MLB: Red Sox off-season acquisitions recap and considerations

With their absolutely wild and up and down stretch of 38 months, where Boston endured their 2 worst seasons since the early 1960's, Ben Cherington and the Red Sox front office needed to restore hope in Sox nation and for this, the Boston Red Sox made a huge splash yesterday, landing two of the top bats of the free agent market. Pablo Sandoval, the long time Giants signed a 5 year 95 Million deal and will be the 3rd base of the future in Beantown. Along with the signature of the venezuelian guy, the Sox repordly agree with former Marlins ans Dodgers SS Hanley Ramirez for a same type of contract of 90 Millions over 5 year. This two signing could be done a lot because of the mega deal with the Dodgers back in August 2012, when they parted away with Gonzalez, Crawford and Beckett. With this move, Boston unloaded more than 260 Million dollars, dollars who are now given to "Kung Fu Panda" and Ramirez.
After a terrible 2014 season, where Boston finished at the bottom of the East Division, the team who won it all 2 seasons ago needed new guys with fresh minds to bring back the BoSox in the mix for the crown. And right now, the lineup of John Farrell is plenty deep and could very be one of the best in the MLB. We have a good mix of old and reliable guys with the great Pedroia, the veteran David Ortiz, the powerful 1B Napoli and also a mix of young talents with the high rated SS from Aruba Xander Bogaerts, the utility guy Holt, OF and IF Mookie Betts or again with the cuban sensation, Rusney Castillo, who cost 72.5 Million. With that you still have the powerful OF Yoenis Cespedes, the 1B/OF Allen Craig and the leadoff guy Shane Victorino : yes the power will not be an issue and
runs will rain in Fenway Park. One thing to know is that Boston is scheduled to move Hanley to LF, to make room for Bogaerts in the starting lineup. Along with this, the super defender in LF Cespedes will certainly move to CF or to RF. The only mess is a good catcher, to help at the plate but too on the pitching with good calls and gameplan.
Ok ok, so the lineup is strong, but what about the pitching ? Yes, this is maybe the most important and needed thing in baseball and we saw that in the 2014 postseason, with two under-average offenses who reach the World Series with tremendous pitching and bullpen arms. And on the pitching side, the Sox are not as good as their bats. Lester and Lackey left at the deadline last season, Buchholz is up and down and he's crush by injuries, Joe Kelly and Rubby De La Rosa are young and inexperienced. The bullpen is pretty good with the 2 japanese arms, Uehara and Tazawa but the lost of the lefty Miller is huge and guys like Mujica or Workman are too hittable. So, after landing two very good bats, Boston needs pitching to get in to the hunt for a postseason berth. And a trade for a guy like Cole Hamels could very possible soon, with Philly looking for OF and Boston needing big time starter : the BoSOx are plenty deep with OF and maybe get Allen Craig, Daniel Nava and a pair of prospects could be done. There is also a big possibility to land a top free agent pitcher, for exemple the long time Sox Jon Lester or maybe a James Shields, who know to picth well in this very toft division.
So, Boston will be back in the mix in 2015 but to be the best team in the MLB, they need this extra pitcher to pitch 7 strong innings every 6 days.
A possible look at the 2015 Red Sox lineup : Victorino (CF); Pedroia (2B); Ortiz (DH); Ramirez (LF); Cespedes (RF); Sandoval (3B); Napoli (1B); Bogaerts (SS); Vazquez (C)

With the collaboration of Alan Guillou