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Direction of the Red Sox

By drchstrpunk, Section MLB
Posted on Fri Mar 09 2007 at 9:53 AM EST
More on: Red Sox (all tags)

I wonder about my favorite team, wonder where they are going. On one hand, they told me they wanted to get younger, save some money by developing their own players. Since Theo Epstein took over in 2002, he wanted to replenish the minor league system through the draft, have a constant influx of players to the major league roster. It might appear as though they have, I mean they are ranked in the Baseball America Prospect Handbook as the 9th best minor league system in the major leagues. But from their recent moves, I know better.

One of my favorite trades the Red Sox have made in the 18 years of my lifetime was when we unloaded Edgar Renteria, who struggled mightily in his first season of a lucrative four year deal, to the Braves for a prospect. It was the first time I could ever remember the Sox trading major league talent for a prospect. We got a young third baseman, Andy Marte, who was a power hitting prospect, a future middle-of-the-lineup batter, a future 30 homerun guy, I was excited. We still had Dustin Pedroia in the minors, who was seen as our next second baseman. But we also had an excellent shortstop, Hanley Ramirez, who was seen as a leadoff hitter who could develop into a 20 homerun guy also. When I thought about it, I got excited. Look at the infield that we will have for the next 8+ years. They could be our 1-2-3 hitters, that order could haunt starting pitchers for years to come.

And what happened??? Trades. The Sox wanted to revamp the rotation, so they sent Hanley Ramirez with a few other prospects to the Florida Marlins for Josh Beckett, Mota and Mike Lowell as a throw-in.

Then,  after failing to re-sign Johnny Damon in centerfield, we needed a replacement. The first name I remember hearing was Jeremy Reed, a prospect for the Mariners; but the M's wanted Lester, so that deal was not going to happen, as well it shouldn't have. So we turned to Cleveland and Coco Crisp. The centerpiece of the deal??? Andy Marte. So all of a sudden, we lost two thirds of the young infield that I was so excited about. So after missing the playoffs in 2006, watching Hanley Ramirez hit .292, 17 HRs, and 51 steals, while Beckett struggled monumentally giving up more HRs than he ever has by far, and posting an ERA over 5. Coco Crisp was hurt for much of the year, and has had lingering effects of the injury all the way up to spring training 2007.

So what did we do to replace shortstop after Renteria left? We signed Alex Gonzalez for a year, then signed Julio Lugo to a 4 year, $36 million deal. And we still have Lowell making $9 million this year at third. And that is why I feel lied to by my team. I am only expecting a wild card berth from this team, but I don't like this direction. Beckett should play better this year, but that deal should have never occurred, Hanley Ramirez should be the starting shortstop following Gonzalez's stopgap year, and Marte should be my third baseman, not a $9 million Lowell. I know that three rookies in the infield is not ideal for any Red Sox fan, but with rookies at those positions instead of having added payroll for position players, we could have possibly signed a closer such as BJ Ryan prior to the 2006 season. I would rather have suffered a couple "transition years" with a core group of young talent than to dole out lucrative contracts. I want my team to be built from within, similar to the Yankees of the mid 90's, when they had their dynastic runs, instead of adding old free agents to every position, especially with the market exploding again.