{"id":97,"date":"2014-12-09T20:46:10","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T04:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chrisbodig.com\/?p=97"},"modified":"2014-12-19T09:42:10","modified_gmt":"2014-12-19T17:42:10","slug":"the-three-amigos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisbodig.com\/?p=97","title":{"rendered":"The Three Amigos: Papi, Panda, and Han-Ram"},"content":{"rendered":"

Less than four weeks after falling to the ground, clutching the final out of the San Francisco Giants thrilling 7-game World Series win, Pablo Sandoval switched coasts and signed a five-year contract with the Boston Red Sox.\u00a0 Hours later the Sox pulled a double California dip when they inked Dodgers\u2019 shortstop Hanley Ramirez to a four-year contract with the plan to move him to left field.<\/p>\n

In 24 hours, General Manager Ben Cherington completely re-made Boston\u2019s lineup.\u00a0 Both deals were scrutinized as perhaps overpays: Sandoval because of his potentially expanding waistline and Ramirez because of injuries and the perception that he was not a good member of the clubhouses he inhabited.\u00a0 I disagree, and feel that both signings were terrific.\u00a0 Both the Kung Fu Panda and Han-Ram will immediately impact the Sox lineup and also provide the type of roster depth that will enable Cherington to re-make the starting rotation through trades.<\/p>\n

Besides being key members of two infields of National League playoff teams from California, Sandoval and Ramirez have one other critical thing in common: they both really wanted to play in Boston and in particular, to play with David Ortiz.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at the Panda first: Sandoval\u2019s contract is for five years, $90 million with either a $17 million team option or a $5 million buyout, so the guaranteed money is $95 million.\u00a0 \u00a0Sandoval reportedly had an almost identical offer from the Giants: it would have been the \u201csafe\u201d move for him to stay in the Bay Area, where he was an icon to the fans.\u00a0 But he chose what he called the \u201cchallenge\u201d of joining a new team.<\/p>\n

Many in the industry felt that a $95 million guarantee was more than his production warranted, that he was overrated based on the small sample size of his prolific post-season performance in the 2012 and 2014 Fall Classics.\u00a0 In the last three regular seasons, Sandoval\u2019s highest home run total is 16, his highest RBI total is 79, his highest batting average is .283 and his highest OPS is .789, good numbers for a 3rd<\/sup> baseman but good enough for a $95 million guarantee.\u00a0 It is true that these numbers are not spectacular but there are three reasons why this still makes sense for Boston:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Sandoval was by far the best third base option on the market. Besides being a solid (if not spectacular) hitter, he is an underrated 3rd<\/sup> baseman defensively.\u00a0 The Red Sox third basemen in 2014 were collectively miserable.<\/li>\n
  2. He balances the lineup: the Red Sox are very right-handed heavy, with David Ortiz being the only other expected starter who bats from the left side. Sandoval is a switch hitter and, with his ability to go to the opposite field, should get a significant number of doubles and “long singles” off the Green Monster.<\/li>\n
  3. From a business standpoint, if you\u2019re trying to justify the average guaranteed annual value of $19 million per year, the Kung Fu Panda will bring value to the team besides his ability on the field. Because of his notoriety of his two World Series Championships, he may be worth a few extra rating points for NESN and because of his nick-name, don\u2019t you think the Sox might sell a few million dollars-worth of Panda-related memorabilia this year?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The case of Hanley Ramirez represents another case where some in the industry questioned the financial commitment, a four-year contract worth $88 million, not because of his productivity but because of his durability and questions relating to a perceived negative clubhouse presence in his tours in Miami and Los Angeles. \u00a0It is a fact that he has missed 180 games due to injury in the last four seasons, some of the \u201cfreakish\u201d variety, some not, but it is also true that Ramirez\u2019 OPS (on-base + slugging %) was .907 for the last two years, compared to the two-year OPS of .744 for Yoenis Cespedes, the man he is replacing in left field.\u00a0 \u00a0That is a massive difference.<\/p>\n

    Of course, the large difference in productivity is moot if Ramirez is on the disabled list.\u00a0 The Red Sox need a quality backup and the good news is that they now have eight other players who spend significant time in major league outfields last year.\u00a0 Of course, the Sox will trade a couple of these players (likely starting with Cespedes).\u00a0\u00a0 The Cuban star was acquired last July in the trade deadline deal that sent Jon Lester to the Oakland A\u2019s.\u00a0 Since Cespedes will become a free agent at the end of 2015, there\u2019s no chance that the Red Sox will be able to get a Lester-quality starting pitcher in return, but given the dearth of quality power bats in the majors right now, they\u2019ll certainly get a solid #3 starter for him.<\/p>\n

    There\u2019s another question to ask: in his most injury-riddled season (2013), Ramirez finished 8th<\/sup> in the MVP voting, having produced a monster season with a 1.040 OPS.\u00a0 Injuries or not, wouldn\u2019t have Han-Ram have commanded a $100+ million contract after that 2013 season if that had been his walk year?\u00a0 If the answer is yes, then the Sox have gotten a premier offensive player at a relative discount.<\/p>\n

    The final piece of this puzzle is Ortiz, who apparently played a key role in the desire of both Sandoval and Ramirez to ply their trades in Beantown.\u00a0 With the retirement of Derek Jeter, Ortiz will become baseball\u2019s unofficial \u201celder statesman.\u201d\u00a0 He and Torii Hunter will be the only 39-year old players who will earn regular playing time.\u00a0 Ortiz has tremendous respect throughout the game among the players, especially the Latin American players.\u00a0 Ramirez, like Big Papi, is from the Dominican Republic, and has long considered Ortiz to be a what he called a \u201cbig brother\u201d to him.\u00a0 Whatever shenanigans may or may not have gone in with Ramirez in the Marlins\u2019 or Dodgers\u2019 clubhouses, it\u2019s unlikely he\u2019ll do anything that that would embarrass Ortiz.<\/p>\n

    Although Sandoval doesn\u2019t have the long-standing decade-long relationship with Ortiz that Ramirez has, he also said, in his introductory news conference, that \u201cit\u2019s going to be a very exciting time\u201d to be \u201cPapi\u2019s teammate.\u201d<\/p>\n

    The bottom line about these acquisitions is this: they were two of the most productive hitters on the free agent market and the Red Sox signed both of them.\u00a0 That means, with their new-found surplus of outfielders plus a deep farm system that Boston is in perfect position to make the necessary trades to rebuild their starting rotation and bring a pennant race back to Boston.<\/p>\n

    The Three Amigos would like nothing more than to ride with the Fenway faithful into another October run.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Less than four weeks after falling to the ground, clutching the final out of the San Francisco Giants thrilling 7-game World Series win, Pablo Sandoval switched coasts and signed a five-year contract with the Boston Red Sox.\u00a0 Hours later the Sox pulled a double California dip when they inked Dodgers\u2019 shortstop Hanley Ramirez to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":189,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-boston-red-sox"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chrisbodig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/PANDA-AT-FENWAY.png?fit=407%2C269&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5rqzv-1z","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":331,"url":"https:\/\/www.chrisbodig.com\/?p=331","url_meta":{"origin":97,"position":0},"title":"The myriad of 2015 lineup options for the Red Sox","author":"chrisbodig@gmail.com","date":"January 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A year ago, the Boston Red Sox arrived at Fort Myers, Florida fresh off the buzz of their third World Championship in ten seasons.\u00a0 Two years ago, the Sox entered training camp fresh off the stench of a last-place finish in 2012: with a new manager and seven free agent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Baseball"","block_context":{"text":"Baseball","link":"https:\/\/www.chrisbodig.com\/?cat=12"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chrisbodig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FENWAY-MAY-2012-BIG-PAPI.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chrisbodig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FENWAY-MAY-2012-BIG-PAPI.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chrisbodig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FENWAY-MAY-2012-BIG-PAPI.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chrisbodig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FENWAY-MAY-2012-BIG-PAPI.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chrisbodig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/FENWAY-MAY-2012-BIG-PAPI.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":108,"url":"https:\/\/www.chrisbodig.com\/?p=108","url_meta":{"origin":97,"position":1},"title":"Did the Red Sox truly blow it with Jon Lester?","author":"chrisbodig@gmail.com","date":"December 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"So Jon Lester, owner of two Championship rings with the Boston Red Sox, is saddling up his workhorse stuff in Chicago, where he'll attempt to help the Cubs win their first title in 106 years. 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