With Carl Crawford possibly out for the beginning of the season and well, no sure thing in right field, the Boston Red Sox had a little bit of a conundrum as far as outfield depth.
But now, that doesn’t appear to be an issue.
According to Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com and confirmed by Alex Speier of WEEI.com and Gordon Edes of ESPN Boston, the Red Sox have signed free agent outfielder Cody Ross to a one-year contract. Edes reports that the deal is worth $3 million plus performance incentives.
Ross spent last season with San Francisco Giants after joining them in late August of 2010 off of waivers from the Florida Marlins. He played an integral part in helping the Giants win the 2010 World Series over the Texas Rangers.
Before the signing of Ross, the Red Sox had only one starter from last year’s outfield, Jacoby Ellsbury, healthy. Ryan Sweeney, who came over in the trade with Andrew Bailey for Josh Reddick, along with Darnell McDonald and even possibly Mike Aviles, were also in the mix for some time in the outfield.
But it looks like the trade of Marco Scutaro to the Colorado Rockies did more than one thing. Obviously it freed up the payroll to sign Ross. But it also meant that Aviles probably wouldn’t be spending too much time in the outfield with him and Nick Punto as the obvious choices to play shortstop in 2012.
Now it looks like once Crawford is healthy and back patrolling the outfield, Sweeney and Ross will split time in the outfield. I’m guessing that new skipper Bobby Valentine will use Sweeney against righties (he bats lefty) and Ross against lefties (he bats righty). Where DMac figures in this is anyone’s guess but unless the Red Sox carry three catchers (highly unlikely), he’ll probably be the fifth outfielder again.
Ross is a career .261 hitter with a career OBP of .323 and OPS of .779. He plays a good outfield and unlike previous years past, he’ll get to learn how Fenway plays since the Red Sox’ new spring training home, Jet Blue Park, has the same exact field dimensions as the Fens.
Another good low cost option for new GM Ben Cherington. Now the question remains, does he have enough money to pursue a trade for another starting pitcher or even a free agent pitcher like Roy Oswalt.
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