Jarren Duran explains making inappropriate gesture during Red Sox loss

Gabrielle Starr, Boston Herald on Apr 15, 2026

Published in Baseball

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In the middle of Tuesday night’s 6-0 Red Sox loss in Minnesota, NESN cameras captured Jarren Duran raising his left hand toward the stands, his middle finger up.

Duran had just grounded out to lead off the fifth inning and was headed back to the dugout. He claimed postgame that he heard a fan tell him to take his own life.

“Somebody just told me to kill myself,” Duran told reporters. I’m used to it at this point. I mean, (expletive) happens.”

Duran added that he knew he could’ve handled it differently. Manager Alex Cora seemed unaware of the situation, as he told reporters, “I haven’t seen it. I just got back to the clubhouse.”

Duran has opened up about his mental health struggles several times in recent years. On the red carpet for the 2024 MLB All-Star Game, his motivational mantras, “(Expletive) ‘Em,” and “Still Alive,” were embroidered on the silk lining of his custom suit jacket. The same phrases adorned the custom cleats he wore as he played that year’s game, and won All-Star MVP.

In Netflix’s docuseries “The Clubhouse,” which followed the Red Sox over the course of the 2024 season and premiered last April, Duran revealed that after difficult initial big league stints in 2021 and 2022, he attempted suicide.

“I’m gonna flip somebody off if they say something to me, but it is what it is,” Duran said. “I shouldn’t react like that. That kind of stuff is still kind of triggering. It happens.”

“I didn’t really tell anybody, so like, that’s on me,” Duran added about the interaction he had with the fan. “Just trying to hold it in and not really bring that up to the team.

“We’re trying to win a game. I shouldn’t even bring that up to anybody. It’s not really something I want to be like, ‘Bro, you should have heard what this guy said to me.’ That’s not the most important thing. The most important thing is, win the game, and yeah, it just happens.”

Tuesday’s incident was far from a first for Duran. It came almost exactly one year after a similar situation unfolded during a Red Sox road series in Cleveland. In their April 27, 2025 game at Progressive Field, Duran had to be led away, first by coaches, then by teammate Ceddanne Rafaela, after he heard a fan urging him to kill himself. Security ultimately removed the offending party from the ballpark, and the Guardians released a statement of apology and intent to “address the situation.”

During an Aug. 7, 2022 game at Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium, Duran was seen shouting at fans from the outfield, before then-teammate Alex Verdugo led him away. Postgame, Duran told reporters he did so because people were throwing bottle caps at him.

Duran also served a two-game suspension in August 2024 after yelling a homophobic slur at a heckler during a Red Sox-Astros game at Fenway Park.

On Tuesday night, Duran blamed himself for opening up in the first place.

“Honestly, It’s my fault for talking about my mental health,” he said. “I kind of brought in the haters. So just something I’ve got to get used to.”

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If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741.