The Red Sox are about to sign Cody Ross:
Cody Ross agreed to sign with the Boston Red Sox, giving them an experienced hitter with postseason success on his resume to help replace J.D. Drew in right field.
Foxsports.com and ESPN.com reported the contract is for one year and $3 million. Ross told The Associated Press in a text message late Monday that the deal won’t be finalized until he takes a physical.
This signing almost makes me think the Red Sox are trying to make their fans miss J.D. Drew. The Media in Boston had nothing but criticism for the Drew deal, even when J.D. played well. It turns out he was overpaid as injuries caught up with him the last two seasons. He did produce the first three years of his contract.
Ross is seasonal age 32, and appears to be on the down swing. Maybe he bounces back from an off year, but I don’t think he’ll be a two-WAR player. If he plays tough and scrappy, however, the press will love him. Maybe the whole point of Ross is to reduce press criticism of the team.
Theo Epstein didn’t care about that. He cared about building a winner. I have to say that I’m not that impressed with the new regime so far.
There’s a big difference between giving a guy (Drew) five years and $70M and giving another guy (Ross) one year and $3M. Given that Cherington is operating under some pretty strict financial limits imposed by his bosses, I think he’s done a perfectly fine job so far.
I suggest you’re over-thinking it, David.
El Salami Grande » You’re probably right.
The Boston press is a PR arm of the Red Sox and defended JD with a passion. Fans who were critical of JD were ridiculed and called haters, so some fans just kept quiet. In my mind, JD will always be remembered as the man who hated RBI’s.
Cody Ross has trouble staying healthy also, but that’s where the comparisons end. Ross should be able to take advantage of Fenways LF wall as a RH pull hitter.
JD stubbornly resisted changing his approach and usually pulled or went to CF when he was not trying to walk with men on base and leave the RBI’s to the number 8 hitter.
Even JD’s first 3 years were a mixed bag. He had a poor 1st year, even the press acknowledged that. He did well his 2nd year in 2008 on a rate basis, but missed almost 1/3 of the season due to injury (which his supporters always ignored). His best year was 2009, but was largely due to a hot 2 months to end the season. He struggled up until August that year.
In all 5 years he sat against tough lefties and never started more than 130 games a year.
His rate stats were inflated with a platoon advantage. JD Drew and his contract will not be missed unless they field a bunch of replacement level OF’ers to replace him.
Ross/Sweeney and MacDonald are just temporarily filling in until Kalish is ready to take over.