Boston Red Sox Rumor: Dave Dombrowski to target lefties to replace David Ortiz
By Tyler Mason
With David Ortiz retiring, the Boston Red Sox would like a left-handed batter to replace him so that the lineup stays balanced.
With Christmas only a few weeks away, a large percentage of Boston Red Sox fans have players like Edwin Encarnacion or Jose Bautista on their wish list to serve as the designated hitter.
As great as that would be, it seems as if president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski won’t be going in that direction.
Instead, it would be more likely that the Red Sox would go after a left-handed batter to replace David Ortiz so that the lineup stays balanced.
Dombrowski talked about why he wanted to pick up a left-handed batter to replace Ortiz to Red Sox writer for MLB.com, Ian Browne.
"“If you had to say a preference, the preference would be a left-handed bat,” Dombrowski said “I’m not going to make John’s lineup out for him, but you’d probably say three of the guys in the middle of your lineup right now are [Mookie] Betts, [Xander] Bogaerts and [Hanley] Ramirez, and they’re all right-handed. You have other left-handers around them.”"
In Browne’s article, he mentioned one player that Dombrowski could target, free agent Carlos Beltran.
"“One intriguing option is Carlos Beltran, a switch-hitter who remains productive despite the fact he will turn 40 next April.”"
It seems like the perfect option for Dombrowski’s idea.
Like Ortiz, Beltran seems to be a fine a bottle of wine. The older he gets, the better he becomes.
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In 2016, Beltran was named an All-Star for the ninth time in his career and at the end of the season, he had a slash of .295/.337/.513 while hitting 29 home runs and 93 RBI’s.
Beltran also was an everyday outfielder last year which makes his numbers even more impressive knowing he was 39-years old. If Beltran was signed to become strictly a DH, the chances of him getting injured would decrease while his offensive production would hopefully increase.
Signing a player like Beltran seems like the smarter move as well. Knowing that Encarnacion and Bautista want contracts worth over $100 million, it would seem smarter to sign a player like Beltran, Brandon Moss, or Josh Reddick because they would be asking for significantly less money.
As we all know, David Ortiz left quite the legacy here in Boston and we should not expect someone to come here and do the same thing he did for 14 seasons, no matter who we sign.
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Dombrowski and the Boston Red Sox already have contracts with David Price, Rick Porcello, Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez, so if they wanted to save some money, they should go after a veteran DH who isn’t asking for a contract worth over $100 million.
As for now, we are just going to have to wait and see what Dombrowski has in store for us.