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There were no backfield tuneups or “B” games for Adrian Gonzalez. Once his surgically repaired right shoulder had healed enough for a game situation, Gonzalez wanted to play in an actual game.
So the day came on Saturday, and on the first pitch he saw, Boston’s new star first baseman raked a single to left-center against Marlins right-hander Josh Johnson, who happens to be one of the best pitchers in the game. It was the first pitch Gonzalez had tracked from a Major League pitcher since Oct. 3 of last season.
Nothing to it, right?
“No, I mean, Josh Johnson is a guy who has a great fastball, so you can’t give him anything,” said Gonzalez. “My game plan was just to go up there and look for a fastball that I could get on top of and I was able to execute that first pitch.”
In Gonzalez’s second at-bat, he again made solid contact, this time raking a liner to center that Dewayne Wise made a diving catch on, resulting in a sacrifice fly.
“You’d think that after that long a wait and coming off an injury, he’d be a little jumpy,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “He was probably anything but that. Nice little liner to left, and then he had a nice at-bat where he got the sac fly. So it’s a good start. He wanted to stay in, and I think that’s also good. I think we have time to not rush things. He’ll just hit tomorrow with the guys and then he’ll get a couple of more at-bats Monday night.”
As short a debut as it was, Gonzalez provided a glimpse of the type of line drives he will spray throughout what Boston hopes will be a special baseball summer.
Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein had eyed Gonzalez for a couple of years, hoping he could one day bring him to Boston. The Sox traded three of their top prospects — Casey Kelly, Anthony Rizzo and Reymond Fuentes — to ultimately make it happen.
Gonzalez and Carl Crawford are the two additions that have Red Sox fans salivating for the start of the 2011 regular season. Opening Day is April 1 in Texas. And despite Gonzalez being on a slower program than the rest of the position players because of the shoulder surgery he had in October, there was never a doubt he’d be ready in time for the start of the regular season.
“I’m on schedule,” Gonzalez said. “We never set a schedule to be ahead or behind. You just take a day at a time and when you’re ready, you’re ready. I’ve been saying this all along — I don’t like to get ahead of myself. I’m never going to say I’m ahead or behind schedule. I’m just on schedule. One thing I’ve said all along is that I’ll be ready Opening Day.”
There was no build-up to Gonzalez’s Grapefruit League debut, because it wasn’t announced ahead of time. When reporters got into the clubhouse at 8 a.m. ET on Saturday morning, Gonzalez’s name was in the lineup, batting third.
“[Trainer Mike Reinold] came to me, kind of mapped it out, said, ‘This is not in stone concrete, can’t go off of it, but if everything happens as I foresee, you might play Saturday, you might play Monday,’” Gonzalez said. “It wasn’t a specific time or day or whatever, but felt good today. I kept it easy with two at-bats. We’ll see how it feels tomorrow.”
While Gonzalez was able to get nicely reacclimated at the plate, there was nothing hit to him at first, despite starting pitcher John Lackey’s best efforts.
“He told me before the game — try to get a ground ball on the first guy,” said Lackey. “I got to two strikes and I tried to go fastball in so he’d hit it over there. He hit it to [Dustin Pedroia] instead.”
Defense is where Gonzalez felt his shoulder the most last summer, with every dive causing pain.
“I’m not going to be able to [dive] until the season,” Gonzalez said. “I’m not diving. I’m staying away from it, not putting any stress on it. Hopefully I’ll put myself in the right position where the ball is hit at me, instead of to my left and to my right.”
As much as the Red Sox like Gonzalez’s glove — he is highly underrated in that aspect — the main reason they got him is for his bat.
With Gonzalez in the middle of the lineup, be it third, fourth or fifth, the Red Sox are going to be a tough matchup for opposing pitchers.
There were glimpses Saturday. Gonzalez’s first at-bat was preceded by a double by Jacoby Ellsbury and a single from Pedroia. Next time he came up, Ellsbury again doubled and Pedroia reached on an infield hit.
Combine the depth of Boston’s lineup with the fact Gonzalez will be playing half of his games at Fenway Park, and he could be on the verge of a career year.
“Hitting is contagious,” said Gonzalez. “That’s how it’s going to help. Scoring more runs is just going to help, whether it’s me hitting or watching someone else on the team drive them in, you watch guys get hits on your team, you want to go up there and get hits as well.”
Adrian Gonzalez took another step forward in his rehab from right shoulder surgery, taking live batting practice for the first time on Friday.
Gonzalez, who had been doing only tee and flip work, took 10 swings off of live pitching and 80 overall.
He is getting closer to making his Grapefruit League debut in a Boston uniform, but the club will evaluate him daily rather than set a date too far ahead of time.
“I was supposed to take about 75 swings today and I ended up taking 80,” Gonzalez said. “I felt good out there, so we’ll see how it responds tomorrow. If at any point I feel anything, I’m going to stop. The fact that I didn’t feel anything and trainer Mike Reinold was OK with me taking five more, that’s a good sign.”
Knowing he has plenty of time to be ready for Opening Day on April 1, Gonzalez doesn’t feel the need to push the envelope.
“I don’t like to set deadlines,” Gonzalez said. “I don’t like to think of a day and say, ‘This day I have to get here.’ Then you’re not going off of what I feel. It’s just not healthy.
“The main thing about this rehab is seeing how you come in the next day. It’s not how you feel today, but how you’re going to feel tomorrow that they’re really worried about. They don’t want me to go out there and play and come back the next day and be like, ‘I can’t raise my arm’.”
Not thought to be in peril when it comes to his job security, manager Terry Francona will have his contract extended when this season ends, according to an Internet report.
Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman said via Twitter that Francona’s two-year option at $4.5 million per year would be activated after this season. The Red Sox have not commented on the report, and Francona told Heyman he was unaware of the decision.
General manager Theo Epstein’s own deal is reported to expire after the 2011 season, though team owner John Henry said earlier in the week he didn’t know when Epstein’s contract was up.
It would be hard to imagine either the manager, who took over after the 2003 season, or general manager, who is entering his ninth season in the position, leaving since they’ve worked together superbly.
“The biggest way you can judge it is that we’re going on our eighth year now in a really crazy place, and if you didn’t have an extremely strong relationship, you’d have no chance in this market,” Francona said after the club’s workout Tuesday. “There’s a lot of trust.”
Of course, the two have had, and will continue to have, their disagreements. Francona said he has gone to Epstein and asked specifically for help, the rushing of Cla Meredith in 2005 being the oft-cited example — but one has to believe it happens more than that.
“We have our moments. You’re supposed to,” Francona said. “I don’t think he’d want to have somebody be the manager and not have a strong opinion, and I value his opinion a lot. He knows that. I also know when the chips are down in the really tough times, I know where I can turn.”
Francona has a good perspective on his role compared to Epstein’s.
“I’ve learned a lot,” Francona said. “Being a manager, you’re worried about today. Being the general manager, you’ve got to be a little bit more of a caretaker of the organization. I’ve learned to respect that a little bit more. Opening Day is not the end of the world.”
It was, at first glance, a terrific 2010 season for Jon Lester. He went 19-9, posted a 3.25 ERA and registered 225 strikeouts in 208 innings. Yet there was one thing that disgusted him about it. And he is determined to make sure it isn’t repeated this year.
“Walks,” said Lester. “That’s the main thing. There were too many free passes last year, too many long innings, too many two-out walks that just add 10, 12 extra pitches that aren’t needed. That’s an extra arm out of the bullpen.”
Lester notched a career-high 83 walks last year. How does he fix the problem?
“I think it’s more or less mental,” Lester said. “I think sometimes you get two quick outs, you think, ‘Oh, I’m out of this inning,’ and you’re really not and you walk a guy or give up a stupid base hit. They’re going to get hits. But you don’t want to when you weren’t focused on the pitch, because you were worried you already had two outs. That’s the main thing, just working on that mental focus every pitch, on every hitter and worrying about executing and not how many outs there are.”
Because of all Lester has accomplished, it’s sometimes easy to forget that he is just 27 years old, meaning he can still get better.
Look for Lester to be more aggressive with his approach this season.
“It’s all just trying to keep that edge and trying to not be stupid with messing around with guys,” Lester said. “Go after guys. If they get a hit, they get a hit. I’d rather give up more hits than walks. It’s just one of those deals. You have to keep attacking guys.”
Heading into an already promising 2011 First-Year Player Draft, the Red Sox were hopeful free-agent infielder Felipe Lopez could make June even better.
Boston will have to make due with what it already has.
Lopez, a Type B free agent, is set to sign a Minor League deal with the Rays, according to the St. Petersburg Times. Had Lopez found a Major League deal this winter, the Red Sox would have received a third supplemental first-round Draft pick this season.
It was exactly the hope of landing an additional pick that led Boston to add Lopez off waivers from the Cardinals at the end of September. The 30-year-old played in just four games for the Red Sox and then declined their arbitration offer earlier this offseason — a necessary step by the club to receive a compensation pick.
General manager Theo Epstein said last week his fingers were crossed that Lopez might get a Major League deal, but it wasn’t crucial to the Red Sox’s plans. Boston received first-round picks (Nos. 19 and 26) and supplemental first-round picks as compensation for the departure of Adrian Beltre (Texas) and Victor Martinez (Detroit), although it did lose a first-round pick to Tampa Bay, No. 24, for signing Carl Crawford.
Lopez hit .233 with eight home runs and 37 RBIs last season between Boston and St. Louis. Tampa Bay will be his seventh team in four seasons.
The Red Sox are nearing a Minor League deal with southpaw reliever Dennys Reyes, according to ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. Reyes likely would join Lenny DiNardo, Felix Doubront, Rich Hill, Andrew Miller, Hideki Okajima and Randy Williams in competition for a spot on the big league roster as the lefty-on-lefty reliever.
Turning 34 in April, Reyes is a 14-year Major Leaguer who’s made no fewer than 50 appearances each of the last five seasons, including 75 each in 2008 and ’09. He was effective for St. Louis last season, going 3-1 with a 3.55 ERA in 38 innings and 59 appearances.
Reyes had fared better in his career against left-handed hitters, holding them to a .238 average — 41 points lower than the right-handers. But it was actually reversed last season, when lefties hit .307 off him and right-handers hit just .177. The only two home runs he allowed came from left-handed hitters, too.
Reyes hasn’t allowed more than four home runs in a season since 2004. His best season came in 2006 with the Twins, when he went 5-0 with a 0.89 ERA in 66 appearances.
The Mexico native has been to the postseason twice, with the Twins that season and the Cards in 2009. Both teams lost in the Division Series.
Red Sox president Larry Lucchino has been surprised by little this offseason, from the splashy upgrades the Red Sox were able to make to some of the sound bites coming from New York.
Going into the winter, the Red Sox knew well — quantitatively, in fact — that the club’s draw wasn’t what it had been just a few years ago, and they set out to change that.
“We have this thing we called barometer of demand,” Lucchino said in a radio interview on the Dennis & Callahan morning show on WEEI on Thursday. “And we thought that the barometer of demand was perhaps flagging just a little. It was still awfully good compared to other places, but not quite as intense in 2010 as maybe it had been in 2007, 2008. There were just minor indications of that, but what really drove us was finishing third and having the kind of frustrating season we had.”
In less than a week in December, the front office made good on what were likely the boldest of its plans, trading for Adrian Gonzalez and signing Carl Crawford. Both acquisitions were the product of deliberate planning, Lucchino said.
That the Red Sox coveted Gonzalez was no secret, and Lucchino acknowledged as much. Crawford’s agreement to a seven-year, $142 million deal, however, was harder to predict, and Lucchino credited the outfielder for sticking to his word.
“There are a lot of free agents who always keep that Yankee card in the back of their mind and try to play it in the 11th hour or earlier, but that was not the case here,” Lucchino said. “We had a deadline and we acted with some alacrity to meet that deadline, and the player honored the agreement.”
In those planning discussions, Lucchino said the idea had been raised internally that Boston may not need to make major moves because of who’s to return from injury: Josh Beckett, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia.
Lucchino was assuring that any thought of the Sox resting on their laurels was quickly scratched because of the strength of the American League East; because “we just didn’t want to go into it with anything less than the best team that we could assemble.”
When asked about Hank Steinbrenner’s statement to the New York Post about the media’s treatment of the Yankees’ injuries vs. its treatment of the Red Sox’s injuries, Lucchino said, “The rivalry is hot again, and it should be. So let Hank talk.”
As for the rehabbing group, Beckett’s doing well, Lucchino said, while Pedroia said in a separate interview with WEEI that “there have been surprises” as he works back from surgery on his left foot.
“I’m two weeks away from Spring Training, and I’m just now kind of getting the program to where I feel good and to where I feel good to where I can play a game,” Pedroia said.
One wave of heralded prospects (Jonathan Papelbon, Jon Lester, Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury and Kevin Youkilis) helped the Red Sox win a World Series in 2007, and that core is about to make a run at another trophy. Three players from the next wave (Casey Kelly, Anthony Rizzo and Reymond Fuentes) were traded six weeks ago for the superstar bat of Adrian Gonzalez.
So where does that leave Boston’s farm system? It was a question worth examining on Wednesday, as the Red Sox held their annual Rookie Development Program media availability at a bubbled-in practice facility at Boston College.
“We still feel we have a really strong farm system overall, even with the removal of three of our top prospects,” said Red Sox director of player development Mike Hazen. “Any time you lose players the caliber of Rizzo, Kelly and Fuentes, that’s going to take a little bit of a hit, but we still feel like we have a lot of really strong players that are going to come up through the next couple of years.”
Several of those players were on display on Wednesday. The players who are invited to the Rookie Development Program are generally those who are projected to reach the Major Leagues within the next 12 to 18 months.
Two notables among this year’s crop were catcher Ryan Lavarnway and starting pitcher Stolmy Pimentel.
Lavarnway presents the Red Sox with a commodity that is exceedingly hard to find these days — a catcher who can ht. In fact, he was named the organization’s Co-Offensive Player of the Year in 2010, hitting .299 with 22 homers and 102 RBIs in a season split between Class A Salem and Double-A Portland.
The defense doesn’t come as naturally for Lavarnway, but the Red Sox like the growth they’ve seen.
“If not the hardest, he’s one of the hardest-working players we’ve had,” said Hazen. “He’s made himself into what we’ve seen today, so we feel like he’s going to continue to make himself into an even better defensive player. The blocking, receiving — the technical aspects of catching certainly still need to improve, as they do with any Minor League player.”
A sixth-round pick in the 2008 First-Year Player Draft, Lavarnway, a product of Yale, knows that work ethic is going to continue to have as much of an impact on his progress as talent.
“I just want to finish polishing off my game,” Lavarnway said. “At this point, I think I do a lot of things well, but I’m not perfect by any means. I want to continue to throw the ball well to second base and put myself in an athletic position to make the throw.”
After his promotion to Double-A last year, he remembers well what manager Arnie Byeler told him.
“The phone rings from Fenway Park [at Double-A]. It didn’t before,” Lavarnway said. “Whether you’re in Portland or Pawtucket, it’s got to be in your mind that you’re not getting ready just to win the Double-A game. You’re also getting ready to potentially be a Major League ballplayer.”
Then there is Pimentel, who might be the best starting pitching prospect in the organization now that Kelly is with the Padres.
The 20-year-old Pimentel spent all of last season at Class A Salem, notching 102 strikeouts in 26 starts. He pitched in the All-Star Futures Game in Anaheim, retiring both batters he faced. This figures to be a crucial year of development for the Dominican righty.
“For a young pitcher, you can see the physical [development],” Hazen said. “That’s grown a ton over the last few years. Developmentally, he’s done really well. He went to Salem as a 20-year-old as a starting pitcher, went through that league the entire season, was very consistent. I know the numbers aren’t necessarily eye-popping as of yet, but if you know that league at all, playing eight teams, you play the same seven teams over and over again. That can be a challenge for a young kid when they know what he has and they know how to attack him. We felt like, start to finish last year, we were really impressed with the way he handled himself.”
Pimentel is determined to punch his ticket to Fenway.
“I know very clearly what I want — my goal is to finish in the big leagues, because I love to play baseball,” Pimentel said. “I’ve been working to help my family, and that’s my goal — to be working hard every day to get better, so I can show them that I’m ready to pitch in the big leagues. All I have to do is keep working hard and do my job.”
He knows that things aren’t in his control enough to project an arrival date on Yawkey Way.
“I can’t tell you that. All I can do is work hard, and when they think I’m ready for that opportunity, they’re going to give it to me,” Pimentel said. “And when they give it to me, I’m going to take it.”
The other players who participated in this year’s rookie camp were righty Robert Coello, catcher Tim Federowicz, righty Stephen Fife, outfielder Juan Carlos Linares, third baseman Will Middlebrooks, righty Jason Rice, righty Clevelan Santeliz, second baseman Oscar Tejeda and righty Alex Wilson.
Don’t look now, but the latest wave of Red Sox prospects could be on the verge of turning a corner.
“I think we’re definitely closer than when we were drafted, at least I hope so,” said Lavarnway. “I know this, especially this group of guys, I’ve spent a lot of time with them on the field and in the locker room. It’s a bunch of great guys, hard workers, they really respect the game of baseball and they really want to do things the right way.”
A plan to expand the bullpens and move the right-field wall in at Fenway Park has been put on hold while other options are considered, Red Sox president Larry Lucchino said on Thursday.
“We’re going to re-examine it and see if we can come up with some alternative plans that might give us a chance to have a safer and more competitive bullpen facility, as well as shorten a bit the walls in right field,” Lucchino said at the Boston Baseball Writers’ Dinner. “It’s down the road somewhere.”
Nearing Fenway’s centennial, a plan announced earlier this offseason would have updated the bullpens and required moving the right-field fences in six to nine feet. The Red Sox need the approval of various historical bodies to make such a change, and they withdrew the request after concerns were raised.
“We made a lot of proposals for changes this offseason. A ton of them have been approved and are under way,” Lucchino said. “We have about $40 million worth of work under way. This one did not pass muster.”
Lucchino said that Red Sox’s pitchers have requested a larger bullpen and that the current one is seven feet short of the minimum width that MLB suggests.
Since it opened in 1921, the right-field fences at Fenway have been moved multiple times, but not significantly since 1940, when the bullpens were added. Renovations to bring in high-definition video boards, including one in center field, and seat replacements in certain areas are still to be completed by Opening Day.
“Our fans are going to be very pleasantly surprised when they come to the ballpark and see the three video boards in center field and the improvements in the access and the mobility around the ballpark and the new seats down the right-field line,” Lucchino said. “It will be, I think, a very full offseason when it comes to construction work.”