2016 Boston Red Sox Predictions: Hanley Ramirez ‘Likely’ To Remain In Boston, Committed To First Base

Most predictions for the look of the 2016 Boston Red Sox roster assume that the team’s $20 million bust Hanley Ramirez would be dumped off on another team, with the Red Sox agreeing to absorb most of the reaming salary — about $90 million — on his five-year contract.

But those predictions appear to be changing somewhat, with one longtime Red Sox correspondent now reversing course and asserting that Ramirez appears “likely” to return to Boston, at least to start the 2016 campaign — even though new Red Sox President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski has experience unloading problem players elsewhere. Ramirez is expected to move to first base in 2016.

“Dombrowski has been through this before, trying to move a high-salary, big-bodied player in Prince Fielder in Detroit, which he was able to do sending him to Texas for Ian Kinsler,” veteran Boston baseball correspondent Sean McAdam said Monday, on Comcast Sports Net New England. “It meant that the Tigers had to include $30 million to offset some of the money that was still due Fielder.”

But McAdam’s prediction is that Dombrowski will not want to go through that experience again.

“He’s probably going to have to do at least that with $66 million remaining on Hanley for the next three years. I think it’s more likely that they hold on to Hanley Ramirez and he comes in at least in somewhat better shape,” McAdam predicted.

The 31-year-old Ramirez was signed by the Red Sox at the age of 16 out of the Dominican Republic in the year 2000 — a year before the Yawkey family, which had owned the Red Sox since 1933, sold the team to the current ownership group led by then-Florida Marlins owner John Henry.

Ramirez was originally signed when Dan Duquette was still General Manager of the Red Sox. Duquette was fired by the new owners after the 2001 season. And in 2005, the Red Sox traded Ramirez, considered a top prospect but who had appeared in only two games with the team, to the Marlins in a six-player deal.

Ramirez went on to become a superstar hitter with the Marlins, and then with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who acquired Ramirez in a 2012 mid-season trade. But Ramirez had always carried with him a controversial reputation as a player whose commitment to the game was somewhat less than 100 percent.

Nonetheless, the Red Sox under General Manager Ben Cherington reacquired signed Ramirez, signing him to an approximately $90 million, four-year free agent contract prior to the 2015 season. As part of the deal, Ramirez agreed to move from his shortstop position to left field.

But the position change proved a disaster, with Ramirez posting among the worst defensive statistics of any Major League outfielder. And his offensive output did not compensate for his shortcomings in the field, putting up an OPS of only .717, his lowest since an injury-riddled 2011 season, and managing to appear in only 105 games.

Finally, Ramirez was sent by the club in September to begin his offseason injury rehab program early. Dombrowski has instructed Ramirez to lose 15 to 20 pounds in the offseason after the player started 2015 at his heaviest recorded weight of 240.

McAdam was responding to another Boston baseball media figure, Lou Merloni — a former Red Sox utility infielder who is now a commentator on several Boston media outlets.

“I think they have to try to get rid of him. Do what you can,” Merloni said Sunday on CSNNE. “I think that’s the number one job right now, get rid of Hanley Ramirez. Not easy to do, but they should try.”

But the fact that the Red Sox have asked Hanley Ramirez to shed weight, and appears committed to rehabbing his injury and moving him to first base at the start of 2016, makes predictions that Boston fans will have at least one more season of Hanley Ramirez to contend with now appear much more possible.

[Images: Maddie Meyer / Jim Rogash / Getty Images / CSNNE Screen Capture]