Days before the club reports to Fort Myers to open spring training, the Red Sox finally made a move to bolster their infield, signing veteran utility man Isiah Kiner-Falefa to a one-year deal.

On the surface Kiner-Falefa checks a lot of boxes for the Red Sox. He is a right-handed hitter with positional versatility and the ability to play both second and third base. He’s a plus defender at both positions, has eight seasons of MLB experience and is coming off a World Series run this past fall with the Toronto Blue Jays.

But Kiner-Falefa is also a poor hitter, and because of that he isn’t likely to meaningfully change the equation for a disjointed Red Sox position player group.

Heading into 2026 the Red Sox look capable of at least matching last year’s club, which finished third in the AL East, made the playoffs and lost to the New York Yankees in the AL Wild Card Series. The Red Sox starting rotation is unquestionably better and the offense returns much of the group that ranked seventh in runs scored last season, but the question is whether or not they can take the next step as a true championship contender.

We’ll see how things play out, but right now the club’s biggest issue doesn’t look like it’ll be talent so much as whether or not the puzzle pieces fit together.

Lineup depth and balance an issue

With the caveat that others could emerge as spring training goes along, this is how the Red Sox position player group could look on Opening Day.

Starting lineup: Roman Anthony LF, Trevor Story SS, Jarren Duran DH, Willson Contreras 1B, Wilyer Abreu RF, Carlos Narvaez C, Marcelo Mayer 3B, Isiah Kiner-Falefa 2B, Ceddanne Rafaela CF

Bench: Masataka Yoshida OF/DH, Connor Wong C, Romy Gonzalez INF/OF, Nate Eaton INF/OF

Injured List: Triston Casas 1B/DH

Triple-A: Kristian Campbell INF/OF, David Hamilton INF, Nick Sogard INF/OF, Mickey Gasper INF/OF

A couple of problems jump out immediately.

As currently constructed, this lineup is top-heavy, lefty-leaning and overly reliant on young players who are unproven, injury-prone or both.

From one through five the Red Sox will be able to hit with the best, and Willson Contreras should effectively replace Alex Bregman’s offensive production while providing some sorely needed right-handed power. The trouble is the Red Sox only have one other right-handed hitter who can reliably slot into the top half of the lineup. That’s Trevor Story, and ideally he’d bat fifth or sixth while another addition batted second, preferably someone who gets on base more and strikes out less.

In that scenario the Red Sox could regularly bat Carlos Narvaez seventh, platoon Marcelo Mayer and Kiner-Falefa in the eighth spot and go with Ceddanne Rafaela ninth.

Having Mayer and Kiner-Falefa in the lineup together would not be ideal and you could make a strong case the Red Sox would be better off starting Romy Gonzalez over one of them. Kiner-Falefa will help protect Mayer from being exposed to too much left-handed pitching and provide a fall-back plan in case the promising rookie gets hurt again, but Kiner-Falefa actually performed worse against lefties than against righties himself this past season.

Beyond that, his 76 OPS+ — which translates to 24% worse than league average offensive production — ranked 11th worst in MLB among all players with at least 450 plate appearances in 2025.

Needless to say, if the Red Sox’s goal was to add a righty-hitting infielder to bolster the lineup, Kiner-Falefa won’t be the answer. He could be a useful piece, but another bat to stretch the lineup will be needed if the club hopes to reach its full potential.

Bench needs work

In theory having more starting-caliber outfielders than available lineup spots seems like a good problem to have, but the Red Sox’s outfield logjam is creating a less obvious issue.

Specifically, the bench is a dysfunctional mess.

Ideally the Red Sox would have a back-up catcher, a jack-of-all-trades utility man, a reserve corner infielder and a right-handed hitting bench outfielder. They’ve got the back-up catcher covered with Connor Wong, Romy Gonzalez can play all over, including at first base, and Nate Eaton, David Hamilton, Nick Sogard and Mickey Gasper — who was claimed off waivers Wednesday afternoon — are all well-suited for a bench utility role.

There is also Kristian Campbell, who needs regular playing time and will likely open the season in Triple-A if he doesn’t earn a starting job with the big league club.

But because there’s no way to play Anthony, Rafaela, Abreu, Duran and Yoshida at the same time without having Rafaela play second — something the club has indicated it doesn’t want to do — someone is going to have to come off the bench. That will probably be Yoshida, who offers little value defensively or on the base paths. Plus, because four of the five outfielders bat lefty, including Yoshida, none will offer a platoon advantage unless one of the other righty bench options pinch hits first.

That may not seem like a huge deal, but considering how aggressively Alex Cora tries to exploit matchups as the game goes along, not having Rob Refsnyder or someone with his skillset is going to be a problem.

What can still be done?

If the Red Sox want to optimize their position player group, then at some point they need to add another right-handed hitting infield bat and swap a lefty-hitting outfielder out for a righty-hitting one.

With the free agent market largely picked clean, the best options for Boston in the infield will likely come via trade. The Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs each have infield surpluses, making players like Isaac Paredes, Nico Hoerner and Matt Shaw logical targets. Arizona’s Ketel Marte would also be a home run, though the Diamondbacks publicly stated earlier this winter that they are no longer shopping the three-time All-Star.

As far as the outfield goes, there are two paths that would clear up the lineup. One is trading either Duran or Abreu in a mini blockbuster, ideally for the infield bat the club needs. The other is finding someone who will take Yoshida in a salary dump, which would probably require attaching a pitching prospect or two.

Either path would ensure all of Boston’s remaining outfielders have an everyday spot, freeing up a bench job for the Red Sox to add a replacement for Refsnyder, who signed a one-year deal with the Mariners earlier this winter. Some available free agent possibilities include Miguel Andujar, Randal Grichuk, Starling Marte and Tommy Pham, among others.

The Red Sox still have time to make the necessary moves, and even if the club goes into Opening Day with this group the offense should still be able to score plenty of runs. But unless something changes Cora’s job is going to be needlessly difficult, and for the club to reach its full potential the roster needs to fit together more cleanly.