In the true spirit of this hypothetical scenario, I’m not picking the star shortstop of my childhood in Nomar Garciaparra. Instead, I’ll take one of the guys that Nomar was traded for in the summer of 2004.

The Red Sox have had some defensive struggles over at first base in the first half of this season, especially ever since Triston Casas went down with an injury that has since ruled him out for the season. While the stopgaps in the meantime have provided some contributions with the bat, the hiccups with the leather remain.

Enter 2004 World Series champion Doug Mientkiewicz, a guy who was brought onto that team specifically for his defensive prowess.

Sure, he wasn’t much of a hitter; he posted a mere .603 OPS in his 49 games as a member of the Red Sox. Sure, defense at first base isn’t the be-all-end-all. But for a team that has as many miscues on that side of the ball as they do, a steady glove over at first would certainly help. Even as a defensive substitution or as a bench guy to get people off of their feet, Mientkiewicz would be a welcome presence on the 2025 Red Sox.

— Fitzy Mo Peña

Danny Darwin

What is one of the most concerning holes on the 2025 roster? Because it has such a rippling effect, I’d say it’s the inability of our starters to go deep into games. Our bullpen ends up on the front line far too often and they’re exhausted. What we need right now is a time-traveling innings eater.

Look no farther than 1993’s Danny Darwin.

Darwin pitched for the Sox for several years and was both a reliever and starter throughout his career, but I choose this version of Darwin because he started all the games he pitched that year (34, and two were complete), In 2025, of course, it’s impossible that he’d have any complete games, but this is evidence that the guy could go deep. He pitched 229.1 innings total and was healthy all year. Although he wasn’t known for being injured, he did spend some time on the DL (as it was then called) during his first year with the Sox. But not in 1993.

And that’s not all! His ERA was a respectable 3.26 (with an ERA+ of 143, so quite respectable that year). His WHIP was 1.086 and led the AL. Darwin won five games in May 1993 (out of six starts); can you imagine if we could have had that kind of stability in May 2025? He took a no-hitter into the eighth inning in August. His WAR for the season was 5.7. He was 37 years old in 1993 and that veteran presence sure couldn’t hurt our young team.

My only complaint is about one of his known complaints: he has spoken out about bat flipping and plunked batters for it. If he could get with the times (or keep it to himself), he’d fit in great with our 2025 Red Sox.

Something else about 1993 Danny Darwin: I spotted him at a mall in Chicago when the Red Sox were in town. Which was exciting, but doesn’t have anything to do with anything.

— Maura McGurk

Mike Timlin

Give me that overlooked bullpen arm who, while not an All-Star or an elite closer, is an underrated part of quietly building the bridge between the starting pitching and the ninth inning.

This is about preventing disaster! Sometimes you win games simply because there wasn’t a blow up in the sixth, seventh or eighth inning when a slender lead was most vulnerable. It doesn’t go in the highlight package with the home run that put the team ahead of the 100 MPH gas the closer is throwing to shut things down in the ninth, but its still an essential part of the machine.

Timlin is that ideal boring but effective reliever who can make the pitching staff deeper, and also win you some games by steadying the ship when runs are lighting up the scoreboard early. In his first four seasons with the Red Sox from 2003 though 2006, he pitched in 72, 76, 81, and 68 each season. It never hurts to have a random guy around who can do something like that.

Oh, and he also has four World Series rings!

— Matthew Gross

Nick Punto

I’m writing this on the heels of the Red Sox dropping two out of three games to the Giants, so I may be biased. At the same time, in each of the three games in the series, the second baseman committed an error that directly led to runs. It’s easy to say in hindsight, but without those errors, the Red Sox potentially sweep the series.

For that reason, I’m choosing to add Nick Punto to the team. He’s maybe the least flashy player of all time and has no pop in his bat whatsoever, but he brings a few things to the table. The major reason for adding him to the team is his defense. He’ll make the plays he’s supposed to make, and some that you don’t expect him to. You won’t have to worry about Punto booting a ground ball, dropping a line drive, or throwing the ball away.

Offensively, Punto isn’t someone you add to a team to score a ton of runs, but he rarely struck out and took walks when they were given to him. His career 17.4% strikeout rate would rank among the lowest on the active roster, his 10.3% walk rate would be among the best.

He’s not flashy, he’s not exciting, but Nick Punto makes the 2025 Red Sox a little bit better.

— Jake Roy

Byung-Hyun Kim

I’ve been absolutely racking my brain for a starting pitcher who could fit the bill and I’d mostly have to say Rich Hill but that doesn’t feel rando enough. So I’m going with Byung-Hyun Kim.

For the 2003 Red Sox, Kim had one Job (well, two if you count getting saves): putting the ‘pen in order.

Closer by committee didn’t work out for the reason it often doesn’t: not enough talent. You can’t simply mix and match if there aren’t good options to go to.

Now, he wouldn’t be the closer in 2025. For one thing, Chapman is only kinda the closer. Lots of teams are more closer by committee these days to some extent. But he’d probably drop in as the setup man with Garrett Whitlock and give the back end of the bullpen a little more length.

Brick-by-brick (shot-by-shot), inning by inning.

— Mike Carlucci

Tzu-Wei Lin

While this choice is definitely influenced by the five unearned runs the Red Sox gave up Sunday — most notably stemming from Romy Gonzalez’s error in the seventh to give the Giants their first lead of the day — I think we can all agree that the Tzu-Wei vibes are exactly what this team needs. I mean, his presence dragged us all through a miserable 2020 season. Not that he was good, but he was there! And by God, was he going to bring an army of fanboys with him.

While he did make the majority of his appearances at shortstop with Boston and throughout his career, he was actually better in his 138 innings at second base. If he was able to play an entire season at second base, he’d be worth nine runs above an average fielder (if you were looking for a point of comparison, Gonzalez would be worth -6 runs).

Lin is the exact kind of plug-and-play, do-whatever-could-possibly-be-asked-of-him person this team needs. No offense to David Hamilton, but he has nowhere near the same general vibes that Lin does. I mean, the dude played eight of nine positions in 2020 on the worst Red Sox team in recent memory. Unfortunately for the 2025 Red Sox, though, the one position he didn’t play was first base.

*But hey, if we can’t get Tzu-Wei Lin, could we maybe get Vaughn Grissom at least… k thanks.*

— Avery Hamel