The Boston Red Sox need herculean efforts from its players to keep up in the AL Wild Card race. On Tuesday night, that's exactly what they got from star man Jarren Duran. Duran, in a 6-3 Red Sox win over the Toronto Blue Jays, took center stage and made history in the process. He hit his 20th home run of the season in the very first at-bat of the game for the Red Sox, and in so doing, he became just the first player in MLB history to tally at least 10 triples, 20 home runs, 30 stolen bases, and 40 doubles in a single season.
At this point, there's little more that Duran can do to lift the Red Sox to playoff contention. And he is setting himself up for life-altering financial gain in the process, as pointed out by manager Alex Cora.
“He's gonna make a lot of money,” Cora said, per Chris Cotillo of Mass Live.
Indeed, center fielders of Jarren Duran's ilk tend to make the kind of money that would have him and his family set financially for generations to come. Duran is a true five-tool player, a speedster with plenty of pop in his bat all the while covering a ton of ground in the outfield. But the good news for the Red Sox is that the 27-year-old center fielder won't be making that kind of money quite yet.
Duran is a bit of a late-bloomer; he has played for the Red Sox in parts of four seasons, but he only started becoming a regular last year. Thus, Duran will only be entering the first year of arbitration. His popcorn stats are impressive, as evidenced by the 10-20-30-40 club he founded, so he should be rewarded handsomely, but he won't be earning yet the kind of money he would have bagged home had he entered the open market.
With four years left of team control left for the Red Sox following the 2024 season, Duran should be a fixture at Fenway Park for years to come — so long as he avoids further controversy.
Jarren Duran emerges as a bonafide star for the Red Sox
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It's not too often that a player taken with the 220th overall pick of the MLB Draft becomes a big-leaguer, let alone a star. But for Jarren Duran, he managed to shatter expectations despite falling all the way to the seventh round in 2018. Duran, however, was a fast-riser. He was up to Double-A by his second season (2019), and he may have made it all the way to the big leagues in 2020 had it not been a shortened season.
Duran, however, despite being a highly-touted prospect, did not exactly tear up the opposition when he first arrived in the majors. In particular, he struggled immensely from the plate. During his first two brief seasons in the MLB, he slashed a ghastly .219/.269/.354 — numbers that made him deserving of more reps in the minors.
But in 2023, Duran began to emerge as an everyday starter for the Red Sox. He flashed his speed and doubles power and made believers of plenty of fans in Fenway Park. Now, he has put it all together; in addition to being the founding member of the 10-20-30-40 club, he is slashing .294/.354/.528 in addition to playing quality defense at both center and left field. Only 27 years old, he is in the middle of his prime, so he should be playing at this level for the foreseeable future.
