Kuzul

The Tampa Bay Rays plugged a major hole in their outfield Thursday, acquiring Corey Dickerson and third baseman Kevin Padlo from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for pitchers Jake McGee and German Marquez, the Rockies announced.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports first reported the news.

Rosenthal spoke about the financial impact the move will have on the Rays:

“A hitter like him … often times is hard to come by. Too much to pass up in this case,” said Rays team president Matthew Silverman to reporters. 

Dickerson, 26, hit .304/.333/.536 with 10 home runs and 31 RBI in 65 games played last season. He suffered rib and foot injuries that cost him most of the year.

McGee, 29, went 1-2 with a 2.41 ERA and 0.94 WHIP. He had six saves and 19 holds, emerging as a reliable late-inning option leading up to closer Brad Boxberger.

On nearly every level, this is a curious move from Colorado’s perspective. Dickerson is a promising young talent who has come into his own when healthy over the last two seasons.

FanGraphs‘ formula graded him at 2.6 wins above replacement in 2014, and he likely would have come close to matching that in 2015 had he stayed on the field. The Rockies also retained team control on Dickerson until at least 2020, so their reasoning for moving him now is a little dubious.

From an internal perspective, the justification will be that Colorado had a logjam in the outfield. The issue was it was a self-created one. The Rockies signed 28-year-old Gerardo Parra to a three-year contract earlier this month. Parra has put up a combined 0.5 FanGraphs WAR over the last two seasons—the same number Dickerson contributed in 65 games last year.

While Parra was brilliant in his final full season with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2013, the logistics here don’t really add up. The Rockies will be paying more for Parra over the balance of his deal than they would Dickerson, who many would argue is the better player. At the very least, they’re a rebuilding team that added three years in age without upgrading from a skill perspective.

Doing so based on a package based around McGee is the ultimate sell-low. McGee is a fine middle reliever, but that’s what he is. He’s almost exclusively a fastball pitcher and will make $4.8 million next season before again hitting arbitration. The Rockies aren’t anywhere near competing in the NL West either, so bolstering their mid-innings relief is unlikely to make much of a dent next season.

Good luck sorting this one out from Colorado’s perspective. As for the Rays, this is a poaching of a promising young talent at a position of need for minimal cost.

Follow Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) on Twitter

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Of ESPN’s first 10 announced Sunday Night Baseball telecasts for 2016, five feature either the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox. Three feature the Yankees and the Red Sox.

You can’t blame the television guys, even if neither of those teams has won a playoff game in the past two years. ESPN shows the teams they know you’ll watch, and no matter how much some of you complain, plenty of you watch.

But here’s the other thing: This could be the year when Yankees-Red Sox games are actually worth watching again.

It’s not 2003-04. It probably won’t ever be like that again, with the Yankees and Red Sox meeting in back-to-back years in two of the most memorable American League Championship Series ever.

But it shouldn’t be 2014-15, either. It shouldn’t be a last-place Red Sox team facing a Yankees team that seemed happy just to stay in the race all summer. It shouldn’t be empty seats in both ballparks, an atmosphere more fit for Miami Marlins vs. Tampa Bay Rays than Yankees vs. Red Sox.

Instead, it could well end up with the Yankees and Red Sox at the top of the American League East (in one order or the other) for the first time since 2009, but the 12th time since 1995.

For the sake of everyone watching all of those Sunday night games, that’s not a bad thing.

It’s hardly guaranteed. The Red Sox are the division’s most improved team this winter, but they still have their issues (Hanley Ramirez). The Yankees worked the trade market well, but they still have their issues, too (Alex Rodriguez).

And while the defending AL East champion Toronto Blue Jays lost David Price to the Red Sox, they’ll in effect swap two months of Price for a full season of Marcus Stroman. Also, as former general manager Alex Anthopoulos pointed out to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe, the Blue Jays’ big second half was in part based on an improved defense that will return in 2016.

“I think they can win the division,” Anthopoulos told Cafardo.

I think they can, too. But if two teams are going to finish in front of them, the Yankees and Red Sox could well be the two.

The Baltimore Orioles did a nice job keeping most of their team together, but it’s a team that finished .500 in 2015 and still hasn’t effectively replaced Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis. And the one free agent they didn’t keep this winter, left-hander Wei-Yin Chen, leaves their rotation looking thin.

The Tampa Bay Rays talked about trading one of their starters this winter, but as of now they still haven’t. So they have the best rotation in the division but still have a badly overmatched lineup. They may have overachieved to finish 80-82 last year.

Meanwhile, Dave Dombrowski had almost a dream first winter as Red Sox president, adding not only Price, but also closer Craig Kimbrel, setup man Carson Smith and outfielder Chris Young. If he’d been able to rid the Sox of their Hanley Ramirez mistake, it really would have been a dream.

By adding Price, the Red Sox acknowledged their 2015 plan of building a rotation without a true ace was a mistake. Price should help make all of the other starters better, just as he once did with the Rays and just as he did when he arrived in Toronto late last July.

That should help the Sox take advantage of an offense that scored the fourth-most runs in the major leagues last year, and of a defense that was much improved once they moved Ramirez out of left field and turned to talented youngsters Rusney Castillo, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Mookie Betts in the outfield. The bullpen, also an issue in 2015, should be transformed by adding Kimbrel, still one of the game’s best closers, and the hard-throwing Smith.

The Yankees, as Scott Miller pointed out in his fine offseason review this week on Bleacher Report, are one of just five teams that haven’t signed a single major league free agent. But general manager Brian Cashman stuck to his plan to make them younger and more athletic, trading for second baseman Starlin Castro, outfielder Aaron Hicks and closer Aroldis Chapman.

The Chapman-Andrew Miller-Dellin Betances back end of the bullpen will be fun to watch, just by itself. And even if Castro doesn’t prove to be this year’s version of Didi Gregorius (a young player the Yankees picked up at the right time), he still should be a significant improvement at a position where the Yankees got little production in 2015.

Even though they finished nine games ahead of the Red Sox in 2015, the Yankees are more at risk of big disappointment this summer. Every pitcher in their starting rotation has an issue of some kind, and much of their 2015 offensive revival was based on A-Rod (who will be 41 in July), Mark Teixeira (who will be 36 in April) and Carlos Beltran (who will be 39 in April). Chapman makes the bullpen more exciting, but the Yankees traded away Justin Wilson and Adam Warren.

As Joel Sherman wrote last November in the New York Post, the Yankees’ recent strategy has been focused much more on the future than on 2016. Owner Hal Steinbrenner didn’t exactly order an austerity plan, but he has said the big spending will need to wait until the contracts of Rodriguez, Teixeira, Beltran and CC Sabathia run out over the next couple of years.

The Red Sox tried the semi-austerity thing, but after three last-place finishes in four years, they went after Dombrowski and gave him the backing to go after Price. Perhaps the Yankees, despite no postseason wins since 2012, didn’t feel the same need.

Realistically, neither of these teams is the Evil Empire anymore. The American League Central is a stronger division overall than the East, and it’s the Kansas City Royals who are the two-time defending AL champions.

The Royals, incidentally, will appear in just one of those 10 announced Sunday night games on ESPN, when they host the New York Mets in an Opening Night World Series encore. Apparently the Yankees and Red Sox weren’t available.

You’ll see them soon enough. This year, it might even be worth watching.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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They tell you nothing is guaranteed until the ink is dry.

Well, the ink on Manny Machado‘s love for his wife, Yainee, has not only dried, but it’s also about as permanent as it gets.

The Baltimore Orioles third baseman had her portrait tattooed and shared a photo to Instagram on Monday. It fills the majority of the available real estate on the inside of his right forearm, featuring a blossoming flower.

[Manny Machado, h/t The Score]

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What do Blue Jays and Vikings have in common? Well, if you’re referring to the fowl and the historical people, nothing.

But now that AL MVP Josh Donaldson is getting grimy and suiting up in armor for the History Channel’s upcoming fourth season of Vikings, there is a connection!

According to the press release, this is what fans of both the show and the third baseman can expect:

Donaldson will play the role of “Hoskuld,” a Viking warrior of great skill, in an episode that will air later this year as part of the fourth season. Two-time All-Star Donaldson will film in Ireland this week. Donaldson is a massive fan of “Vikings” and recently tweeted a photo unveiling a striking, new Viking hairstyle inspired by the character “Ragnar.”

Given that Donaldson broadcasted that braided coif in early December, the news should come with little surprise. Still, the level of commitment required to at least semi-permanently modify the look of his locks bodes well for his forthcoming performance. 

And if that wasn’t enough to build the anticipation, peep the Season 4 trailer:

Donaldson seems nowhere to be found—which makes sense given that he has yet to begin shooting—but where there is an overcast sky and thunderclaps, there will almost certainly be downpour.

The Bringer of Rain is on the horizon.

[For the Win, h/t CBSSports.com]

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Chris Davis met with reporters Thursday for the first time since signing the richest deal in Baltimore Orioles history, per the Associated Press’ David Ginsburg.

After back-and-forth negotiations eventually led to a standstill ahead of the winter meetings, Davis and Baltimore finally reached a seven-year, $161 million pact Saturday, which became official Thursday following a medical examination.

Yet the two-time American League home run king said he welcomes the added pressure of living up to the lofty financial figures, per Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com:

The Orioles initially offered Davis a seven-year, $150 million deal in December but pulled back after the first baseman sought more money, according to Buster Olney of ESPN The Magazine.

Davis admitted Thursday that the ongoing negotiations left him more anxious than he’d anticipated, per Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com:

Davis and the Orioles then began seeking other options, and the first baseman had been linked to discussions with the Los Angeles Angels and St. Louis Cardinals, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, who was then writing for CBS Sports.

Agent Scott Boras flew to Baltimore and met with Orioles owner Peter Angelos and general manager Dan Duquette, which proved to be the breaking point, per Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun and Ghiroli:

Duquette acknowledged the urgency of re-signing the 2013 All-Star on Thursday, per Encina:

Boras, well-known for pushing his clients to hit free agency and seek the highest dollar figures over all else, was at Davis’ press conference Thursday but wouldn’t elaborate on other offers the first baseman fielded, per Ghiroli:

While it was a celebratory evening at Camden Yards, Nick Shlain of Baseball Prospectus made a valid point in questioning why Davis, who has been with the Orioles for five years, donned a jersey during the press conference:

Davis hopes that the clubhouse environment and established roster will help bring other top free agents to Baltimore in the coming years, per Encina:

While Davis led the AL in home runs in two of the past three years, his 2014 campaign saw him stumble to a .196 batting average, and the team left him off its playoff roster after MLB suspended him for testing positive for Adderall.

While Davis probably squeaked out more than he is worth, the Orioles didn’t want to leave a gaping power void in the middle of their lineup as they hope to improve on last year’s .500 campaign.

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Boston Red Sox third baseman Pablo Sandoval, nicknamed “Kung Fu Panda,” has long drawn attention due to his weight. It rarely got in the way of his performance on the field, but Sandoval’s first season of a five-year, $95 million deal with the Red Sox was the worst of his eight-year career. 

In October, the team asked Sandoval to drop some weight, per Ricky Doyle of NESN.com. 

As Red Sox manager John Farrell told CSN’s Sean McAdam on Wednesday, Sandoval has made changes on the scale this offseason along with teammate Hanley Ramirez, who also struggled last year.

“Right now he’s roughly 20 pounds lighter than the last game he played for us in 2015,” he said. “I know for a fact that both guys (Sandoval and Ramirez) went into the offseason with some clear markers, with some clear goals to achieve from a physical standpoint. Both are doing that.”

While Farrell’s visit with Ramirez in Florida earlier in January was documented, per Christopher Smith of MassLive.com, the Red Sox manager revealed to McAdam that he also spoke with Sandoval. 

“I can tell you this—after meeting with Hanley, I spent another day or so with Pablo,” Farrell said. “Pablo’s extremely eager to get back. He feels like he’s got to make amends for a year ago and is eager to do just that.”

In 2015, Sandoval batted a career-low .245 with 10 home runs and 47 RBI. He had never batted below .268 in his seven years with the San Francisco Giants.

Sandoval, whom ESPN.com lists at 5’11”, 255 pounds, looked like he wasn’t near that number last season. He’s lost weight before in his career, dropping 22 pounds during the 2013 season, per CSNBayArea.com’s Andrew Baggarly.

Baseball fans will be able to see if the lost weight helps Sandoval regain his previous success at the plate soon enough, as teams will report to spring training in February. But it will be just as important for the third baseman to keep the weight off for an extended period of time and become a trustworthy presence at the hot corner. 

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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Good things come to those who wait. When it comes to cashing in their trade assets, that should be the New York Yankees‘ guiding dogma.

All winter, trade whispers have swirled around Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner and reliever Andrew Miller. Yet even as they acquired outfielder Aaron Hicks from the Minnesota Twins and flame-throwing closer Aroldis Chapman from the Cincinnati Reds, the Yanks held on to Gardner and Miller.

It’s a strategy they should continue at least to the July 31 trade deadline, when they’ll have an opportunity to cash Gardner and Miller in at maximum value.

Gardner has featured in various rumors, including this recent proposition by the Boston Globe‘s Nick Cafardo: “With outfield prospect Aaron Judge not far off, the Yankees could deal Brett Gardner for pitching. It’s plausible to imagine a Gardner-for-Andrew Heaney swap, considering Angels GM Billy Eppler was Brian Cashman’s assistant and likes Gardner’s defense, speed, and leadoff capability.”

If that deal was actually on the table, New York should consider pouncing. Heaney—a 24-year-old left-hander who posted a 3.49 ERA in 18 starts with the Halos last year—boasts considerable upside and would slot nicely into a Yankees rotation that’s crowded with question marks.

Cafardo, though, raises a larger point. Judge—the Yankees’ No. 1 prospect, per MLB.com—figures to make an impact on the big club at some point this season. But the slugging 23-year-old may need a bit more seasoning in the minors; he’s seen less than a full season at Triple-A, after all.

By keeping Gardner in the fold at least until midseason, New York can bring Judge along at a deliberate pace and not rush him into an outfield that is counting on veterans Carlos Beltran and Jacoby Ellsbury to stay healthy.

Assuming Gardner—an All-Star in 2015—stays healthy and provides his usual mix of speed, savvy and pop, there should be plenty of takers come July.

Speaking of which, few commodities are more coveted at the trade deadline than late-inning arms. And Miller is one of the best in the game, even if he cedes closing duties to Chapman.

Miller had a stellar season last year at the head of New York’s shutdown bullpen, posting a 2.04 ERA with 100 strikeouts in 61.2 innings and finishing 10th in American League Cy Young Award balloting.

Now, with lefties Chapman and Miller and right-handed setup man Dellin Betances, the Yankees have a chance to improve upon 2015’s elite relief corps, which paced the pack with 596 strikeouts.

They also have a chance to trade from a strength to address a weakness. They could do it now, though other teams have balked at their asking price of a top young starting pitcher for Miller, per Cafardo.

That’s in the frigid middle of winter, however, when free agents are dangling and clubs can afford to see how their own internal options perform in the spring.

By July, the playoff races are heating up, and teams become more desperate to plug holes. An arm like Miller’s could fetch a hefty ransom from a contender that just lost its closer to injury, for example. Especially since the 30-year-old southpaw—who signed an exceedingly reasonable four-year, $36 million deal before the 2015 season—would be more than a stretch-run rental.

General manager Brian Cashman said it’s his “full intent” to keep the Chapman/Miller/Betances troika together, per Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, but added he expects to get a “lot of interesting calls.”

If someone blows Cashman away with an offer for Miller or Gardner (or virtually anyone else) between now and pitchers and catchers reporting, fine. If not, he’d be wise to hold his chips and see where things stand in six months.

Heck, who knows what the Yankees will need at midseason? The starting rotation looks like the most obvious concern at the moment. But the lineup is filled with creaky vets—Beltran, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira—who could break down anytime. Maybe adding a bat will be the summer’s top priority.

In many ways, New York is in a generalized holding pattern, as Rosenthal outlined:

This isn’t necessarily a playoff team, but the Yankees’ 2016 season is partly about buying time until the contracts of first baseman Mark Teixieira and outfielder Carlos Beltran expire, just as the 2017 season will be partly about buying time while left-hander CC Sabathia and third baseman Alex Rodriguez play out their deals.

In the meantime, Cashman is threading the needle — protecting his assets, getting younger and steering clear of new long-term obligations, in accordance with an ownership mandate.

New York still wants to win now, make no mistake. There’s no such thing as a full-on rebuild in the Bronx. And the AL East, while balanced, is an eminently winnable division, stocked top to bottom with flawed hopefuls.

But where the Yanks used to rule the offseason by throwing their big-market bulk around and cutting cartoonish checks like Publishers Clearing House gone berserk, their new modus operandi is wait and see.

That should keep Gardner and Miller in pinstripes for the time being. Whether it’ll bring good things remains to be seen.

All statistics and contract information courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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In Chicago, Starlin Castro was a victim of circumstance. Now, after being traded to the New York Yankees, the shortstop-turned-second baseman should be its beneficiary.

There wasn’t a more criticized athlete in Chicago than the Cubs‘ once-prized shortstop who ended his career with the team as a second baseman before being traded to the Yankees on Dec. 8, a move that will benefit not only both teams but also Castro.

Castro, in his early 20s, was thrust into a starring role on Cubs teams with no intention of competing during the early years of the Theo Epstein rebuild. When Epstein took over as Cubs president of baseball operations, Castro was unprotected in the lineup and often forced to hit third or fourth—slots in which he has put up his worst offensive numbers.

Struggles at the plate snowballed into mental lapses in the field, which drew the ire of a tortured Cubs fanbase. In his six seasons in Chicago, the Cubs went through five managers—Lou Piniella, Mike Quade, Dale Sveum, Ricky Renteria and Joe Maddon—while he was trying to learn English.

Those conditions made it difficult for Castro to develop defensively. Only Piniella and Renteria speak Spanish fluently. Try discussing a shift or wheel play in a language you don’t know. You’ll understand the difficulty.

Jim Hendry, the Cubs’ general manager at the time, signed Castro in 2006 and promoted him to the major leagues in 2010, at 20 years old, straight from Double-A Tennessee.

Hendry always had confidence in Castro’s bat—he led the National League with 207 hits in 2011—and thinks that Castro is an ideal fit for a Yankees team trying to compete yet get younger. Castro will turn 26 right before the start of the 2016 season.

Hendry, who was the Cubs’ general manager from 2002-11, has been a Yankees special assistant since 2012.

“In hindsight, very few people can do that [be the centerpiece on a major league team as a young player] well,” Hendry said, while praising the job Epstein has done in Chicago, in an interview with Bleacher Report.

“Obviously the Cubs weren’t trying to contend then. Besides the [Mike] Trouts and [Bryce] Harpers of the world at 21, 22, 23 years old, not too many guys can take on that spot. So I think he probably got in a rut of trying to do too much, swing got a little longer and chased some bad pitches.”

As a shortstop, Castro failed to meet the expectations that cast him as a rangy player with the kind of arm capable of taking away base hits.

Instead, inexcusable mistakes that included eating sunflower seeds while on the field, unawareness of the infield fly rule on one occasion and situational miscues colored his stint as the Cubs’ shortstop.

It didn’t help that Castro replaced fan favorite Ryan Theriot, who didn‘t cover a lot of ground but made all the routine plays. That magnified the former’s fielding errors.

Castro’s poor play in the field overshadowed what he did at the plate, including hitting .307 in 2011 and being selected to three National League All-Star teams (2011, 2012 and 2014).

Hendry, however, did not project Castro as a career shortstop. He knew eventually he would move to either second or third. Hendry said while the Yankees traded for him intending to use him as a second baseman, his versatility allows for spot starts at shortstop or third base should manager Joe Girardi choose to do so.

“He earned some criticism,” Hendry said. “When you make some mental mistakes, you deserve to wear that a little bit. We all knew him, knew he wasn’t a bad kid. He’s a good kid and he cares and he’s a good teammate.”

Castro’s lowest moment came when struggles at the plate prompted a benching in August of last season. Though Maddon did not characterize the move as a benching at the time, Castro was effectively taken out of the everyday lineup.

Addison Russell was moved from second base to shortstop for what would end up being the remainder of the season. Kyle Schwarber was inserted into left field and Chris Coghlan moved from left field to second base. Castro got some opportunities to start at second for the Cubs and eventually worked his way back into the everyday lineup.

In September and October, Castro hit .369/.400/.655. He started all nine games for the Cubs in the postseason.

“After he went to second base, the bat seemed to come back around,” Hendry said. “I thought Joe Maddon did a really nice job handling the last couple months and, in fairness to Starlin, he didn’t pout.

“He went through his ups and downs and I think all those things will prepare him to do well in New York.”

New York might be more unforgiving than Chicago, but Castro is certain to play under less scrutinized circumstances in 2016. With players like Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran in the lineup, Castro will be less of a focal point.

If Castro does become a star in New York and hits over .300, which is well within in his capabilities, he will have eased into the role—not been thrust into it.

In fact, the 2016 season will give Castro his best opportunity to put up gaudy numbers.

With the top of the Yankees’ order set, Castro is likely to slot lower in the lineup. Though the team hasn’t specifically said where Castro might hit, he figures to see several early at-bats hitting eighth. In 113 career at-bats in that spot, Castro has hit .319/.402/.451.

He has always had star power and been capable of carrying a team with his bat. Castro was just restricted by the limitations of a rebuilding Cubs team early in his career. He may be meant to be a star. But it has to be on his terms.

While Castro was pegged as such in Chicago, he is likely to be most successful living in the shadows of a star-studded lineup in New York.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs.

Seth Gruen covers baseball for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @SethGruen.

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At the end of 2016, Hub fans will finally bid adieu to Big Papi. And also, welcome his heir.

David Ortiz made it official two months ago that the 2016 season will be his last. When he did, he set a countdown to the moment when the Boston Red Sox will part ways with a player who’s slugged 503 home runs and won three World Series titles on his way to becoming one of the franchise’s great icons.

Lucky for them, at least they have a player who’s ready to fill Ortiz’s shoes. His name is Mookie Betts, and 2016 should be the year he becomes the new face of the Red Sox.

Now, let’s grant that the Red Sox aren’t short on candidates to wear their face after Ortiz calls it a career. The 40-year-old designated hitter is surrounded by star newcomers David Price and Craig Kimbrel, ol’ standbys like Dustin Pedroia and a wave of fresh-faced youngsters in Xander Bogaerts, Blake Swihart and Eduardo Rodriguez.

But the 2016 season should be all about Betts. That’s in part because young homegrown studs who play every day are the best franchise-player candidates, and in part because the 2015 season was all about Betts.

Though the Red Sox endured their second straight last-place finish in 2015, Betts was a major bright spot. Whether you consult Baseball-Reference.com or FanGraphs, wins above replacement pegged the young outfielder as Boston’s best player. And according to FanGraphs, Dan Szymborski’s ZiPS projections system predicts that Betts will once again be the best player on the Red Sox in 2016.

Hard to believe? Hardly.

Though Betts wasn’t the best hitter on the Red Sox in 2015—that honor naturally belongs to Ortiz, who OPS’d .913 and slugged 37 dingers—there’s no doubt he was Boston’s best overall player. His first full season saw him hit .291 with an .820 OPS, 18 home runs and 21 stolen bases, with plenty of highlight-reel plays in center field on the side.

And because Betts did all that at the ripe young age of 22, it’s only fair to have big expectations for what he might do at the age of 23 in 2016. If you’re, say, Buster Olney of ESPN.com, you might even be thinking about Betts as a potential American League MVP contender:

These are some high hopes, all right.

But in Olney’s defense, having high hopes isn’t the same thing as having unreasonable hopes. Though Ortiz and his grand farewell will be front and center for at least the start of 2016, it’s not at all difficult to imagine Betts will steal the show.

When dealing with great all-around players, there are typically areas where you can count on continued greatness without any second thoughts. With Betts, those would be his baserunning and defense.

Though Betts stole “only” 21 bases in 2015, FanGraphs’ BsR metric (baserunning runs above average) actually rated him as MLB‘s best baserunner. That’s thanks to all the more under-the-radar plays he made on the bases. And according to the defensive metrics, Betts’ defense in center field was somewhere between above average and way above average.

This had much to do with Betts’ plus speed, which is likely still years away from declining. The only question is whether his proposed move from center field to right field will hinder his defense, but it’s not much of a question. Right field at Fenway Park is basically a second center field, and Betts teased at the end of 2015 that he’s up to the challenge.

If there’s a more palpable sense of doubt, it’s in regard to whether Betts can repeat his offensive performance from 2015, much less improve on it. But this, too, is an area where there’s room for only so much doubt.

The ideal hitter is one that has patience, can put the ball in play and can hit the ball hard. Betts showed in his rookie season in 2014 that he had the ability to do all three, and 2015 was basically more of the same. He got even better at avoiding strikeouts and hitting for power, and beneath his slightly subpar walk rate was a 26.2 chase percentage that easily beat the MLB average of 31.3.

Or, in Holmes-to-Watson terms: After teasing he could be one in 2014, Betts established himself as an advanced hitter with power in 2015. A rare breed, them.

And as far as Betts’ advanced approach goes, even better is how it was actually more advanced at the end of 2015 than it was at the beginning.

While Betts had a tough time hacking at off-speed pitches in April, Brooks Baseball can show that he got better and better at laying off the stuff as the season went along. That speaks to his ability to adjust, which assistant hitting coach Victor Rodriguez very much approves of.

“That’s one thing that makes him different, the ability to adjust from one at-bat to another, or sometimes from one pitch to another,” Rodriguez told Tim Britton of the Providence Journal last May. “It seems like every game, he puts together good at-bats, not necessarily results, but working counts, taking pitches, making hard contact, taking a walk when they’re giving it to him. That’s a good sign.”

Betts also adjusted how he was hitting the ball. If we refer back to Olney’s tweet and use June 10 as a cutoff, it stands out that Betts stopped trying to drive the ball and just plain started driving the ball. He became less fly-ball happy and better at hitting the ball squarely:

Mind you, all this is arguably dodging the question that really matters: Can a guy listed at 5’9″ and 180 pounds really carry on as such a good power hitter?

As it happens, there are some good answers out there. Betts’ power mainly applies to pitches on the inner two-thirds of the plate, and Dave Cameron of Fox Sports broke down how Betts got really good at not missing those in 2015. And in a piece for Baseball Prospectus Boston, Matthew Kory highlighted how Betts didn’t collect cheap home runs.

Are there things Betts legitimately needs to improve on? Sure. It would be nice to see more plate coverage, for one. For two, he could use more route efficiency to make the most of his speed on defense.

But…that’s…pretty…much…it. The fact is it’s hard to poke holes in Betts’ game. There may not be any one thing in particular that he excels at, but he’s quite good at everything. In him, the Red Sox do indeed have a budding superstar on their hands.

And yet, that’s only half the reason Betts is the right guy to take over for Big Papi as the Red Sox’s next franchise player.

It’s one thing to be great, and another thing to be entertaining. The latter word fits Ortiz just as well as the former. His legacy consists of not just his big numbers and his World Series rings, but also his all-time great flair for the dramatic and his epic bat flips and home run trots. Never mind what he did. Nobody’s ever going to forget how he did it.

Betts isn’t going to copy Big Papi’s special brand of entertainment. But he’s shown he can be entertaining in his own way, mainly because he’s not exactly casual in the application of his many talents. There’s energy in Betts’ game, and on any given day it can lead to one or more “Did you see that?!” moments.

That was never more evident than in Boston’s home opener against the Washington Nationals early last April, in which Betts owned the day by robbing a home run, hitting a home run and tearing up the basepaths. He completely took over the game, making for a hell of a highlight:

That right there was one of the most electric individual performances of the 2015 season, and Big Papi himself was among those who was on the edge of disbelief.

“That was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in baseball,” Ortiz said, per Gordon Edes of ESPN Boston. “I was like, ‘Bro, not even in a few practices you can do that.’

“That kid is an unbelievable athlete,” Ortiz exclaimed. “It’s a no-doubter he’s going be a superstar.”

Well, no argument here. Betts has already broken through as a star, and he has everything he needs to take the next step. By the time he’s done with 2016, he should indeed be a superstar.

And when Big Papi is done with it, Betts will also be ready to become the new face of the Red Sox.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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The Tampa Bay Rays locked in their 2015 team MVP by reportedly signing second baseman Logan Forsythe to a two-year contract extension.  

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times was the first to report the agreement Thursday night, and Jon Heyman of MLB Network later confirmed the $10.25 million deal with an option for 2018.

Heyman provided a yearly salary breakdown with regard to Forsythe’s new contract, as well as further explanation of his option:

Per Topkin, signing Forsythe allowed the Rays to avoid going to arbitration.

The 29-year-old veteran broke out in a big way in 2015, as he set career highs with 153 games played, 17 home runs, 68 RBI, nine stolen bases and a .281 batting average.

While second base was his primary position, Forsythe also made appearances at first base and third base, and he has spent time at shortstop, left field and right field during his five-year career.

The 2008 first-round pick appeared sparingly for the San Diego Padres from 2011-2013 before a trade sent him to Tampa.

Forsythe’s meteoric rise to prominence has been reminiscent of former Rays utilityman Ben Zobrist, which is why he appears to be a great fit for the organization.

The Rays took a chance by giving him over $5 million per season since he only has one year of production under his belt, but the deal could prove to be a bargain if he continues to develop.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

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