The Red Sox are working quickly at the Winter Meetings this year. Just one day after signing free agent 1B/C Mike Napoli, they agreed to a three year, $39M contract with free agent OF Shane Victorino.
Now many of you are wondering, why did they sign Victorino? The Red Sox were in the market for an above average defensive outfielder who can play both right field and center field at Fenway. From all accounts, Victorino has a cannon of an arm, which is a huge plus if you're going to play right field or center field in Boston.
Why Victorino and not Ross? Victorino only hit .255 last year with 11 home runs and Ross hit .267 with 22 home runs? It's simple, my dear readers. Except not really, only if you have a good understanding of advanced statistics and sabremetrics in baseball.
For his career, Shane Victorino has a .275/.341/.430 slash line, .770 OPS, 23.1 WAR, 112 RAA, .996 Fld%, 7.8% walk rate, and a 11.6% strikeout rate.
For his career, Cody Ross has a .262/.324/.460 slash line, .783 OPS, 10.6 WAR, 19 RAA, .989 Fld%, 7.4% walk rate, and a 21.8% strikeout rate.
Victorino has the better career numbers, both in the field and at the plate. The biggest statistic I see is the walk rates and strikeout rates. The Red Sox are looking for guys who will grind out at bats and really make pitchers earn their outs, and a 7.8% walk rate is pretty damn good, and an 11.6% strikeout rate is pretty low as well. Victorino is the better fielder as well. In addition to the higher WAR, higher RAA, and higher fielding percentage, Victorino has 2,226 put outs from the outfield, whereas Ross has 1,586 put outs from the field.
However, with Victorino and Jonny Gomes now in the fold for the outfield, trade talks for Jacoby Ellsbury have begun to heat up. Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe says the Red Sox are open to the idea of trading Ellsbury, playing Victorino in center field, and signing either Ross or another right fielder to fill out the outfield. ESPN's Buster Olney says that rival executives believe the Red Sox are laying the groundwork for a Jacoby Ellsbury for pitching trade.
I know many of you girls will begin crying your eyes out if Ellsbury is traded, and many of you bandwagoner idiots will call into your favorite radio show to rip the Red Sox apart.
"OMG NO NOT MY BABY JACOBY HE'S SO HOT WHY ARE THEY TRADING HIM HE'S SO GOOD CAUSE HE'S SO HOT!!!!!"
Yikes.
"The Red Sox are goin' nowhere! They traded Ellsberry fowah a bunch of minah league bumbs! Theyah gonna finish last! They suck!"
Good God.
On the bright side, Shane Victorino is very happy to be a member of the Red Sox, and his adorable son Kingston apparently feels the same. check it out.
Blessed day to all...proud again to call myself @redsox! Kingston feels the same.....#ALOHA twitter.com/ShaneVictorino…Back to the MLB Newsfeed
— Shane Victorino (@ShaneVictorino) December 5, 2012