If you were listening throughout the summer and into the fall, Edwin Encarnacion was supposedly a ready-made replacement for fellow Dominican slugger David Ortiz in Boston.
It made sense.
The Red Sox are rich, Encarnacion was eyeing up free agency, and Ortiz’s retirement plan left an obvious void with an obvious candidate.
In the end, it didn’t come close to happening.
What also won’t happen, now that Encarnacion has been guaranteed $65 million from the heretofore cost-conscious Cleveland Indians, is the already-popular veteran becoming to Toronto what Ortiz was to New England for 14 seasons.