Reaction: Ian Desmond Signs Puzzling Deal with Rangers to Play Left Field

Last week, I speculated where former Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond would land. I put time into evaluating each team's prospects at shortstop and narrowed down the potential suitors to the following: the Colorado Rockies, Chicago White Sox, and Tampa Bay Rays. So, naturally, Ian Desmond pulled some devious chicanery on me and did something that came out of left field - quite literally, in fact.

It has been a trying offseason for Desmond, but even the most pessimistic pundits could not have predicted the paltry contract he would ultimately sign. By signing his client to a meager $8 million on a one-year deal (of course, for a lowly proletarian like myself, that's an incomprehensible amount of money), super-agent Scott Boras tacitly acknowledged that he misread the market for Desmond's services. The $8 million represents half the money Desmond would have received had he accepted the Nationals' qualifying offer at the dawn of the offseason. Making matters more frustrating for Boras and Desmond is the lucrative 7-year, $107 million extension the duo rejected in 2014.

Despite eschewing two objectively better offers, Desmond's pact with the Rangers does provide some upside for the Rangers new, embryonic left fielder.  For one, Desmond will play his home games in a certified hitters' haven that will provide him with ample opportunities to pad his statistics during his second consecutive contract season. Desmond also has the privilege of joining a team that appears poised to contend deep into the season, a presumably important factor for a player who hasn't played on a losing club since 2011.

But still, this deal puts a definitive period on an offseason that has been an utter disaster for Desmond and attaches a rare-but-damaging scarlet letter to Scott Boras, who has built a well-deserved reputation as baseball's most ruthless negotiator. This situation for Desmond simply has way too much risk and has the potential to greatly imperil Desmond's career.

As Hanley Ramirez demonstrated in left field last season, the ability to switch positions is not something to be taken for granted, even in left field, which is regarded as one of the game's easiest positions to master. Conventional wisdom dictated that Ramirez would make a relatively smooth transition to left field. After all, if an air-headed Manny Ramirez could trudge his way toward a couple fly balls a game, why couldn't a former shortstop do it? While I am ashamed to admit that I was a proponent of this train-of-thought last offseason, I will not make the same mistake again. Changing positions can be a laborious task for a player, and have deleterious effects if it goes awry.

To be fair, Desmond is much more athletic and lithe than Ramirez, who gained a tremendous amount of weight in the 2014-2015 offseason in an apparent effort to bulk up and augment his power numbers. The body transformation rendered Ramirez' flexibility obsolete, as he haplessly chased after fly balls with the efficiency of a blind bat. Still, much of Ramirez' issues boiled down to his inability to read and track fly balls, a skill that takes time to grasp, even for the most adroit of outfielders. And while Ramirez had an entire offseason to prepare for his looming showdown with the dastardly intricacies of left field, Desmond only has a little over a month to get up to speed.

What happens if Desmond is unable to conquer the spacious left field of Globe Life Park? With so little committed to him, the win-now Rangers will not hesitate to bench him in favor of Justin Ruggiano, Ryan Rua, Josh Hamilton, or even top prospect Joey Gallo. And with the double play combination firmly established with Elvis Andrus and Rougned Odor, Desmond's at-bats could be few and far between.

Even in the event that Desmond plays left field at a proficient level, he will hit the market in 2016 as a 31-year old a year removed from playing the position (shortstop) that was the root of a substantial portion of his value. And even if Desmond returns to his 2012-2014 robust form at the plate, his numbers look far less impressive through the distorted lens of executives who expect more productivity from a left fielder. So, essentially, in order to parlay his 2016 season into the lavish pay day he wants, Desmond will have to overcome a position change and a disconcerting four-year decline in his offensive numbers. And if he's unable to do it, Ian Desmond will long rue the day he turned down $107 million from the Washington Nationals.

Rick Porcello: Boston's Most Important Player

Last season, the Boston Red Sox finished in last place in the AL East for the third time in four years, an utterly unacceptable reality for a team with the financial muscle that Boston can freely flex. The overwhelming majority of the blame for the dismal 2015 season has been justifiably placed on Boston's prized offseason acquisitions: Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval and Rick Porcello. The trio combined for a staggeringly awful -2.2 fWAR.

The Great Hanley Ramirez Left Field Experiment of 2015^TM was a horror show, with Ramirez turning routine fly balls into adventures with such frequency that you would think he was auditioning for National Treasure 4. In just 105 games, Ramirez accumulated a ghastly -19 Defensive Runs Saved. Making matters worse, Ramirez had by far the worst offensive season of his career, seeing his on-base percentage plummet, along with his power, which completely dissipated after a torrid April at the plate.¹  If you want visual evidence of Ramirez' defensive ineptitude, see the video below.  But I warn you: viewer discretion is strongly advised.

tbh, i think hanley ramirez got robbed in those gold glove nominations pic.twitter.com/nPXsAtkUSh

— Joon Lee (@iamjoonlee) October 29, 2015

Much to the chagrin of Boston fans, Pablo Sandoval didn't fare much better in his first year in Boston.  The rotund third baseman's OPS fell for the 5th consecutive season, tumbling all the way to a lowly .658 in 2015.  He even eschewed switch-hitting for the first time in his career due to his horrendous performance as a right-handed hitter.  Despite his bulbous frame, Sandoval has long been regarded as a plus defender due to his soft hands and quick reflexes.  In 2015, that was far from the case.  Sandoval struggled mightily reacting to balls hit toward his backhand side, seemingly paralyzed like a monolith cemented to the ground.  Even on the rare occasions that Sandoval peered into his glove and locked eyes with those elusive baseballs, he rarely was able to transfer his weight quickly enough to make a timely throw to first base.

While Boston certainly needs production out of Ramirez and Sandoval this year if it hopes to win the American League East, the most crucial of Boston's three 2015 acquisitions is Rick Porcello.

Porcello inked a lucrative 4 year, $82.5 million extension in early April 2015, which now appears to be such a waste of money that you would think the Red Sox contributed to a Jeb! super PAC.  All jokes aside, Porcello still has a chance to prove he is worthy of such a hefty investment.

In 2015, Rick Porcello lost his identity as a pitcher, finishing the year with a lousy 4.92 ERA.  After establishing himself as one of baseball's most prolific groundball pitchers, Porcello diverted from the formula that made him successful, throwing more four-seam and cut fastballs and less two-seamers and sliders.  While the change in pitch mix yielded Porcello's career best 20.2% strikeout rate, it also resulted in Porcello surrendering a career-worst 25 home runs.

"I really started to struggle and got off track with my identity as a pitcher," Porcello told CSN New England's Jess Moran upon arriving to Spring Training this year.  "First and foremost, try and keep the ball down and sink it.  And really I stopped doing that. I kind of jumped ship on who I was and found myself struggling even worse."

But there were signs of optimism for Porcello after August 2nd, when he took a trip to the disabled list.  Using the time off to make adjustments, Porcello returned from the disabled list with a vengeance.  Per Brooks Baseball, in his final eight starts, Porcello threw his sinker and slider 53% of the time compared to just 41% of the time over his previous 20 starts.  In his last eight starts, he also decreased his usage of the four seam and cut fastballs from 35% to 22%.  The altered pitch mix caused Porcello's ground ball rate to rise with a corresponding drop in his home run rate.  Overall, Porcello posted a sparkling 3.14 ERA over his final eight starts, resembling the pitcher he was in 2014 when he posted a 3.43 ERA over 204.2 innings.

While Rick Porcello will probably never match the 3.14 ERA over the course of a full season (his career-best is 3.43), he proved that he still can be a good pitcher if he just tries to be himself.  And the Red Sox need him to be effective if they have any hope of returning to prominence this season.  With David Price, a bona fide ace, in the fold, Boston has one horse it can count on to produce this season.  But what other pitcher can be relied upon to produce 200 quality innings?



It's certainly not Clay Buchholz, who has made a trip to the disabled list for six consecutive years.  That guy does not appear to be Joe Kelly, who has yet to parlay his raw arm talent into consistent results, and has never thrown even 135 innings in a season.  Eduardo Rodriguez?  While Rodriguez showed flashes of brilliance last season and demonstrated precocious poise on the mound, he is still unpolished and prone to inconsistency and pitch tipping.

This level of uncertainty in the starting rotation underscores the importance of Rick Porcello to the Red Sox.  Armed with a lethal bullpen, formidable lineup, and stellar outfield defense, the Red Sox are set up to compete in 2016.  But all the bright spots of this roster will go to waste if the Red Sox cannot find a reliable number 2 starter behind David Price.  The Red Sox need Rick Porcello to be this guy.  And he can be.  He just has to be himself.

1: Ramirez' struggles at the plate after April appear to be caused by an injury.  Ramirez was injured on May 4th against the Rays, banging his left shoulder hard against the unforgiving left field foul wall at Fenway Park. At the time of his injury, Ramirez had 10 home runs and a robust .949 OPS. After the injury, hit just 9 home runs and ended the season with a medicore .717 OPS.