NEW YORK -- In deciding to give Hanley Ramirez a look at first base with an eye toward playing him at the position full-time in 2016, the Red Sox have seemingly settled on the indentity of their three starting outfielders for next season.
"We believe in those three kids,'' said interim manager Torey Lovullo of Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Rusney Castillo. "We know they're going to be really good players.''
What they've yet to do, however, is determine who will play where. Now that we know who's on first, that begs the follow-up questions: Who's in left? Who's in center? And right?
That's something the Red Sox are still working through. On Saturday afternoon, Lovullo was late to his pregame media session after engaging with president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski in some "baseball conversations," including a discussion about how the alignment should play out in 2016.
"We do not have an agreement [on who should play where],'' said Lovullo. "We have that discussion very often. There are several of us who feel like right field -- outside of center field -- has the biggest space. We've all seen Shane Victorino man that position very, very well.
"There are those of us that the left fielder has a tremendous responsibility because the biggest area in Fenway Park is right field and right-center field. So to shade two guys over in that area, covering that big a space, now leaves a big vacancy in left field. So now, that left fielder has responsibilities from side-to-side, to cover a lot of ground.
"So we're throwing a lot of different thoughts at one another and we just have to see how it works out and what player performs in those areas. We haven't defined what's the toughest position. Several of us think right field and several of us think left field.''
Part of the decision-making may be determined by arm strength. It's a given that Bradley has the best arm of the three.
"I think right field [is where you put the strongest arm],'' said Lovullo. "The biggest area [to cover]. Depth is always a concern there and if you can get a little deeper and make plays coming in, you're going to be able to throw balls from different areas and you need arm strength. [There are times to throw with runners going] first-to-third. So it doesn't [get limited] to throwing home.''
Lovullo said when the assignments are made, the Red Sox "may or may not rank arm strength.''
"We might just rank range and running down the ball,'' said Lovullo. "But we're looking at every ingredient possible.''
In the past, the Red Sox had flipped outfield alignment on the road, where configurations are different. Yankee Stadium, for instance, is nearly an opposite image of Fenway, with a bigger left field and smaller right field area.
But Lovullo said the team would strive for some consistency and not move outfielders as much in the future.
"Once we get to that point, where we determine where are guys are going to play,'' he said, "we're going to try to stay with that. We feel like we have three very strong athletic bodies and once they get familiar with where they're playing, it's going to be a lot of fun to watch.''