Hanley Ramirez Pissed All Over This Pitch From Joe Ross
When I was going over the spring training storylines for the Red Sox last month, Pablo Sandoval hogged all the spotlight, and that was to be expected. But Hanley Ramirez’s storyline is more important to the Red Sox’s overall success this year, in my opinion. Sandoval is going to get all the attention, because of his failures since arriving in Boston, his contract, his weight issue, and his conflicting comments about having nothing to prove but now all of a sudden he does.
People forget that the Red Sox won the American League East last year with the worst offensive production from the third base position in the majors (.686 OPS). Anything they get from Sandoval will be a bonus, and I’ll even add that he looks good this spring, offensively and defensively. I was more worried about the defense, but he’s impressed me in the early going.
With Hanley, though, this is an important year for him. When he signed with the Red Sox, one of the first things he talked about at his introductory press conference was how he spoke to Dustin Pedroia before he signed, and how Pedroia asked when he was gonna cut the shit and come get a ring. 2015 was a disaster for him, outside of a monster April. Last year, he proved a lot of people wrong by playing a solid first base, while putting up his first season ever of at least 30 homers and 100 RBI. But can he do it again?
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The sports radio storyline is, can Hanley produce at the same level that he did last year without David Ortiz holding his hand throughout the whole season. I’m not really worried about that. I think he actually cares, wants to win, wants to make Ortiz proud by taking over his spot as the new Red Sox DH, and winning in Boston specifically, where his baseball career began 17 years ago, means a lot to him. I believe all that.
My concern is whether or not he can stay healthy enough to produce at that same level, not whether or not he can stay motivated to do so. He has all the motivation in the world to duplicate what he did last season. Where I’m concerned is in the fact that Hanley played in 147 games in 2016, his highest total since playing 157 games in 2012. He hasn’t played in at least 140 games in back-to-back seasons since 2009-10. That, and 2016 was also the first year that he’s avoided the disabled list since 2012.
Putting it plainly, the odds are against Hanley having consecutive seasons of simultaneous health and production. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re on a guaranteed collision course with another down year from Hanley. His switch to the DH position will certainly help in the health department, so there’s plenty of reason to be optimistic in that regard. Oh, and the fact that he’s launching 800-foot bombs in spring training. That’s another pretty good reason, too.