10 thoughts on the Red Sox’ decision to cut ties with Hanley Ramirez
Ramirez has always been an enigma.
Ten quick thoughts on the Red Sox’ decision to designate Hanley Ramirez for assignment …
1. Ramirez has always been an enigma – as an early 2000s phenom in the Red Sox organization who didn’t often have eye-popping numbers to match the hype, when he was winning a batting title and competing for Most Valuable Player awards during his electric youth with the Marlins, and especially during his uneven days with the Dodgers. It seems only fitting that his departure here would also have puzzling undertones.
2. Sure, Ramirez was an enigma here too. But the negative connotation of the word didn’t always apply. Since signing a four-year, $88 million deal in November 2014, he had two injury-plagued seasons of underperformance (2014, ’17), and one excellent season (2016, when he slashed .286/.361/.505 with 30 homers and 111 RBIs). He was an awfully enjoyable enigma that season.
3. Speaking of accomplished enigmas, I’d go so far as to say Ramirez’s second half in ’16, when he clubbed 22 homers in 64 games with a .947 OPS after the All-Star break, felt like it came from Manny Ramirez’s career highlight reel. There were many other good times with Hanley, too.
4. The bomb he hit off Dellin Bentances to walk-off against the Yankees in September 2016 was probably his career highlight here. His lowlight? Running into the left field sidewall and injuring his shoulder in 2014, which led to accumulating frustrations, struggles, and speculation when he did come back but wasn’t always engaged. He was in pain, and he could be a pain.
5. The second-best Ramirez moment for most Sox fans was probably the three-homer game in July ’16 against the Giants. That is my personal favorite by far, emphasis on personal. I was sitting in the bleachers that night with my daughter and my dad. The company and Ramirez’s quest for a fourth homer made it one of the more memorable times I’ve had as an adult at Fenway, excluding those games that end with multi-millionaires joyously spraying champagne all over the place.
6. I’ll always remember former general manager Ben Cherington well for the wizardry in which he pieced together the 2013 World Championship team, which in terms of unlikely champions is second only to the 2001 Patriots in modern Boston sports lore. (These 2018 Celtics have been coming on strong down the backstretch, however.)
7. But the stretch late in 2014 in which he signed Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval, and Rusney Castillo to lucrative contracts might be damning enough to limit his career ceiling going forward to Assistant to Someone With Greater Authority on Major Transactions, and nothing more.
8. I’ll admit, I never knew quite what to make of Ramirez’s relatively newfound good nature and Pedro-style hamming for the camera. Sometimes I thought he was trying to be David Ortiz without carrying the responsibility. Sometimes I thought maybe this was Ramirez revealing his true personality after all these years. I’m skeptical by nature and cynical by training, but I tend to believe the latter. I saw Hanley be kind to kids enough through the years that I learned to take him as genuine, or as authentic as the autographs he happily signed.
9. If you had told me in April that Brock Holt and Blake Swihart would still have a spot on this roster while Ramirez would be looking for work, I would have told you … well, I would have told you that seems very unlikely, that’s what I would have told you.
10. The news might have seemed shocking in the moment, because Ramirez is a big name. But I do get the timing of it. He’s basically been a replacement-level player (career 102 OPS+ as a Red Sox player) during his time here. His glove is a prop. He’s struggled mightily lately. And that vesting option for ’19 loomed (he’d be in line for $22 million if he got 497 plate appearances this season). But it is somewhat bizarre that he was batting in the No. 3 spot in the order for most of that time. I guess the ending was enigmatic too. Call it appropriate if you want. I’ll miss the guy.
