Long Gone

 Red Sox to part ways with Hanley Ramirez

Ramirez, who is in the final season of a four-year, $88 million deal signed in December 2014, ranks third on the team with 44 starts.

 After the 2014 season, the Red Sox signed Hanley Ramirez to play left field. In 2018, the end of his tenure feels as if it has come out of the same position.

According to a major league source, the Red Sox informed Ramirez on Friday morning that they will designate him for assignment in order to open a spot on their major league roster for the return of Dustin Pedroia (offseason knee surgery) from the disabled list. In doing so, the Red Sox will walk away from more than $15 million remaining on Ramirez’s salary through the duration of this season. The Red Sox now have seven days to trade or release Ramirez.

 The decision to part ways with Ramirez may avoid a potentially awkward situation related to his $22 million vesting option for 2019. With a total of 497 plate appearances this year, Ramirez would be guaranteed another $22 million next season. He’d already accumulated 195, and was on pace to blow past the required number of plate appearances to secure his salary for next season. The Sox were prepared to let the 34-year-old stay in the lineup and let the option vest if his production warranted it.

The Sox were prepared to let Ramirez stay in the lineup and let the option vest if his production warranted it. But after he went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts Thursday, he is now hitting .254/.313/.395 for the season, with a .708 OPS that ranks 30th among 44 first basemen with at least 100 plate appearances.

Ramirez, who is in the final season of a four-year, $88 million deal signed in November 2014, ranks third on the team with 44 starts. He occupied the third spot in the lineup for 38 of the team’s 50 games, with a half-dozen appearances in the No. 2 spot.

In his self-proclaimed return to health following offseason surgery on his left shoulder, Ramirez opened the year as a middle-of-the-order force, hitting .330/.400/.474 with three homers through the end of April.

“I do feel this guy, he’s still has a lot in the tank,” manager Alex Cora said at the time. “He can change the game. He’s doing it so far. It’s not only on the field but off the field. He’s doing a lot in that clubhouse He’s upbeat, he’s healthy, he’s honest. That’s a great thing for me.”

Yet while Cora continued to pen Ramirez into the lineup, the production cratered this month. Starting with an 0-for-6 game May 1 and continuing through the 0-for-4 night Thursday that extended his hitless stretch to five games (0 for 20), Ramirez struggled to a .163/.200/.300 line this month while seeing his ground-ball rate soar (59 percent of balls in play in May).

The poor numbers aren’t isolated. They represent a step down from his 2017 struggles (.242/.320/.429), and likewise hearken to his 2015 season(.249/.291/.426). Over a two-season period beginning last year, Ramirez ranks in the bottom five among big league first basemen in Wins Above Replacement as calculated by Fangraphs. 

Despite his promising start to this season, Ramirez has been a below-average player over a significant period.

In contrast to Jackie Bradley Jr., another Red Sox player who has been in a tailspin this month but whose glove has kept him in the lineup, Ramirez offered negative defensive value at first base relative to former Gold Glover Mitch Moreland.

Given that Moreland is hitting .311/.390/.612 (his 1.001 OPS is second among big league first basemen), he increasingly looked like a superior lineup option. Yet through Thursday, Moreland has started just half (25 of 50) of the Red Sox’ games.

Still, there is risk involved in giving up a player who was considered good enough to hit in the upper third of the lineup and who, despite weak overall numbers, owned a solid .333/.378/.476 line on the season against lefties. Ramirez had a ridiculously low batting average on balls in play (.152) that offered a reasonable likelihood of improvement. He is just three weeks removed, after all, from looking like an impact hitter.

Yet the Sox were willing to take that risk rather than part with another player from the big league roster — whether by trading Blake Swihart, optioning Bradley or Brock Holt to Triple A, or placing Eduardo Nunez on the disabled list — for a few reasons.

First, Ramirez is limited to first base and designated hitter. Whereas Swihart (catcher, first, third, left), Holt (every position except catcher), and Nunez (third, short, second) all give the Red Sox depth options at a number of positions, Ramirez plays only a position where Moreland looks like the superior two-way option.

Swihart has theoretical upside that the Sox have been unable to explore, in part because he has been behind multiple players at every position he can play. The departure of Ramirez might open more playing time for Swihart at first, and it should maximize the roster flexibility. 

Moreover, had the Sox parted with Swihart, they would have left themselves in a vulnerable position with their catching depth should either Sandy Leon or Christian Vazquez suffer an injury.

Furthermore, an unknown loomed about how Ramirez might respond if reduced to a part-time role that would jeopardize next season’s earnings. He repeatedly said that he wasn’t concerned about the $22 million vesting option, and that his sole focus was the team’s performance, but in designating him, the Red Sox won’t have to test that proposition.