EDITORIAL. PHOTOS BY AP NEWS
The Boston Red Sox filled a giant hole in their lineup when the pulled of the Blockbuster deal of the off-season to acquire Adrian Gonzalez.
A-Gon will provide a TON of power from the left side of the plate, and his inside out power stroke will absolutely abuse the Green Monster.
But even after sticking Gonzalez into the middle of Boston’s star-studded lineup, one question still looms over Beantown. Who the hell is going to play left field?
The Sox have more than a few options; let’s take a look.
1. Magglio Ordonez:
The Red Sox have always like the idea of bringing Magglio Ordonez to Boston, and now they finally have a chance.
The ex-Tiger was a key member of the potential Alex Rodriguez-Manny Ramirez-Nomar Garciaparra trade that fell through back in 2004.
Ordonez has spent the past six seasons in Detroit where he’s had great offense production. While he only played in 84 games last season, he still hit at a clip of .303. In 2007 Ordonez won the batting title with an amazing .363 average.
Of course, the Sox couldn’t expect a season even close to that out of the 37-year-old outfielder, but an incentive filled 2-year deal might be enough to draw Ordonez to a team with a great chance of contending for the World Series.
2. Carlos Beltran:
If the Sox fail to get Ordonez, they may open up trade talks with the New York Mets, and start weighing the possibility of grabbing former All-Star Carlos Beltran.
Beltran is owed an outrageous 18.5 million dollars in 2011, but new Met’s GM Sandy Alderson has made it clear that he would be willing to eat up to half of that salary if it improved his team’s pitching.
The Red Sox are rumored to have dangled Daisuke Matsuzaka’s name over the Met’s head, but a lofty contract of his own would probably put the nix on that potential swap.
The Sox will probably treat Beltran as a fallback option, and would most likely have to give up some young arms to obtain him. Still, Beltran would bring some bottom of the order power to the Sox, and again, the Green Monster never hurt anyone.
3. Josh Willingham:
Boston has expressed some interest in acquiring Washington Nationals outfielder Josh Willingham.
Theo Epstein has always been a big Willingham fan, and made a pitch to bring him to Boston during his initial stint in Florida. Willingham’s best season came back in 2006 when he hit .277 with 27 long flies. He hasn’t been able to match those numbers since, or even come close really, but at 31 years old, he still has some potential.
Theo wouldn’t have to give up too much to bring Willingham to Boston, but he is probably one of the weaker options offensively.
4. Carl Crawford:
Of course, there is always the possibility the Sox could open their wallets and land Crawford, but the Gonzalez trade has made this far less likely.
Jason Werth’s 7-year 127 million dollar deal is going to have a large affect on the contract that Crawford signs. Werth is older, and less productive offensively than Crawford, so the Sox would probably have to dish out close to 200 million dollars over an 8-year span.
This seems very unlikely and Boston will probably opt for one of the above options, while keeping their fingers crossed that Crawford doesn’t land in New York.
5. In House:
Even with all the possibilities above, if the Red Sox are unable to land a left fielder via trade or free agency, they still have some internal options.
Mike Cameron was hurt almost all of last season, but is still under contract for 2011. If Boston does opt to stick with Cameron, they would probably keep Ryan Kalish around as a crutch.
No matter how it all turns out, the Red Sox will be far better off then they were before thanks to the Gonzalez trade. Still, left field leaves a large hole that the Red Sox would be keen to fill before the season started.
The Winter Meetings are still in progress, and there is much off-season to be played out. Stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment