Red Sox Jarren Duran Ranks Among Games Top Center Fielders

The Boston Red Sox (61-53) have gotten much more than they expected this season from center fielder Jarren Duran . After struggling to find his footing in the Majors over the last three seasons, 2024 has proven to be a breakout campaign for the young star.

In a recent article from Bleacher Report , Joel Reuter listed his power rankings for the top 10 players at each position. For center field, Jarren Duran comes in at second.

Duran enters Saturday batting .293/.352/.508 with 14 home runs, 58 RBI, 28 steals, and a 133 OPS+ on the season. He has played in every Red Sox game thus far, and leads MLB in plate appearances (533), at bats (484), and triples (13), while leading the American League in doubles (36).

The Red Sox have seen an offensive surge in the early stages of the second half of the season, and Duran has been a big part of that surge. In 19 second half games, Duran has batted .337/.394/.651 with four home runs, 17 RBI, six steals, and a 180 OPS+.

Duran's improvement may be due to regular playing time. In his three Major League seasons before 2024, he played in a combined 193 games. He batted .258/.309/.420 with 13 home runs, 67 RBI, 33 steals, and a 96 OPS+ in that span.

Duran's defense has seen improvement this season as well. Per Baseball Savant, Duran has accrued eight Outs Above Average this season, compared to a combined -2 over the past three seasons.

Duran has been a huge part of Boston's Major League leading offense this season. It has led to his first All Star nod, and could lead to more hardware coming his way at season's end.