Hanley Ramirez: were the Yankees caught sleeping again?

A Tale of Two Cities

Yankees are just another team. Is that good?  Monday, November 24, 2014

​Hanley Ramirez and the Logjam in Boston
by Dave Cameron - November 24, 2014 fangraphs.com

The Red Sox are reportedly on the verge of signing Hanley Ramirez for something “in the range” of $90 million over five years, according to Ken Rosenthal.
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If correct, it's better than the reported deal for Chase Headley ($60 million, 4 years).  Ramirez $100 million for five years seems like a good deal, especially since the Yankees can try Ramirez at short and move him to third as/when needed.  Yanks may have missed the boat again.​  They have gaping holes at second, third and short, all of which they ignored in the previous off season.
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For Yankee fans it was worse than that:

Hanley Ramirez, Red Sox agree
Updated: November 25, 2014, 12:21 AM ET
By Gordon Edes ESPN Boston.com

The Boston Red Sox agreed with Hanley Ramirez on Monday on a four-year, $88 million deal with a vesting fifth year for an additional $22 million, according to a major league source.


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Say what?  Hanley Ramirez took even less than the good deal that was originally reported?  Did Hanley Ramirez do that just to annoy Yankee fans?  Is Hanley Ramirez intentionally trying to make Yankee general manager Brian Cashman look ridiculous?  Because a man in Cashman's position cannot afford to look ridiculous.  He might wake up with a horse head in his bed.  See The Godfather.

So what the heck?  The Yankees have Alex Rodriguez pencilled in as a player who must win back his old job at third base.  Derek Jeter has retired as the Yankee shortstop in perpetuity in case you hadn't heard and a replacement for Robinson Cano at second base is nowhere in sight.

Hanley Ramirez has been a good hit, no field shortstop who has also fielded poorly at third base.  But he can provide that currently rare commodity: righty power.  During the previous off season Brian Cashman played it cool and neglected Nelson Cruz who signed with Baltimore for one year, $8 million and then led the entire Major Baseball League (MBL) with 40 homers.  Nice work, Brian.

Cashman did rush out to sign Jacoby Ellsbury to be the redundant center fielder to incumbent Brett Gardner.  Cashman then boxed out nobody lined up to overpay 30 year old catcher Brian McCann.  Now Cashman let's his counterpart in Boston, Ben Cherington, get a great deal with Hanley Ramirez.

Cherington supposedly even convinced Hanley Ramirez to even move back a few steps into very shallow left field as a sort of backup shortstop who doesn't need to handle those messy ground balls but simply catch line drives and retrieve ricochets off the 37 foot green monster.  Nice job, Ben.

As a Yankee fan I had tempered interest in Hanley Ramirez: if the Yanks could sign him to a reasonable contract, then go for it.  The Red Sox contract that Hanley Ramirez is signing is way more than reasonable.  It could be a steal.  What makes it strange is that Boston also is signing Pablo Sandoval to play third base, the fielding position one might have expected for Hanley Ramirez.  But that's Boston's issue/problem.  I had no interest in Sandoval for the Yankees: non-athletic, overweight, modest regular season numbers.  Sandoval is younger than Ramirez but I prefer the big bat of Ramirez.

Some Yankee fans want the team to sign some Cubans.  Those fans can't even name Cuban players.  Since the Yanks haven't signed any Cubans, Indian cricket players or Martians, the Yanks signing Ramirez to a contract that's way more sensible than the ones the fans approved of a year ago makes sense, especially to keep Ramirez from Boston, who's decision makers inspire much more confidence than those with the Yankees.

Since Hanley Ramirez has never played the outfield let's just look at his batting.

In 2014 147 batters had at least the 502 plate appearances needed to qualify for leadership in the average stats.  In OPS+ Hanley Ramirez was tied for number 24 with Justin Upton with 132 (32% above average).  132 is also the career OPS+ of Hanley Ramirez.  In 2015 Ramirez will join Upton in left field.  For perspective, the top ten:

Rk	Player	OPS+	PA	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Jose Abreu	169	622	2014	27	CHW	AL	145	556	80	176	35	2	36	107	51	15	131	11	0	4	14	3	1	.317	.383	.581	.964	*3D/H
2	Andrew McCutchen	168	648	2014	27	PIT	NL	146	548	89	172	38	6	25	83	84	8	115	10	0	6	9	18	3	.314	.410	.542	.952	*8
3	Victor Martinez	168	641	2014	35	DET	AL	151	561	87	188	33	0	32	103	70	28	42	4	0	6	17	3	2	.335	.409	.565	.974	*D3/2H
4	Mike Trout	167	705	2014	22	LAA	AL	157	602	115	173	39	9	36	111	83	6	184	10	0	10	6	16	2	.287	.377	.561	.939	*8/D
5	Giancarlo Stanton	161	638	2014	24	MIA	NL	145	539	89	155	31	1	37	105	94	24	170	3	0	2	16	13	1	.288	.395	.555	.950	*9/DH
6	Jose Bautista	159	673	2014	33	TOR	AL	155	553	101	158	27	0	35	103	104	11	96	9	1	6	18	6	2	.286	.403	.524	.928	*9D83/H
7	Michael Brantley	154	676	2014	27	CLE	AL	156	611	94	200	45	2	20	97	52	4	56	8	0	5	16	23	1	.327	.385	.506	.890	*78/DH
8	Anthony Rizzo	151	616	2014	24	CHC	NL	140	524	89	150	28	1	32	78	73	7	116	15	0	4	8	5	4	.286	.386	.527	.913	*3
9	Edwin Encarnacion	150	542	2014	31	TOR	AL	128	477	75	128	27	2	34	98	62	6	82	2	0	1	18	2	0	.268	.354	.547	.901	*3D/7H
10	Miguel Cabrera	146	685	2014	31	DET	AL	159	611	101	191	52	1	25	109	60	10	117	3	0	11	21	1	1	.313	.371	.524	.895	*3D5/H

How about those players who signed with the Yankees a year ago?

68 Jacoby Ellsbury 110
118 Brian McCann 93

Jacoby Ellsbury: Born: September 11, 1983
Hanley Ramirez: Born: December 23, 1983
Brian McCann: Born: February 20, 1984

Hey. they're all about the same age.  So why would Yankee fans cheer about the signings of Ellsbury and McCann a year ago but not want Ramirez now?

	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	Tot
Ellsbury	$21	$21	$21	$21	$21	$21	$21	$147
McCann	$17	$17	$17	$17	$17			$85
Ramirez		$22	$22	$22	$22			$88

Wow, the Ramirez contract looks really good compared to those that Brian Cashman gave out a year ago.  Really good.  Maybe Cashman is saving up for those nameless Cubans but maybe Boston is too.  Maybe Cashman has some other plans, like pouncing on starting pitchers Max Scherzer or Jon Lester.  Or maybe Cashman is gun shy after failing to finally get the Yankees under the soft salary cap last year, which would have freed up $100 million that could be put to good use now.  Cashman seems to be compounding his failures and chief executive Hal Steinbrenner continues to be oblivious.