It seemed like it was just a matter of time before Hanley Ramirez got some pregame work at first base.
Of course, with Ben Cherington still calling the shots as GM, it would have taken much more time. Cherington held firm in his belief that Ramirez could learn how to play left field.
But Cherington is now out as GM and Dave Dombrowski is in as the President of Baseball Operations. And it didn't take long to realize Dombrowski isn't of the belief that players can just make a transition to another position. In his very first interview with reporters, he discussed how he's seen it not work with players in the past.
Though Dombrowski wouldn't put Ramirez in that category that day, he didn't really have to. The writing had been on the wall from the very beginning with Ramirez in the outfield.
But there was Ramirez on Monday taking instruction from Bruce Butterfield with David Ortiz chiming in as well. The transition has begun. And it's no coincidence that it's happening within the first week of Dave Dombrowski's hiring.
Torey Lovullo spoke about decision to get the first base experiment started on WEEI's Dale & Holley show.
“Dave came on board and thought a little bit more of it and gave his perspective and we just thought once we could move forward and try and figure out what’s best for the Boston Red Sox,” Lovullo said. “We wanted to have this option. We wanted to see what it looks like, we want to get him over there and just get him familiar with the position and see where it leads."
Dombrowski specifically mentioned during his introductory press conference how he liked the young outfield configuration of Jackie Bradley Jr., Mookie Betts, and Rusney Castillo. He's also clearly a fan of getting Castillo more playing time as he put an offer in for Castillo last year when he was GM of the Tigers.
Lovullo went on about Dombrowski's involvement in the decision to introduce Ramirez to first base.
“It was one of the first things that he talked about,” he said. “He presented to us, and he wanted to know what we thought about, and he comes into these conversations brand new with an experienced set of eyes. The one thing that he stated was that, from the other side of the dugout, Hanley Ramirez is a very potent offensive force. When he’s swinging the bat well, he’s a middle-of-the-lineup run-producer, and Dave brought that to our attention and said that we have that guy right now, so he kind of threw it on us that he felt strongly that we should take a look over there.
'And like I said, before Dave came on board, it was a discussion that we would have internally and something that we were kicking around, but with his expertise and new set of eyes, it made it a little bit clearer for all of us.”
Lovullo went on to say the team isn't going to rush Ramirez into the new position.
But if Dombrowski is quick to see that Ramirez just isn't going to work in left field, he may be just as quick to see whether or not he could work at first base. If that's the case, don't think that Dombrowski will hesitate to trade Ramirez in the offseason and eat most of that salary to make it happen.