BoSox trying for Hanley again?

In Bill Madden’s (Daily News) latest, he outlines the biggest “baseball turkeys” of the year, and pegs Marlins president, David Samson, at number seven. While I could care less about Samson or a “baseball turkey,” Madden’s reasoning for Samson’s dubious ranking is certainly noteworthy, as it deals with New York’s greatest foe, the Boston Red Sox.

The Florida Marlins president obviously has no shame. After finally succeeding in securing a new taxpayer-funded stadium for the Marlins in downtown Miami – supposedly enabling the Marlins to have the financial means to keep their star players – Samson demonstrated he has no intention of doing that when he refused to give his best pitcher, Josh Johnson, a four-year extension. Now it also looks as if Hanley Ramirez won’t ever see that new stadium in a Marlins uniform as the Red Sox, who let incumbent Alex Gonzalez go, are reportedly engaged in talks with Florida about reacquiring the All-Star shortstop.

Yes, Madden basically states that the Red Sox are once again trying for the best offensive shortstop in baseball, former Boston farmhand, Hanley Ramirez. Of course, the phrasing is somewhat suspect in Madden’s piece (“reportedly engaged”) and he recently overstated Boston’s pursuit of Roy Halladay, which hurts what little credibility he has on these matters, however, I don’t think anyone would be surprised if the BoSox were, indeed, attempting to reacquire Ramirez as there isn’t exactly a glut of impressive players available to them for short. The Red Sox know that in order to remain competitive with the Yankees, they’ll need to improve offensively in 2010, therefore, filling their most obvious hole with one of the most productive young hitters in baseball (rather than Jed Lowrie, Miguel Tejada or Marco Scutaro) would meet that end. It’s a better idea, in my opinion, than acquiring San Diego’s Adrian Gonzalez, whose presence would create a significant logjam at several other positions, including DH, first base, and third.

I’m sure we’ll hear more on this item’s legitimacy in the upcoming days. Perhaps Madden will be 0-for-2.

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