Red Sox: What if Boston signed Max Scherzer instead of Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval?
What if the Boston Red Sox didn’t sign Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval to multi-year deals and signed Max Scherzer instead?
Everyone in Boston remembers when Hanley Ramirez signed a deal to come back home. After a nine year stint away from Beantown splitting time between the Marlins and Dodgers organizations, he was finally headed back to where it all began. Han-Ram wasn’t the only free agent acquisition that winter, as the Red Sox also picked up Pablo Sandoval.
Ramirez signed a 4-year $88 million dollar deal with 5th year option and the Panda signed a 5-year $95 million dollar deal.
Fans were definitely left wondering why the team signed two third basemen when the major need was pitching. The Red Sox fell short in signing Jon Lester, who ended up signing with the Cubs for 6 years and $155 million dollars. Yet one arm remained available on the market that made a lot of sense going forward.
Max Scherzer had just come off back-to-back 200+ innings pitched seasons with 240 or more strike outs in each. Scherzer ended up signing a 7-year, $210 million deal with the Washington Nationals.
Still we’re left wondering, did the Sox make a big mistake or was it the right move?
Pablo Sandoval in Boston
The nightmare has lasted 2+ seasons so far. The Panda hasn’t quite put up the numbers that Sox management expected. This was after all the guy who was a cornerstone, no pun there, in aiding the San Francisco Giants win three World Series Championships (2010, 2012, and 2014). How could a guy fall off this fast you ask? After reportedly taking less money to come play in Boston, he hasn’t seemed to respect the Red Sox faithful.
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Remember, the Sox will be paying him $95 million over the life of the contract. With 2017 not even halfway done, we still have two more seasons left before this mega contract is up. Panda put up above average numbers in 2011 and has not been able to replicate the numbers since. What’s the issue? Sandoval’s batting average and on base percentage had begun to decline starting in 2011.
His numbers have slowly suffered since that season. It certainly didn’t help admitting that he became complacent after signing a new deal with the Red Sox. It’s certainly an interesting situation feeling that way after being “offended” by your former club. The fans certainly felt offended when the Panda couldn’t do his job properly or at all in 2016.
Panda’s Stats
In 2015, Panda had a .245/10/47 slash. It’s a dip from the 2014 numbers where he had a .270/16/73 line. It looked like he just didn’t care. In 2016, everyone remembers what happened. After going 0-for-6 with 4 strike outs he was benched and then put on the season ending disabled list. Just not a pretty situation.
2017 offered a chance for him to earn his contract. After showing up to Spring Training early and in great shape, it’s possible, the Panda was headed in the right direction.
Sandoval didn’t deserve a 113% increase in his contract. Let’s not talk about 2016. That was a disaster. Spring training for 2017 looked like a completely different person with Panda putting up power house numbers. He led the team with 5 home runs and 20 RBI’s and found himself with a .338 batting average good for third best among players with 50+ at-bats. 2017 looked to be a good season.
The Panda so far has 3 homers, 10 RBI’s and a .213 batting average over 17 games in 2017. He has just one double on the year and has struck out in 13 of 61 appearances.
Hanley Ramirez in Boston
Fans greeted Hanley back to Boston with open arms. He was the reason why the Sox were able to get Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell, two key contributors to the 2007 World Series title.
In 2015, Ramirez had a huge showing on Opening Day homering twice, including a grand slam. It looked like the Sox offseason acquisition was paying off. Just one month into 2015 and Han-Ram had 10 homers, 22 RBI’s, and was hitting .293. It was just what the Red Sox needed.
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Ramirez hit another nine bombs until the All Star Break. After not being the same player and several injuries, he was shut down on August 26th for the season with a .249/19/53 line.
2016 brought a lot more luck, as Ramirez was able to go yard more often. After starting off slowly, he finished with a bang in September going yard 10 times with 26 RBI’s and hit .313. For the season, Hanley hit 30 long balls, knocked in 111 and hit .286 overall. It was enough to make the fans forget that they had the Panda as wasted payroll.
2017 hasn’t been as pretty for Hanley so far. Perhaps it’s the fact that Big Papi is no longer part of the lineup. Every player on the team has seen their numbers suffer. He’s hitting .273 with 6 home runs and 20 RBI in 35 games so far and isn’t projected to even come close to his 2016 totals. While he’s hitting better than in 2015, it took him until April 23rd to go yard. It was a startling trend for not only Hanley as several key players on the team have yet to find the fence.
Max Scherzer in Washington
Words simply cannot describe what Mad Max has meant to the Washington Nationals. He has been one of the most durable players in baseball over the last 8+ years, making no fewer than 30 starts in each season since becoming a full-time starter in 2009. The Nationals opened up the pocketbook in the amount of $210 million spanning over 7 years. With two plus years into the deal, lets take a look at the numbers
2015 brought quite a bit of success as Scherzer for the 7th year in a row was able to win 12+ games. He posted a 14-12 record in 33 starts with a 2.79 ERA pitching 228 2/3 innings, striking out 276 batters. He also set a career high with three shutouts in four complete games. It was his third straight season with 210+ innings pitched. Mad Max was just 30 years old, so plenty left in the tank right?
The follow season, Scherzer matched a record only achieved by Roger Clemens and Kerry Wood. It had been over 18 years since a pitcher in the modern era had struck out 20 batters and Scherzer did it on May 11, 2016 against his former club, the Detroit Tigers. Scherzer ended up winning the Cy Young, his 2nd in four years and first in the National League. He first won it in 2013 with the Tigers after posting a 21 – 3 record with 240 K’s and a 2.90 ERA.
Scherzer’s 20 K season and beyond
Scherzer in 2016 posted a 20-7 record with a 2.96 ERA in 34 starts over 228 1/3 innings with 284 strikeouts. He did allow a league-high 31 home runs but that didn’t deter from him flat out doing his job. His K/9 Ratio has also steadily increased from 2013. It has gone up from 10.1 in ’13 to 10.3 in ’14 to 10.9 in ’15 to 11.2 in ’16 to 11.5 in ’17. Scherzer is like a fine wine, getting better with time.
2017 hasn’t been bad either posting a 4-3 record with a 3.02 ERA in 9 starts. He’s struck out 76 batters in 59 2/3 innings. His 76 K’s on the year are good enough for the 2nd most in the National League. He’s only two behind Zach Greinke who has pitched in one more game.
All that’s left now is figuring out which move was the better one.
Verdict?
Signing Hanley hasn’t been a bad move as he’s been able to live up to his end of the deal thus far. The experiment for him to go out to play left field didn’t work out too well but having him be the next first baseman did work out.
Should the Sox have signed two third basemen? Technically, only one of the two guys played third, with the other going out to left. Panda’s signing was a mistake. I supported him at first but at this point it’s safe to call him a bust. The Panda project failed.
The Red Sox were hoping that 2017 proved to be a fruitful year for Sandoval so that way when the trade deadline came, there might have been a chance that another club might have taken a chance on him. Five years on a player who had declining numbers should have been a glaring red flag but our former GM, Ben Cherington, missed it. Cherington left in late 2015 with Dave Dombrowski taking over to right the ship. It hasn’t been all roses for Dombroski either but that’s not his fault.
Could the Sox have managed to sign Scherzer and Ramirez? It’s possible. In this scenario, being positioning with the choice of signing either Scherzer or both Ramirez and Sandoval, the answer is simple. The Sox should have signed Scherzer.
As a result of signing both Ramirez and Sandoval, signing Scherzer was impossible. That would have given the Sox a plethora of Aces in Boston. The world will never know just how great the Sox would have been with Scherzer at the front of the rotation.
Stay tuned for the next “What If” article to come out in a few weeks.