This Column Originally Published at GetOutofMyBallpark.com
This offseason can go either one of two ways: Triumph, or tragedy. That's not hyperbole, and it might not be seen which way it'll go for three or four years. Today was non-tender day in the Major Leagues (also known as the day that the Twins gave up David Ortiz for nothing), and things have started to roll. Hopefully it will pick up like a snowball going down hill. If this year really is a "bridge year" as Theo puts it, down hill might be the operative word there.
The first order of business is that whole left field thing. Jason Bay, the incumbent man beneath the monster, has apparently "moved on" according to his agent. This may be a ploy to drag a few million more dollars out of the Sox, but it also means that the team is going to lose out and be left to the ravages of Scott Boras, in trying to get Matt Holliday to town, or the dreaded platoon. Odds are that Bay has moved on to the Mets or some other crappy team, meaning the Sox will have to come up with another answer (I want this to be wrong very badly). A wise man once said that if you have two quarterbacks you have none, and in the AL east, it is the same way with every position player. If the team is forced to go with a platoon for a year then that will show that they are throwing away a season in the hopes of spending that money on Carl Crawford.
Then there is third base/first base (whichever one Youk isn't playing). With the trade of Mike Lowell, the Sox are missing a guy to play one of the corner infield spots (don't give me that Casey Kotchman crap, he's a good player for a mid level team, not a starter on a World Series team, especially with his bat).
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