Jarren Duran went 6-for-28 (.214) with no walks, 11 strikeouts and just one extra-base hit (double) on the Red Sox’ 2-4 road trip that dropped them to below .500 (22-23).
The 2024 AL All-Star is batting .253 with a .298 on-base percentage, .376 slugging percentage and .674 OPS in 44 games and an MLB-leading 208 plate appearances.
His OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage) is 160 points lower than his .834 mark last year.
Where do his statistics compare with the league average?
The 2025 MLB averages so far for batting average, OBP, slugging and OPS are almost identical to 2024.
2025: .243/.316/.394/.710 2024: .243/.312/.399/.711
The 28-year-old Duran’s OPS this year is 36 points below the league average when his OPS last year was 123 points higher than the league average.
His wRC+ is 84, below the standard league average of 100. He had a 129 wRC+ last year.
Manager Alex Cora has said Duran is his leadoff hitter and that won’t change. And that is probably the right call based on how dynamic he can be when he’s going right. He didn’t get real hot last year until June.
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Duran is so integral to the offense as a speedy leadoff man who sets the table for the Nos. 2-5 hitters. He’s able to manufacture quick runs as a base stealer and by stretching a single into a double or a double into a triple.
His 83 extra-base hits ranked fourth in the majors behind only Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani (99), Yankees’ Aaron Judge (95) and Royals’ Bobby Witt Jr. (88) in 2024.
He’s tied for 34th in extra base hits (16) right now with 20 other hitters. He’s on pace for 57 extra-base hits.
He had a .272/.340/.444/.784 line with 25 extra-base hits after his first 44 games last year. As mentioned, he started to get real hot in early June.
His OPS on the final day of last May was .744. It increased 102 points to .846 in June. He was at his best last year during the three warmest months with a .322/.377/.601/.978 line, 18 homers, 27 doubles and five triples from June 1-Aug. 31.
June and July are historically his two best months. So he might be about to break out offensively.
But so far this year, he hasn’t provided the same value both offensively and defensively.
He had 23 defensive runs saved in 1,421 ⅓ innings (17 in center field, six in left field) last year. But he has negative-2 defensive runs saved in 387 ⅓ innings between left field (-1) and center field (-1) this year.
He finished fifth in MLB in WAR (8.7) last year, per Baseball-Reference’s metric. He has a 0.0 WAR right now.
He’s 11th among Red Sox players in fWAR (0.4) after finishing last year with a 6.7 fWAR.
His chase percentage is up and his walk rate is down. His expected average, expected slugging and expected weighted on-base percentage are also down pretty significantly.
