Sox strike out

Last week was unusual. For the first time in a long time, the Boston Red Sox dominated the headlines with splashy free agent signings. The last time the Sox reeled in marquee free agents, it blew up in their faces when Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez couldn't hack it in Boston. A new front office vowed a different approach, resulting in a flurry of short-term, midlevel free agent additions that produced a World Series Championship in 2013, sandwiched between last place finishes in 2012 and 2014.Last week, however, the Red Sox strayed from their disciplined tactics by consummating a pair of blockbuster acquisitions on the same day.

The problem was that neither of those signings addressed Boston's most glaring need: starting pitching. Boston just committed nearly $200 million to two new players, and still has a rotation that consists of Clay Buchholz, Joe Kelly and... who, exactly?

Pablo Sandoval (five years at $95 million) and Hanley Ramirez (four years at $88 million) are good hitters, but they're not going to make a lick of difference if Boston doesn't upgrade its rotation. They give the Red Sox an abundance of bats and, in the sport's current offense-starved environment, attractive trade chips,but those trades (possibly for Cole Hamels or Jeff Samardzija) still need to be made. Until then, the Sox are a .500 team at best.

I'm also not particularly impressed by Boston's shiny new additions. Neither one plays good defense, runs very well or is particularly durable. All of their value is tied up in their bats, making each a very risky investment as they move away from their prime years.

In my last column I explained why I didn't want the Red Sox to sign Pablo Sandoval; now it's time to turn my sights on Hanley Ramirez. The Ramirez signing makes zero sense once you realize the Red Sox have nowhere to play him. With Sandoval at third base and Xander Bogaerts at shortstop, his two natural positions are blocked. The tentative plan is to play Ramirez in left field, even though he has never played the outfield at the major or minor league level. Granted, there's not a lot of ground to cover in Fenway Park's shallow left field, but the Green Monster is tricky and gives visiting outfielders fits.Learning how to handle the wall requires hard work and dedication, attributes that have never been used to describe Hanley Ramirez, who's been a major annoyance to his teammates and managers over the years.

What's even more troubling than Ramirez's attitude problems is the assortment of injuries that have caused him to miss 185 games over the past four seasons. Ramirez has played well when healthy, but he's going to be 31 next year, and figures to miss additional time going forward. Boston better be prepared for long stretches without Ramirez, even though a player earning $22 million per year shouldn't require a backup plan.

Age and injuries appear to have taken a toll on Ramirez, who hasn't been anything close to the superstar he was in his first five seasons with the Marlins. Over his last four injury-riddled campaigns, he's averaged just 14 homers, 55 RBIs and 2.6 wins above replacement per season while batting .277/.351/.464. Good numbers, but hardly superstar-caliber -- especially in left field, where defense is optional but robust power numbers are not. Fenway should help those figures some, but it won't matter much if Ramirez can't stay off the disabled list.

If Ramirez were going to play shortstop, he'd be worth every cent. But as long as Bogaerts is still around, he's just not a good fit for this ballclub.