Fact No. 11-20
11. Only two players on the Red Sox roster have three World Series rings and a World Series MVP on their resume. One of those players is David Ortiz.
12. The other is Pablo Sandoval.
13. Ortiz is widely praised for his postseason heroics, which is backed up by his career .962 OPS in the postseason. Sandoval isn’t far behind with a career .935 OPS under the bright lights of the playoffs.
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14. Sandoval was a pitiful 2-for-41 (.049) batting from the right side against left-handed pitching last season before abandoning his switch-hitting approach due to knee soreness that was affecting his right-handed swing.
15. Sandoval is a career .261 hitter batting right-handed against lefties. Now healthy, he intends to return to switch-hitting.
16. Hanley Ramirez has been harshly criticized for his poor performance at the plate last season when he hit .249/.291/.717, but that wasn’t even the worst season of his career. Ramirez posted a .712 OPS in 2011, which followed a string of three consecutive All-Star seasons.
17. Ramirez appeared in only 92 games during that injury-plagued 2011 season. He played in only 105 games last year due to various injuries that also effected him at the plate for a portion of the games he did play.
18. 2012 saw Ramirez bounce back from his career lows by mashing 24 home runs and driving in 92 RBI. In 2013 he put up MVP caliber numbers (.345/.402/.638) before his season was again cut short due to injury.
19. Staying on the field has long been a concern for Ramirez, who has missed at least 50 games in three of the last five seasons. Yet as long as he’s healthy, he’s proven in the past to be capable of recovering from a down year to post superstar numbers again.
20. Sandoval and Ramirez earned over $37 million combined in 2015, while producing -2.2 WAR between the two of them. That’s right, they were both below replacement level value while making more money than anyone else on the roster.
Next: Fact No. 21-30