Dave Dombrowski sounds open to getting Hanley Ramirez out of left field
Hanley Ramirez is entertaining for all the wrong reasons in left field. The walking blooper-reel has struggled to transition to his new position in the outfield.
Despite his fielding woes, the Red Sox management had been in staunch support of Ramirez’s left-field tenure — until Red Sox management changed. Newly-hired Red Sox president Dave Dombrowski was less committal.
“What’s his best position? I’m not sure at this point. I haven’t seen him play left field very much and I know when I see,’’ Dombrowski said. “But the one thing you have to be careful about and I’ve had some experiences that even good athletes, you just can’t assume they can play a new position. I’ve seen it not work at times.
“I can’t speak for him specifically. But I was interested this winter time, I work out usually in the morning in the winter time and run the treadmill early at the ballpark. And I watch that Major League Baseball Network show religiously. And they had those commenters up there statistical guys and non-statistical guys. And they had the No 1. ranked left field going into 2015 as Hanley Ramirez, collectively. I remember at the time saying, ‘How can people make that statement only to the sense they don’t know if he can play left field or not.’ So it’s just interesting that a lot of other people there were making that summation that he could play left field.’’
Dombrowski touted Ramirez’s strength as a batter, though admitted he was slumping a bit from his career averages with a .259/,300/.442/.742 hitting split in 2015.
Re: Hanley’s fielding, Red Sox blogger Joon Lee had a memo for Dombrowski.
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Contrast that with the outstanding plays from Jackie Bradley Jr. and Mookie Betts in the last few games.
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The Red Sox seem to have a conundrum to find space for Ramirez, Bradley Jr., Betts, and the $72-million man, Rusney Castillo. At least, it’s a good problem to have.
Evolution of the Green Monster
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