Dissecting Dombrowski's Comments
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| Photo by Jim Davis/Boston Globe |
Contributing Writer
Just yesterday Dave Dombrowski, the President of Baseball Operations for the Red Sox held a press conference and had some pretty important things to say. But you may not have seen the press conference or even heard about it. This may be to the credit of Dombrowski for scheduling a press conference the day after both series in the ALCS were sent to Game 5 and on the day that there would be two potential clinching games in the NLCS. This also could be because you are in a Red Sox depression and you want nothing to do with the team, or maybe it was because you were too busy thinking about if the Cubs would win a postseason series for the first time ever at Wrigley Field, spoiler alert, they did. But no matter why you missed what Dombrowski had to say there were important things that you should know. Here they are.
There have been changes in the Baseball Operations department since the firing of Arnie Beyeler, but his position as first base coach and outfield coach has not been filled yet. Eddie Romero was promoted to Vice President of international scouting. Adrian Lorenzo was named coordinator of international scouting. Brad Sloan was hired as a special assignment scout. Harrison Slutsky was promoted to coordinator of advance scouting, and Alex Gimenez was hired as an assistant of professional scouting. This is a lot of information that means very little to the current major league club. The scouts are extremely important but never impact the club currently.
The 2016 Red Sox outfield is not set in stone, and there will likely be a fourth outfield added this offseason. The only guy who is guaranteed a position in Dombrowski's eyes is Mookie Betts who throughly deserves the spot after the season he just had. This leaves Jackie Bradley Jr, Rusney Castillo and an outfielder to be named later to fight it out for the starting two spots. I think it will be Castillo and Bradley Jr. in the outfield with Betts on Opening Day, but a little Spring Training competition should be good for the guys.
Dombrowski is looking to fix the bullpen. The bullpen was one of the worst parts of the team last season so hearing that he is addressing the issue is a relief. Koji Uehara is currently the closer for this team, but that could change if the Red Sox get a hard throwing reliever, something that Dombrowski mentioned that he wanted to do.
The Red Sox are "committed" to Hanley Ramirez playing first base next year. What does this mean for Travis Shaw? Shaw will be playing winter ball and will play at the other corner of the diamond. The Red Sox #1 prospect, Yoan Moncada will also play winter ball and is expected to start next season in High-A ball.
Clay Buchholz passed his end of season physical and while his option for 2016 has not been picked up, Dombrowski mentioned his name in plans for 2016 so we can expect to see the injury prone pitcher back for what could be another disappointing season for him.
That was it for Dombrowski, his statements won't grab headlines. If anything he was just going through the motions as a formality. We all knew almost everything that he said, but what he didn't say was even more interesting. Not mentioning Pablo Sandoval could be a sign that the Panda may not be a permanent resident at the Fenway Park zoo.
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