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FORT MYERS, Fla. — David Price will be the third Opening Day starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox in the past three seasons Tuesday in Cleveland.

Boston hopes Price will be the man for that job for the next seven years, and his biggest fan on the 2016 team may be one of his biggest former enemies, David Ortiz.

It turns out Ortiz also gave his blessing when the Red Sox asked him about pursuing the dominant lefty as a free agent. But the two new teammates once enjoyed a public and mutual professional scorn.

Their open acrimony surfaced during the 2013 American League Division Series. It intensified in May 2014, when Price plunked the Red Sox DH during their first matchup of the season.

Ortiz referred to their hostilities as “war” and called Price “a little b—h.” Price objected and said Ortiz “looks like he’s bigger than the game of baseball.”

That was then.

This is now.

Millions witnessed images of their bromantic clubhouse hug on Feb. 22, posted by the Red Sox on social media.

“With the hug, there was media everywhere. I mean, he wasn’t going to punch me or act mad,” said Price, who admitted he had been nervous about meeting Ortiz as a teammate.

But few outside of Price and Ortiz saw what truly made him feel like he was a friend and teammate of Ortiz, and by extension, a bona fide member of the Red Sox.

It was an unexpected but welcome text message.

“The biggest thing, and this is the first time I’ve said it, was probably a week or two after that hug. We had a day game. I’m home. It’s probably nine o’clock at night. David just sends me a text,” Price told Bleacher Report in an exclusive clubhouse interview.

“He’s asking me: ‘How are things going? Is there anything [I] can do to make it better?’ He wanted to know if there was anything he could do to make this process go more smoothly. That text he sent me that night, while he’s at home with the family. To do that, it was special.”

For Ortiz, the text message was a natural extension of him being the team’s in-house leader and a star in the final year of his career with dreams of one more World Series.

“There’s no way you can win by yourself. I can’t pitch. I have no clue about pitching,” Ortiz acknowledged with a laugh. “David is our ace. I want him to do well. I want him to feel comfortable.”

“I know how everything works around here. I wanted to make sure everything was going well with him at the time. And if there’s anything he would like to know, when it comes down to putting up with the media and the stuff around here, I wanted him to feel open to call me and ask me any type of questions. I’m wide open for it. I want him to be peaceful.”

As Big Papi knows all too well, finding that peace in a city like Boston is a different story.

“He’s a quiet guy. He’s not a guy who likes the attention much. Playing here, there’s no way you can stay away from it. So I wanted him to know that if he ever had any questions or problems, he could hit me up.”

Ortiz hasn’t been simply reacting to Price’s arrival with hugs and text messages during spring training; he was helping to facilitate his acquisition in the offseason.

“When you add someone like David to your starting rotation, you’re going to add a lot of W’s. The [Red Sox] organization let me know they were chasing him,” Ortiz said.

“They asked me, and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, oh yeah, we need him.’ You saw how bad we struggled with pitching last year. And you know that making a move to sign a guy like Price is not an easy move to make. There’s a lot of money involved. Once something like that happens, you already know that you’re going to have an ace.”

Ortiz reassured what was once a “war” in 2014 is now nothing more than a one-off moment of the past.

“That incident happened between me and David one time. But I did my homework. I asked around about David. Everybody loves him. We got to know each other. He’s a super nice guy. You see everything he does. You look at his Twitter account. There’s no way you can have any issues with that guy.”

With Ortiz’s support both in the clubhouse and at the plate, all the 6’5″ Price must do now is justify his $217 million contract—the largest ever given to a pitcher.

Price was MLB‘s premier free-agent pitcher this offseason, going 18-5 with an AL-best 2.45 ERA in 220.1 innings for Detroit and Toronto in 2015. In December, he signed with Boston through 2022, though the deal includes an opt-out clause after the 2018 season.

The citizenry of Red Sox Nation watched the so-called “five aces” of Boston’s 2015 rotation transform into a house of cards last summer. Boston’s mudslide in the standings was triggered in large part by a mysterious elbow injury to Clay Buchholz that ended his season on July 10.

No one on the Red Sox payroll questions Price’s role as the team’s “ace” this season.

“Everything has been as advertised,” manager John Farrell said of Price. “He’s shown his leadership qualities and personality in the clubhouse. [At times this spring], his command was almost midseason form, as well as he was following the glove around the strike zone.”

“His willingness to take some young left-handed starters under his wing—Eduardo Rodriguez and Henry Owens particularly—to impart some of his experiences on them. David Price has been everything we have hoped for to date. David has been a very good presence in our clubhouse and a very good teammate.”

Dave Dombrowski, Boston’s president of baseball operations, acquired Price when he was the general manager in Detroit. Dombrowski knew the opportunity to bring him to Boston could not be missed, despite the historic price tag.

“He brings to your rotation and your club a big presence as the No. 1 guy. And he is legitimately that. No. 1 starters are not easy to find. He also brings the intangible aspects. The worth ethic. The leadership. He’s really the whole package. To have someone like that in the organization is a real plus.”

Price is also aware of any bullpen’s limitations, even with Boston’s addition of closer Craig Kimbrel and setup man Carson Smith (currently on the disabled list).

“I expect to go nine and get 27 outs every time I step on that mound,” he said. “I take a lot of pride to give those relievers that day off. I’d rather go eight and give up one run, than go six and give up none.”

One of Price’s former proteges, Toronto pitcher Marcus Stroman, said he’s “given about 30 million interviews” on Price this spring. But he is still quick to laud Price as both a huge role model and mentor.

“I try to take down how he went about his business on and off the field, and how he treated everyone. He’s a true leader. A true ace. I was just lucky to play with him as long as I did. He’s a friend that I’ll have forever.”

And Price is still dispensing advice to one-time Rays teammate Chris Archer.

Boston has seen many of its recent splurges in free agency backfire. Look no further than $90 million signing and current bench player Pablo Sandoval.

But Price is far more prepared for the best and worst of what Boston can offer, according to Dombrowski.

“If you’re going to invest those type of dollars, you want that player to bring everything to the table. I had the pleasure and fortune of being with him in Detroit. I thought he’d be able to handle the Boston spotlight. He can handle it. And he has no difficulty with the communications and intellectual aspect of it.”

So what is the difference between the David Price who closed out Game 7 of the 2008 ALCS against the Red Sox and the David Price now carrying the hopes of a beleaguered Boston fanbase?

After all, it’s been 14 whole months since the city’s last duck boat parade.

“I had two pitches then, a straight fastball and a slider. I didn’t have the fastball command that I needed. My velocity allowed me to get away with a few more mistakes. I threw a good amount of sliders that night. That was my best pitch coming out of college,” Price said.

“I probably threw two changeups in college [Vanderbilt], and maybe five before I got to the big leagues. I realized very quickly that it doesn’t matter how hard you throw at this level. You have to be able to locate and change speeds. I take pride in being able to make adjustments on the fly.”

Price began developing a changeup in 2009, and he picked up the one he uses today back in 2011 courtesy of then-teammate James Shields.

“It’s a feel pitch, but you have to have trust in it,” Price said. “You’ve got to throw it. You’ve got to take it to the game. I don’t care how good it is in the bullpen; you’re not going to have confidence in that pitch unless you go and throw it in a game.

“Where you get that first swing and miss, or that first ball off the end of the bat for a ground ball, that’s going to give you confidence to throw that first pitch in a big situation.”

Ortiz carries a .250 average with nine strikeouts and just two of his 503 career home runs in 54 plate appearances against Price. He cites Price’s “experience” as the biggest factor in his evolution as a pitcher.

“Here’s a guy with the same stuff. More experience. That’s dangerous,” Ortiz said. “Before, he would try to overpower [you]. Now, he uses his power when he wants. He can throw the ball wherever he wants.”

“You don’t need nothing else. You can be powerful and have three different pitches, but if you don’t throw the ball where you want it, that gets you in trouble. Now, he’s got both power and super-extraordinary control.”

Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia is fifth among active players with 58 at-bats (.276/.358/.431) against Price. None of those 58 were ever easy.

“Whenever you face him, you’ve got your hands full. He’s the kind of guy who will take the ball in a big game. He’s going to be extremely important to us.”

Price has pitched for three AL East champions and is 49-21 against division foes with a 3.15 ERA. He’s been even more effective in Fenway Park, going 6-1 with a 1.95 ERA in 11 career regular-season starts.

This familiarity with division and league opponents breeds both contempt and, eventually, respect. Big Papi may be the well-known feud, but this isn’t the first time Price has turned an enemy into a friend.

“I couldn’t stand Ian Kinsler. I told him that,” Price said. “Then I got to play with him [in Detroit]. Now, Ian’s in my top five of guys I’ve played with and enjoyed being around. Ian’s a really good dude.”

Ortiz has experienced the same change of heart many times before.

“When you haven’t played with someone, in between those two lines, they don’t have to look nice for me. They’re trying to get their job done. A lot of players judge other players on what they see without knowing the guy,” he said.

“I don’t like him for his body language, or whatever he does out there, but once I was in the room with him all the time, and I got to know the guy. I see the intensity in the guy. How he goes about his business. And then, boom, then you get to know the guy.”

Price also knows Boston and his contract will inevitably send a social media barrage his way, but he has scaled back on his interaction of late.

“One third of it’s going to be positive. One third of it will be negative and one third will be about fantasy baseball,” he said. “I don’t read a whole lot of tweets. I’ve gotten a lot more lately and a lot of the decisions I’ve made lately have gotten some people mad. But that’s part of it.”

Jared Carrabis, a Red Sox fan-turned-blogger for the past 10 years, was once an ardent “Twitter troll” of Price. Later, his digital courtship of Price earned Carrabis an infamous “bunk beds” mention during Price’s introductory press conference in Boston.

Carrabis’ reaction to Price coming to Boston was typical among diehard Red Sox fans.

“It felt like a concussion grenade went off when I saw the tweet. I remember my brain actually going numb and hearing that ringing sound in my ears that you get after leaving a concert. I think that was what it feels like to literally have your mind blown,” Carrabis said.

Price hopes to continue converting past haters by winning a World Series in Boston, or seven. He is resolute about ending his “winless as a starter in the postseason” drought this October. His regular season was delayed for a day by bad weather as Monday’s scheduled opener was postponed. 

“I know good things are going to come to me in October baseball. It just hasn’t happened…yet. I’ve thrown the ball well in some games. You’ve got to have some of those hard-hit balls at people. The balls you execute, and there’s weak contact, you’ve got to have that play made and not for that ball to fall into no-man’s land, or to be hit in just the right spot.”

“My time is coming. Is it frustrating? Absolutely. Winning in the playoffs is something I want to do. It’s something I’m capable of doing. Hopefully, this year, we can get going and start a streak on the right side.”

And Ortiz and the rest of Price’s new Red Sox teammates will be there to watch his back.

All quotes were obtained firsthand by Bleacher Report unless otherwise specified.

Bill Speros is an award-winning journalist who first covered the Red Sox in 1987. He Tweets at @RealOBF and @BillSperos.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Boston Red Sox‘s major offseason addition will be on the mound when they begin their 2016 regular-season slate on April 4, as David Price was announced as the team’s Opening Day starter Tuesday.  

The organization announced the decision on Twitter:

After finishing last in the American League East in 2015, Boston will begin its bounce-back attempt April 4 with a road tilt against the Cleveland Indians.

Following a 2015 season that saw Price finish second in the AL Cy Young Award voting by virtue of an 18-5 record with a 2.45 ERA split between the Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays, the fact that the team selected him comes as little surprise.

Boston inked the 30-year-old lefty to a seven-year, $217 million contract during the offseason, and he is expected to be the workhorse and one constant in a rotation that is riddled with question marks otherwise.

The Red Sox mark Price’s fourth team since 2014, as he spent the first six-plus years of his career with the Tampa Bay Rays, and starting on Opening Day gives him a rare distinction, per the Elias Sports Bureau (via Red Sox manager of media relations and baseball information Jon Shestakofsky):

Price has consistently been among the best starters in baseball since debuting in 2008, as evidenced by his career mark of 104-56 with a 3.09 ERA.

He will have a tough challenge ahead of him, however, as the Tribe will counter with 2014 AL Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber, according to Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com.

That is a marquee pitching matchup in every sense of the term, and it will certainly test both lineups as they look to get into regular-season form.

While the Opening Day result carries the same weight as any other game over the course of the season, Price will undoubtedly have some added pressure to live up to his contract and get Boston off to a great start after a miserable 2015 campaign.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

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FORT MYERS, Fla. — A little sugar on your Grapefruit?…

1. He’s Got Friends in Low (and High) Places

He is the Rick Steves of the American League East, a man so well-traveled he could author a guide, rate beaches in St. Petersburg and tell you where to get the best Szechuan in Toronto’s Chinatown.

So while other starting pitchers work on command and secondary pitches this spring, David Price has one other item on his to-do list.

How to send his friends back to the dugout, grumbling bitterly, after an at-bat.

The Boston left-hander with the impressive collection of baseball passport stamps and new $217 million deal now is working for this third team in the division. He started in Tampa Bay. He finished last season in Toronto after being traded there from Detroit in July.

Only advance scouts have worked their way through the AL East more than he has. And, oh, the friends this friendly guy has made along the way.

“Pitching against your friends, for me, is hands down one of toughest things to do,” Price told B/R during spring training. “I want to see guys do well, especially my friends and ex-teammates. I’m cheering for them.

“When we’re not playing them, I’m definitely hoping they do extremely well. When we’re playing against them, I don’t want to see them do bad.”

Come again, on that last part?

“I want us to win, but if there could be a scenario where we win a really good game and everybody has a good game, I’m OK with that,” Price said. “I still want to see my friends and ex-teammates do well.”

Now in his eighth year in the majors, and given that the Red Sox will play the Rays and Blue Jays 19 times each this season, Price will be seeing old friends more often than you see Friends reruns on TBS.

“So I need to get over that pretty quick,” he said, flashing his trademark infectious smile.

The sooner, the better, is surely what the Red Sox are thinking.

And from Price’s perspective, as this new relationship begins, this also is a completely different spring in another respect: For the first time in years, he knows exactly which uniform he will be wearing for the foreseeable future.

“Absolutely,” Price said. “I’ve got comfort in knowing I’m going to be somewhere. I haven’t had that in probably three years, maybe four.

“Going back to the offseason after 2012, there was some speculation I was going to be traded then [from Tampa Bay]. I didn’t know if I was going to make it through the entire 2013 season. Then after that season I definitely thought I was going to be traded before 2014.

“To know I am going to be somewhere, I haven’t had this feeling for a long time. And it feels good.”

He has enjoyed these early days of camp, getting to know some of his new Red Sox teammates, reacquainting with others and getting past the big hurdle with Big Papi. Price and David Ortiz, two of the game’s nicer men, had developed an ornery history together based on pitching inside in the heat of competition.

Now, with their very first meeting, Price has added one more friend to his ever-growing smartphone contact list.

So there’s peace of mind as Price begins work to bring another title to Fenway Park from many different avenues.

It will be fascinating to watch, because even when he didn’t have that peace, when trade rumors were swirling, Price was cool enough to remain one of the game’s best pitchers.

“I feel like I did a pretty good job of not thinking about it,” Price said. “I wasn’t thinking about a contract extension last year [in Detroit] or free agency or being traded.

“I feel like I’ve done a good job of being in a lot of experiences in which I guess I needed to focus on [the] right now. Going back to my junior year at Vanderbilt—with the expectations of being the No. 1 player heading into the draft—through my sophomore and junior seasons, staying in the present and not looking ahead to the future.   

“I feel like it started a while ago for me, and I’m very thankful to have those experiences. I’m just focusing on the present.”

2. Meanwhile, in Detroit…

There was very little that was memorable for Justin Verlander in 2015. He started the season on the disabled list for the first time in his career (strained triceps), didn’t make his first start until June 13 and finished with some of the worst numbers of his career (5-8, 133.1 innings pitched).

Yet…while the Tigers fell so far that they became sellers, trading Price and Yoenis Cespedes, Verlander quietly picked up steam in the latter part of the season. In 15 second-half starts, he posted a 2.80 ERA and 1.000 WHIP.

This spring, he’s healthy, working hard and the indicators all look good.

“I’m not going to put numbers on it,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. “My gut tells me Ver will re-establish himself as one of the better pitchers in the American League.”

From Glendale, Arizona, his former catcher agrees. Alex Avila, now with the Chicago White Sox, said, “He looked great at the end of the year last year, the way he was throwing the ball. The last two months, he was 98, 99 mph, consistently.”

Though much of the conversation surrounding Verlander the past two seasons has been about his lost velocity, the fact that the Detroit ace was battling a core muscle injury two years ago and the triceps strain last year undoubtedly took its toll. So, too, the fact that he is now 33.

“I don’t put much stock in velocity, anyway,” Avila said. “When he won the Cy Young and MVP awards (in 2011), he pitched at 90, 91 and bumped it up to the mid- and upper-90s when he needed to.”

3. Family Feud in the AL Central

No more spring training dinners for Tigers general manager Al Avila and his son, catcher Alex Avila.

With the emergence of James McCann behind the plate and financial resources that needed to be allocated elsewhere, the Tigers essentially cut the catcher loose over the winter. So you can imagine the family conversations now that Alex has signed with the White Sox, Detroit’s AL Central rivals, while his father is in his first full season as the Tigers GM, having replaced Dave Dombrowski.

Alex is training in Arizona while the Tigers are in their 80th season in Lakeland, Florida. Dad and son formerly lived together during spring training, sharing dinners and cigars on the back patio following long days at the ballpark.

Now, Al jokes about living alone in Florida while Alex learns a new pitching staff in Arizona, and how the Avila family works toward splitting its loyalties.

“I’ve got the kicker,” Alex quips. “I’ve got the grandkids.”

His mother started spring training with the Sox instead of the Tigers, and what grandmother wouldn’t be enticed by a couple of granddaughters? Avery is now three years old and Zoey is one.

“We’ve had fun with it,” Alex said. “I’ve given out some White Sox gear. Problem is, my cousin is a Tigers scout, one of my best friends is a Tigers scout and my brother works for them.

“I used to give my extra gear to them. But now when I have extra White Sox gear, I can’t go there.”

4. The Way Things Work

So the White Sox signed veteran Austin Jackson the other day, and they talked about how he will play center field much of the time, particularly against lefties, and Adam Eaton will play some corner outfield.

Eaton, the White Sox’s primary center fielder for each of the past two seasons, is recovering from offseason shoulder surgery and said manager Robin Ventura has yet to say anything to him.

“I haven’t talked to Robin,” Eaton told B/R on Tuesday. “I wish he would come and talk to me. Hopefully, I’ll talk to him in the next couple of days about what my role will be.”

Not that Eaton was grumbling…too much. An upbeat, talkative personality, Eaton said he welcomes Jackson and whomever else can help turn the Sox into winners.

“The more the merrier,” he said. “I think he’s a great addition to our team. I want to win a championship.

“I’ll play anywhere.”

One other note about these 2016 White Sox: When general manager Rick Hahn held exit interviews with several veterans late last season, the overwhelming consensus was: Keep this team together; we can win as is.

But ultimately, Hahn made a decision that not only did the club need a talent upgrade, but also a change in the clubhouse vibe. The additions of Todd Frazier, Avila, Brett Lawrie and now even Jackson all were made with the goal of bringing more energy to the club (which, they hope, will turn into more victories).

5. Cactus League Names of the Week

These are some easy folks to root for, because how awesome would it be if these names were playing in an MLB park near you: 

• Socrates Brito, Diamondbacks outfielder: Lefty contact hitter who hit for average and stole 20 bases at Double-A last season.
• Balbino Fuenmayor, Royals first baseman: Participating in his first major league camp this spring, “The Great Balbino” has recovered from last year’s knee surgery and is hoping his big power translates to the Cactus League.
• Jabari Blash, Padres outfielder: Trying to make the big club out of spring as a Rule 5 pick from Oakland, Blash, 6’5″, could become a power source for a club in desperate need of it.
• Jett Bandy, Angels catcher: The Los Angeles Angels’ 31st-round draft pick in 2011, Bandy was a September call-up last year and got into two games. 

6. Red the Ageless Wonder

One of the coolest sights of the spring is watching Red Schoendienst, 93, tool around St. Louis Cardinals camp in Jupiter, Florida, in his role as special coach/sage. Since signing with the Cardinals in 1945, Schoendienst has attended every spring training except one. He was felled by an intestinal illness last spring.

“Just having Red Schoendienst here in uniform every single morning, it’s awesome having him around and hearing his stories,” Cardinals pitcher Michael Wacha said. “He doesn’t miss a day, and he’s got 70 years in baseball.”

7. Weekly Power Rankings

1. Domestic Violence Policy: Proving it isn’t messing around, MLB comes out strong in its first ruling, suspending Yankees reliever Aroldis Chapman for 30 games. The NFL could learn a few things.

2. Pedro Alvarez and Austin Jackson: The trickle-down effect of free agency finally finds Alvarez (who signed with the Baltimore Orioles) and Jackson (White Sox). Maybe the Great Freeze-Out finds David Freese next.

3. Josh Collmenter: On Tuesday, which was National Pancake Day, Collmenter took a break from teaching in the Diamondbacks clubhouse to make flapjacks in an effort to raise money for Phoenix Children’s Hospital. If the veteran right-hander’s repertoire on the mound is as versatile as it is off the field this spring, here’s predicting a Cy Young Award.

4. Try Not to Suck: Ahem, Cubs manager Joe Maddon’s new slogan for his players could sell millions of T-shirts everywhere while fitting all walks of life.

5. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Thursday night’s show in Phoenix is expected to draw a large Cactus League crowd. From Camelback Ranch (home of the White Sox and Dodgers) to Cadillac Ranch, seamlessly.

8. Singles Day in Houston

The job is his to win, it appears, but is this finally Jon Singleton’s year at first base in Houston?

One reason the Astros did not offer a contract to Chris Carter over the winter is because Singleton, at 24, should be ready.

Of course, some folks thought he would be ready in 2014, but he hit only .168 in 95 games. Then he played in only 19 games in Houston last year, hit .191 with a homer and six RBI and was left off the postseason roster.

So here we are again, minus Carter, plus expectations. Still, manager A.J. Hinch stops short of saying this is a make-or-break year for Singleton.

“I think it’s hard to say that about somebody in his early-to-mid 20s,” Hinch said. “I don’t think it’s career-defining as much as I think this is the best opportunity he’s had to be a contributor on a good team as a potential starting first baseman.”

But given that the Astros finally stepped back into the winner’s circle last year, this isn’t charity. They are in no position to give jobs away, so Matt Duffy, Tyler White and hot prospect A.J. Reed, rated as Houston’s second-best prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, are all in the mix this spring.

Singleton signed a five-year, $10 million deal in 2014 and still has options left, which gives the Astros options, too.

“Jon Singleton enters with the most experience and, certainly, the most eyes on him,” Hinch said. “Other guys are going to factor in as the spring goes on, depending on [how] his goes.”

But, the manager said, Singleton gets the first look.

Now we’ll see what he does with it.

9. Chatter

A couple of stats from guru Bill Chuck over at Billy-Ball.com:

• When the Cubs’ Kris Bryant (199) and the Dodgers’ Joc Pederson (170) each fanned 170 or more times last season, it marked the second time ever that two rookies crossed the 170-strikeout threshold. The first? It was in 1986, when Pete Incaviglia (185) and Jose Canseco (175) did it.
• Why Todd Frazier could turn around the White Sox: Over the past four seasons, he’s hit .258 with 102 homers and a .787 OPS. During the same time period, Sox third basemen combined to hit .229 with 54 homers and a .635 OPS.

9a. Rock ‘n’ Roll Lyric of the Week

Mets pitcher Jenrry Mejia, banned for life for failing a third performance-enhancing drug test, said he was set up by MLB. I say here’s a dedication to those who consistently perform misdeeds from the late, great Warren Zevon:

“I started as an altar boy, working at the church

“Learning all my holy moves, doing some research

“Which led me to a cash box, labeled “Children’s Fund”

“I’d leave the change, and tuck the bills inside my cummerbund

“I got a part-time job at my father’s carpet store

“Laying tackless stripping, and housewives by the score

“I loaded up their furniture, and took it to Spokane

“And auctioned off every last Naugahyde divan

“I’m very well-acquainted with the seven deadly sins

“I keep a busy schedule trying to fit them in

“I’m proud to be a glutton, and I don’t have time for sloth

“I’m greedy, and I’m angry, and I don’t care who I cross”

—Warren Zevon, “Mr. Bad Example”

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

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They signed within days of each other last December for more money per year than any pitcher had ever received. They left first-place teams but didn’t leave their division, both joining sub-.500 clubs itching to win.

The Boston Red Sox saw David Price as the answer to their biggest question. The Arizona Diamondbacks saw Zack Greinke the same way.

Now here we are in March, trying hard to figure out which team did best and which super free-agent ace will do best.

This isn’t about length of contract, how Greinke will do when he’s making $35 million in 2021 at 37 years old or how Price will do when he’s making $32 million at age 36. No, this is strictly about 2016, because when it comes down to it, the Red Sox and Diamondbacks spent all that money for an instant return.

The easy answer is they both will get it, because Price and Greinke both have the talent and the history and the personality to justify the huge belief their new employers showed. But you don’t come here for easy answers.

If the question is which one will have a significant impact, the answer can and should be “both.” But the question is which one will have the bigger 2016 impact, and the answer is David Price.

Some of that has to do with him. A lot of it has to do with the team he joined.

It’s true the Red Sox were a disappointing last-place club in 2015, while the Diamondbacks were seen as a third-place team on the rise. But it’s the Red Sox who are better positioned for a big 2016 jump, especially in the wide-open American League East.

“Strong and deep,” one Fort Myers-based scout said this week when asked for his early impressions from Red Sox camp in Florida.

The starting pitchers behind Price remain a real question, but one of the reasons Price was attractive to Boston is his history of being able to lead a rotation. In fact, if you want to see how much impact a true No. 1 starter can have, the 2016 Red Sox should be a nice case study.

Greinke has some of the same abilities, but his personality makes him less of a natural leader. He should pitch well in Arizona, but will he lift the other starters as much as Price could in Boston?

Even if he does, will the Diamondbacks bullpen be able to hold the leads?

Scouts and executives surveyed by Bleacher Report saw Greinke as the starter more in need of a solid bullpen, but they see the Red Sox bullpen as far superior to the one Greinke will have with the Diamondbacks.

“Price can throw nine innings in his sleep,” one scout said. “He’ll get to the eighth inning a lot more and give the ball to [closer Craig] Kimbrel and the setup guy. Greinke will get a lot of no-decisions in Arizona, and he’ll get frustrated because he wants to win.”

Greinke has just two complete games in the last five seasons combined. Price has 12.

To be fair, Greinke actually finished seven innings more times last year than Price did (21-19). The point still holds, though, because seven innings from Price gets the ball to Koji Uehara and Craig Kimbrel, while seven from Greinke gets it to Tyler Clippard and Brad Ziegler.

Some scouts surveyed by Bleacher Report did favor Greinke, mostly because pitching in the National League West should help him put up better numbers than Price can manage in the American League East.

But the AL East also presents Price with opportunity because the Red Sox look better positioned to win their division. The Diamondbacks had a good winter, but so did the San Francisco Giants, and even without Greinke, the Los Angeles Dodgers remain a strong threat.

“Greinke could pitch well, and the Diamondbacks could still be a .500 team,” one rival executive said. “If Price pitches well, the Red Sox could win. If he doesn’t, they don’t win.”

For now, both teams seem happy with their big-ticket purchases. Price has made the expected good first impression with the Red Sox, and Greinke has done the same with the Diamondbacks.

Greinke‘s first spring start got big coverage. So did Price’s simulated game last Saturday.

The attention will only grow as Opening Day nears for two pitchers who were paid big money to pitch that game and many big games to follow. They are getting that money for big impact, and there’s a real chance both will deliver.

The guess here is Price will deliver just a little bit more.

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

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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What was once a sputtering offseason jump-started into high gear over the last week.

Two blockbuster free-agent signings are now in the books since Sunday. Jordan Zimmermann’s agreement with the Detroit Tigers whet the appetite and David Price’s monster deal with the Boston Red Sox put the rest of the market in a post-Thanksgiving contract coma.

Things have cooled in the following days, but only to a simmer since they are expected to boil again next week at the winter meetings in Nashville, Tennessee. Then we might have a ton to talk about.

For now, this past week provided enough fodder for reflection and projection.

Teams Will Never Stop Offering Mega-Contracts

The examples of nine-figure and $200-plus million contracts that have gone bad, or surely will, are abundant. Even incredibly recent ones like Robinson Cano, Albert Pujols and Prince Fielder are looking destined to become massive burdens. 

Owners and front offices know this. They see the numbers. They’ve done the research. They have the data. This is not news. It’s not surprising and nobody was caught off guard by how those deals are looking, or will eventually look.

Yet year after year we are seeing a team cave into better judgment to land the player they covet. This year it was the Red Sox handing Price $217 million over seven seasons, the largest contract ever given to a pitcher.

It is a contract that could turn ugly if Price does not exercise his opt-out clause after the third season, and we’ve already seen a comparable player—CC Sabathia—decline quickly after his huge payday. And Price is older at the time of his signing than Sabathia was at the time of his.

Just to chew on: Sabathia and Price had roughly same IP over first 7 full seasons. But Price is 3 years older than CC was at that point.

— Sweeny Murti (@YankeesWFAN) December 1, 2015

Despite all the history, near future and data that warns against such contracts that take players—pitchers and hitters alike—deep into their 30s, teams cannot help themselves to. They want to win now, and in the now, those deals get you the player in his prime. The ugly consequences come later.

Dave Dombrowski Is Not Ben Cherington

Consecutive last-place finishes, and three in four years, have a way of shifting—or completely demolishing—organizational philosophies.

The Red Sox are the latest proof of that. Signing Price to that kind of deal was pretty much unfathomable under former general manager Ben Cherington’s reign. He opted to make signings like Pablo Sandoval, Hanley Ramirez and Rick Porcello to complement the young talent he helped stockpile, which helped the Red Sox rate No. 2 in Baseball America’s farm system rankings entering last season. While those deals look awful, none went into the ninth figure. 

Dombrowski, new president of baseball operations, works in a very different manner. When he ran the Detroit Tigers, he gave veterans like Fielder, Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera gobs of money while gutting the farm system, which is why the team was dead last in the Baseball America rankings.

But Dombrowski was brought in to win now. And to do that, he needed Price. And to get him, he/ownership had to pay what he/ownership paid. Period.

Jordan Zimmermann Took Less Than His Market Value

The names of the pitchers who, in 2016, will make about the same annual salary that Zimmermann will make is a who’s who of current mediocrity, at best—Homer Bailey, Porcello, Matt Cain, James Shields, C.J. Wilson and Jered Weaver.

Zimmermann will make slightly less than those pitchers next season, but we can attribute that to a back-loaded salary structure. However, we cannot attribute it to the fact that the Tigers’ new right-hander threatens to be head and shoulders better than every single one of those pitchers in 2016. At five years and $110 million, Zimmermann likely left years and cash on the table.

Sure, Zimmermann had a down 2015, by his standards. And he has had a Tommy John surgery, making him a likelier candidate for another in the future. But when he is proper, he is among the best starters in the game. And had he become a free agent last winter following a stellar 2014 season, he would have gotten $200 million.

That is why Tyler Kepner of The New York Times calls Zimmermann’s deal a “relative bargain” against the market. Had he waited until after Price’s deal was announced, Zimmermann could have easily—easily!—milked another $15 million out of the Tigers, or more had he added another year to the deal.

As it is, if Zimmermann gets back to close to the ace he was in 2014, the Tigers are going to have one of the biggest bargains of 2016 in their rotation.

Shelby Miller Won’t Pitch for Contender, But Cliff Lee Might

Shelby Miller, the Atlanta Braves’ top starting pitcher last season, is the highly coveted prize of the current trade winds, but it appears the Braves are content with keeping him unless they get a sky-high return. So, he might not be going anywhere to the disappointment of Hot Stove cooks and interested teams.

It’s looking more and more like #Braves will hang onto Shelby Miller. They’ve received a ton of hits, but are not shopping him.

— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) December 3, 2015

Miller might be on the back burner now, but Cliff Lee is a new name on the surface. He missed all of last season with a partially torn flexor tendon and is 37 years old. Typically there is not a market for a guy like that, but Lee was one of the very best starters in the majors very recently when he put up a 2.87 ERA in 2013 and had a 2.96 FIP in 13 starts in 2014. As of now, reports say he is healthy.

Cliff Lee has been throwing and he’s received medical clearance. If he finds the right fit, he will pitch in 2016.

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) December 3, 2015

Because Lee will not command an ace’s salary, or even a back-end salary, there will be interest. Lee might have to settle for a small one-year deal, or even a minor league deal, but he will certainly get a shot to make a rotation going into spring training.

If he can give a team decent production over 22-26 starts, he could end up being a surprising steal.

The Twins Contending for Biggest Bargain of the Offseason

While a guy like Zimmermann is the front-runner to be the best value of free agency, the Minnesota Twins are vying to put their new slugger in the mix.

The team agreed to a four-year, $12 million contract with Korean power hitter Byung Ho Park this past week. This is after posting the winning $12.85 million bid for his negotiating rights.

“Because of our situation of having a scout over there,” Twins Vice President of Player Personnel Mike Radcliff told reporters at Park’s introductory press conference, “we have a lot of conviction that Byung Ho is going to be able to integrate into our organization and be a very productive player.”

Park hit 105 home runs over the last two seasons in the Korean Baseball Organization and batted .343/.436/.714 with a 1.150 OPS last season. While the KBO certainly is not on the level of Major League Baseball, the success of Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang in 2015 shows that KBO success can somewhat translate to the majors.

Assuming Park’s power and impressive exit velocities travel with him, the Twins are carrying one of the nicer team-friendly contracts of this offseason.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired first-hand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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The Boston Red Sox made their seven-year, $217 million commitment to starting pitcher David Price official Friday with a press conference at Fenway Park, and the southpaw had plenty of positive things to say about joining the franchise after closing out the 2015 season with the Toronto Blue Jays. 

“I’m thrilled,” Price said, according to MLB.com’s Cash Kruth. “I’m ready to be a Red Sox and I’m ready to help this team and this city win.”

Fox Sports MLB provided a snapshot of Price donning his new uniform for the first time: 

Speaking with the media, Price reiterated his desire to emerge as the centerpiece of Boston’s rotation, according to MLB.com’s Ian Browne: 

Price was shipped to the Blue Jays by the Detroit Tigers in advance of the 2015 trade deadline, and his production north of the border was well worth the price Toronto paid for the half-season rental.

During his brief stint with the Blue Jays, Price went 9-1 with a 2.30 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, 87 strikeouts and just 18 walks. However, Price’s effectiveness waned in the playoffs. 

After the Blue Jays captured their first American League East title since 1993, Price went 1-2 in four postseason appearances. His lone win came in Game 4 of the ALDS, when he came on in relief of R.A. Dickey to help keep Toronto’s hopes alive and push the series to a fifth and final game. However, all three of his playoff starts resulted in losses. 

Now 2-7 in career playoff appearances, Price joked with reporters that he’s been playing the long game when it comes to posting tallies in the win column, per Fox Sports MLB:

“When you can bring one of the best pitchers in baseball, a true No. 1, it makes you better in so many ways,” Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said, per Kruth. “Not just on the field, but off the field, in the clubhouse. What David brings to us is a plus in so many ways.”

The Tigers, Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays all leaned on Price to produce in big spots, so rising to the challenge in a high-profile market like Boston may not faze him. 

“It’s not as if Price has never pitched in high-pressure environments,” Bleacher Report’s Zachary D. Rymer wrote. “He’s played almost exclusively on winning teams throughout his career, getting quite a bit of postseason experience as a result. Also, his many years as an AL East pitcher granted him plenty of exposure in New York and, of course, Boston.”

A positive first step for Price will be leading Boston back to the postseason. The Red Sox have recorded back-to-back last-place finishes in the AL East, and they have occupied the cellar for three of the last four seasons. 

The lone exception came during the team’s 2013 championship run, but that season was evidently an abnormality. Boston has missed the playoffs in five of six seasons since the start of the decade, and it needs Price to twirl some magic in hopes of bucking that trend and kicking off a new era of prosperity at Fenway Park. 

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Coming off a last-place finish last season, their third in the last four years, and armed with a new leader in the front office, next week’s winter meetings figured to be a playground for the money- and prospect-rich Boston Red Sox. 

That notion seems to have faded now, but not because the team has scoffed at a major 2016 roster shakeup. It is because Boston has already started playing in its offseason sandbox, having acquired a top-shelf starting pitcher in David Price and an elite All-Star closer in Craig Kimbrel before anyone boards a flight to Nashville for the winter meetings. 

Those two moves appear to have made the Red Sox drastically better than the 78 wins they compiled last season. They still have young, quality position players up the middle of the diamond, David Ortiz is still a middle-of-the-order bat and Clay Buchholz is potentially a co-ace for Price.

With all of that, Boston’s first-year president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is likely done making significant offseason acquisitions before the meetings start.

“You can always get better. We’ll be open-minded going into the winter meetings,” Dombrowski said on a conference call Wednesday. “We’ll see what happens over the next few days leading into that, but we’ll be in a position that I think our major moves are done. But when you go to the winter meetings, you can never tell what happens.”

More on deck? Dombrowski: “When you go to the winter meetings, you never know what happens.” https://t.co/Z5mS0x58C1 pic.twitter.com/2FVENkHd81

— Mark J. Murphy (@murphmj) December 2, 2015

That leaves the door open for more things to come, although adding major salary to their current payroll does not seem likely since the Red Sox are already committed to more than $180 million for 13 players next season. By the time the 25-man roster is complete, the club is destined to be well over the $200 million threshold. 

However, there is room to make other impact moves, such as using a deep prospect pool to acquire another cost-controlled player or shedding some of the salaries already on the books. Whatever the case may be, the winter meetings could bring the Red Sox more headlines.

“I’m definitely sure they’re not finished yet,” Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts told Ian Browne of MLB.com regarding the front office. “Who knows what else they’re going to do?”

Maybe we do not know what the team is going to do at the winter meetings, but we have an idea of what it might want to do and what it should look to do.

First, the rotation is hardly great even with Price. Buchholz has the talent to help, as he’s shown with a 1.74 ERA through 16 starts in 2013 and a 2.68 FIP through 18 starts last season. The problem is he also has a 5.34 ERA on the books between those two seasons, and his health has been a major concern throughout his career as he enters his age-31 season.

The Red Sox had the third-worst rotation ERA (4.39) in the American League last season. Simply adding a new ace might not be enough, especially in the long term, as Price will be 31 next August after signing the richest contract for a pitcher in the sport’s history.

Last year, under former general manager Ben Cherington’s guidance, the Red Sox passed on making free agent Jon Lester the kind of offer he looked for because they feared the second half of that contract as Lester aged.

Despite the franchise completely changing course under Dombrowski, who has never been shy about handing out mind-boggling contracts to aging players, it still must know it has to get younger and cheaper in the rotation.

That should bring Atlanta Braves right-hander Shelby Miller into play. Miller, 25, had a 3.02 ERA in 33 starts last season, and the Braves are listening to offers on him. The price is high, but the Red Sox did not forfeit a draft pick to sign Price, and they did not have to give up their young major league talent to get Kimbrel from the San Diego Padres. They also still have a strong prospect pool in the minors.

Using that to acquire Miller, who is under team control and will make about $5 million next year, would make the Red Sox a serious October threat. That makes him a fit even with Price in the rotation.

#Redsox and #Cubs are teams that could match up with Atlanta on a Shelby Miller deal, said person familiar with #Braves thinking.

— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) December 1, 2015

While Miller or another starter might not be a priority at the winter meetings, getting rid of at least one of last offseason’s regrettable signings—Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez—should be. The Red Sox still owe Sandoval $75 million through 2019 and owe Ramirez at least $66 million through 2018, not counting a $22 million vesting option for 2019.

Despite those salaries, Ramirez and Sandoval were the worst players on the roster in 2015. While either deal would require the Red Sox eating a lot of money, they should be aggressive in ridding themselves of either player. The winter meetings are a perfect breeding ground for such trades.

Dombrowski assured the Red Sox took care of their major business prior to the meetings, making two blockbuster moves beforehand. But there is still work to be done, so do not be shocked if at least one more happens next week.

All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.

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David Price‘s path began in Tampa Bay, and it has since passed through Detroit and Toronto. Along the way, he’s made five All-Star teams, won a Cy Young and has been generally awesome.

Now, the ace left-hander’s path has taken him to Boston and its humble baseball abode known as Fenway Park. The usual line of thinking says success in those parts doesn’t come easy. And so, we must ask:

Is Price ready for this?

The Red Sox are betting big on the idea that he is. As Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe was first to report Tuesday, Price has agreed to join the Red Sox on a seven-year contract worth $217 million. Assuming he passes his physical, the former Ray, Tiger and Blue Jay will become the richest pitcher ever.

The size of Price’s contract is no surprise. He’s coming off a 2015 season in which his 2.45 ERA netted him his second American League ERA title in four years. Overall, Baseball-Reference.com WAR puts him among MLB‘s six most valuable starters since 2010. He’s good. Really good—$217 million good.

Hence why he appealed to the Red Sox. They’ve lacked a No. 1 starter ever since trading Jon Lester in 2014, and that cost them dearly in 2015. Only five clubs got worse ERAs from their starters. In the short term, at least, Price can help fix that.

As for whether he’ll be elite enough in the long term to actually earn his $217 million, well, that’s where there are opinions galore, and they’re all over the map.

On one hand, you have FanGraphs projecting the 30-year-old left-hander to produce enough WAR to be worth it. On the other hand, you have Sports Illustrated‘s own WAR calculations saying he won’t be worth it. On a miraculously grown third hand, you have the mystery box that is Price’s third-year opt-out. When looking at this deal from a wide perspective, what you see is a great, big cloud of noise.

So, if we’re going to make sense of Price as a fit for Boston, we must zoom in.

No matter where he ended up signing, Price was going to be walking into a high-pressure situation. Pressure comes with the territory with many-zeroed free-agent contracts. Because out of all things important, nothing tops sports and the people who play them. It is known.

But Boston? Boston is on a whole ‘nother level. The city’s fans and media tend toward the Miles Davis end of the intensity spectrum. On the “Tough Places to Play” rankings, Boston is up there.

Many a Red Sox player can vouch that the pressure can break a man. Not long ago, it got to Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez. Even as recently as this past season, Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez seemed to wrestle with it.

To succeed where these guys have failed, composure is key. And if there’s a reason to doubt Price’s ability to handle Boston, it’s the reality that he’s not immune to losing his composure.

Back in 2014, Price instigated a feud with Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, seemingly in response to Ortiz hurting Price’s feelings when he admired a pair of home runs off him in the 2013 postseason. Speaking of which, that same postseason also saw him snap at reporters when they dared to criticize a poor performance. That, especially, is something he’ll need to avoid in Boston.

However, it’s just as easy to look past all of this and focus on the virtues of Price’s personality.

It’s not as if Price has never pitched in high-pressure environments. He’s played almost exclusively on winning teams throughout his career, getting quite a bit of postseason experience as a result. Also, his many years as an AL East pitcher granted him plenty of exposure in New York and, of course, Boston.

Also, Price definitely isn’t afraid of the spotlight. He’s among baseball’s most active (and interactive) social media users, and he is clearly comfortable being one of the sport’s most visible players. It’s all part of his personality, which is nothing if not likable.

Besides which, there’s one theoretically foolproof way for a Red Sox player to keep the pressure at bay: live up to expectations. If Price can do that, he should be OK.

Because one wants to be nice, one wants to say there’s a 100 percent chance of Price’s ace status aging gracefully. Sadly, one can’t do that.

Price is at an age when pitchers tend to start declining, after all, and his status as a power pitcher arguably makes him especially prone to a decline. Per the research presented by Bill Petti at FanGraphs, Price is already past the point when starting pitchers begin leaking velocity at a rapid rate.

On that note, what Price did in 2013 and 2014 isn’t a good look. His average fastball fell from the 95-96 mph range to the 93-94 range, and he only managed a good-not-great 3.29 ERA. When looking at Price’s return to excellence in 2015, it’s hard not to notice that his velocity bounced back into the 94-95 range.

As such, there would appear to be a correlation between Price’s effect on the radar gun and his effect on opposing hitters. That’s a troubling look on anyone. It’s an even more troubling look on a power pitcher who’s now on the wrong side of 30.

Thus is the big fear with Price. But now that we’ve acknowledged it, we can get into the reasons for optimism.

One area where Price apparently doesn’t need top-notch velocity is in his ability to miss bats. He posted a career-best 11.9 swinging-strike rate with strong velocity in 2015, but that came on the heels of a previous career-best (as a starter) 10.6 whiff rate with lesser velocity in 2014. 

This points to how Price has moved to make himself less reliant on his hard stuff. Per Brooks Baseball, his overall fastball percentage has been on a downward slope ever since 2011. On the flip side, his rising off-speed usage links his recent swinging-strike mastery to an increased willingness to change speeds.

One AL scout discussed this with Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald:

I’ll give Price credit. He’s starting to show his changeup, with a purpose at times, for the right reasons. He’s throwing breaking balls early in the count. He’s showing he’s maturing from a power pitcher, and when he does lose a degree off his fastball, he’s still going to be able to pitch with that because he’s learning the value of setting up hitters and not worrying about blowing guys away.

All of this is important. A swing-and-miss habit plays everywhere, including at band boxes like Fenway Park. And though Price won’t be repeating his 2015 swing-and-miss mastery if his velocity drops down again, it’s possible he’ll at least maintain the strong swing-and-miss habit he had with lesser velocity in 2014. That had less to do with his arm and more to do with his mind, which now clearly understands the value of a trusty changeup.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the sheer nastiness of Price’s changeup is only becoming more pronounced. Its whiff rate is going nowhere but up. So, too, is its degree of arm-side fade. It’s attracting whiffs not so much on deception, but on good, old-fashioned movement.

As Owen Watson of FanGraphs noted, Price has become especially willing to go to his changeup to finish off right-handed batters. That’s one reason why he was able to hold them to a career-low .609 OPS in 2015. 

But not the only reason. Per Baseball Savant, Price also pitched right-handed batters on and off the outside edge of the strike zone a career-high 58.8 percent of the time in 2015. Against those pitches, they hit just .193 with a .266 slugging percentage. 

As for where Price picked up these tricks, he might have learned them at his new home ballpark.

Fenway Park hasn’t frightened Price all that much throughout his career. In 11 career starts in Boston—all of which happened before 2015—he’s posted a 1.95 ERA and held opposing batters to a .550 OPS.

In posting these numbers, Price has needed to dominate right-handed batters. Though Fenway Park is probably a neutral park for righties and lefties, righties have a big advantage when it comes to the long ball. Given that, it looks good that righty batters have hit only .207 and slugged .326 against Price in his career outings at Fenway Park.

As for how he’s pulled that off, it turns out Price was feeding right-handed batters changeups and outside pitches regularly at Fenway Park even before he made a habit of it elsewhere in 2015.

If Price is going to continue to succeed at Fenway Park, he’ll need to continue owning right-handed batters. To that end, he clearly gets it. 

Lest anyone begins thinking the Red Sox have pulled off a slam dunk with their signing of Price, the elephant in the room is his durability. As good as it looks that he’s been healthy enough to log more than 1,400 innings since 2008, that’s a blessing that could very well prove to be a curse. Pitchers are durable until they’re not, and Price’s past workload may mean the clock is ticking on his durability.

But at the least, we can say the Red Sox aren’t nuts.

Beyond the reality that Price’s 2018 opt-out might save them from actually having to pay him $217 million, the Red Sox aren’t putting a square peg in a round hole. Price is exactly the kind of pitcher their rotation has been lacking, and his personality and pitching style are solid fits for his new surroundings.

So, yeah. What everyone else is saying. The Price is right, etc.

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

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1. The Budding Red Sox-Tigers Rivalry

The beautiful thing about sports is that the landscape is ever-changing and the competition is ever fiercer, and a couple of years after Torii Hunter lands upside-down in a bullpen in Boston in October, things between the Tigers and Red Sox can get even stranger.

Before Boston eclipsed them Tuesday by agreeing to terms with David Price on a record (for a pitcher) $217 million deal, the Tigers signed the first big free agent of the winter, handing Jordan Zimmermann a six-year, $110 million contract this week. Key takeaway: With Al Avila in charge of the front office, so far the Tigers don’t look much different than they did with Dave Dombrowski in charge.

Dombrowski, now running the Red Sox, was fired in August. Well, Detroit owner Mike Ilitch doesn’t use the word “fired.” But when your contract is running out and you are not asked back, what else do you call it?

“He knew he wasn’t getting a contract,” Ilitch told the media in Detroit on Monday as the Tigers introduced Zimmermann, via MLB.com’s Jason Beck. “That’s all there was to it, because I didn’t win with him. We were close. He’s a great guy. But you know, there’s times you’ve got to change. If you’re not winning, you’ve got to change.

“So I made up my mind: I’ve got to change. So I called him and told him like a gentleman.”

Combined with their acquisition of Francisco Rodriguez two weeks ago, the Tigers are leaping out of the gate this winter. Avila, highly respected in the industry, is off to a flying start.

Now, here’s the interesting part:

“This year, I like the way Al and [manager Brad Ausmus] are going after everything,” Ilitch said. “I’m telling them, ‘You have to go out and get me the best players. I don’t care about the money. I want the best players, and that’s it.”

Dombrowski brought Miguel Cabrera to Detroit. Also Max Scherzer. Victor Martinez. Prince Fielder. David Price. One after another, like an assembly line. With him in charge, the Tigers won four consecutive AL Central titles from 2011-14. They played in two World Series (’06 and ’10) and just missed two more (losing the ALCS in ’11 and ’13).

Maybe Ilitch, 86, will get his long-awaited World Series title with Avila in charge. Could happen. But it is nearly humanly impossible for Avila to acquire players with greater marquee value than Dombrowski did.

Meanwhile, in Price, Dombrowski hauled in the ace the Red Sox couldn’t get last winter when they whiffed on Jon Lester. Dombrowski, of course, traded Price away from Detroit last July with the Tigers out of the postseason running, because an aging organization was desperate for an infusion of young talent.

Daniel Norris and Matt Boyd, the young pitchers Dombrowski obtained from Toronto in the Price deal, figure into Detroit’s 2016 rotation behind Justin Verlander, Zimmermann and Anibal Sanchez.

While it would have been even more interesting were the Tigers pursuing Price as well, the fact that Avila is operating in Detroit with nearly all of Dombrowski’s staff working under him while Dombrowski continues chasing a World Series title in Boston adds one more early layer of intrigue to 2016.

Maybe it was just time for the proverbial fresh start for both sides. But you can bet that of the many things now driving Dombrowski in Boston, sticking it to Ilitch and the Tigers is one of them. He’s got too much class to ever say that himself, but it is a natural human emotion, isn’t it? Someone tells you adios, no matter how friendly it is, and you still want to prove the other guy wrong.   

There was some thought in Detroit at the time that maybe the Tigers would shift philosophy and embark on a retooling program. But Ilitch, speaking publicly for the first time since cutting Dombrowski loose, said he plans to continue spending toward that elusive World Series win. He made it clear that if the Tigers payroll passes the luxury-tax threshold of $189 million, it’s fine with him.

“I’m supposed to be a good boy and not go over [the threshold],” Ilitch said, via the Detroit News‘ Bob Wojnowski. “If I’m going to get certain players that can help us a lot, I’ll go over it.

“Oops, I shouldn’t have said that.”

The Tigers still need an outfielder, another starter and some bullpen help. The Red Sox have added Price and star closer Craig Kimbrel. Stay tuned.

2. The Dodgers, Dave Roberts and “Collaboration”

The reason Gabe Kapler emerged as an early favorite for the Dodgers’ managerial job is because it is clear that the front office wanted a man who is willing to play ball and employ the front office’s ideas. Congenial as Don Mattingly is, he was never fully that guy.

So call new manager Dave Roberts a compromise.

When Los Angeles ownership worried that Kapler could not be sold to the players because they would view him simply as an extension of the front office, GM Andrew Friedman and his front-office partners, Farhan Zaidi and Josh Byrnes, turned to Roberts. And any question regarding how much autonomy Roberts will have was answered in the first few minutes of Tuesday’s news conference.

“He’s got intellectual curiosity, he’s been around a lot of front offices with different philosophies, he understands the collaborative process of how to put a team together and how he’s going to run a team,” Zaidi said.

“I’m definitely open to it,” Roberts said, noting that the Dodgers have “the brightest people in this organization in research and development and baseball operations. … All great organizations in any industry depend on collaboration.”

Translation: When Friedman, Zaidi or Byrnes think the Dodgers lineup should tilt a particular way on a given night, Roberts will be fully open to implementing their thoughts.

In today’s world, it’s the way more and more clubs are doing business: collaboratively.

There’s always been a “collaboration” between the manager’s office and the front office, in that the general manager’s job always has been to construct a team. Tommy Lasorda had to “collaborate” with Al Campanis and Fred Claire to a degree, as well.

It’s just that the old way of doing business was that the GM would assemble a team and then turn it over to the manager. And a manager like Lasorda—or Sparky Anderson or Dick Williams—could have an outsized personality and was clearly in charge on the field.

Those days are gone. Fewer and fewer managers anymore come with dominant personalities. The job description now is to run the clubhouse, get along with the players and accept input when it comes to lineups, rotations and how to manage a bullpen.

Whether the pendulum ever swings back the other way, we’ll see.

Roberts is a terrific baseball man and a good guy who still gets mail from Red Sox fans after his epic stolen base in the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees. He becomes the first minority manager in Dodgers history, no small thing in an organization that hired Jackie Robinson to break baseball’s color line in 1947.

He is the right man at the right time, as long as the Dodgers get the pitching he needs.

3. Yasiel Puig Gets Smaller

Last week’s reported brawl and the fact that MLB is expected to investigate Puig under its new domestic violence policy only clouds Puig’s future even further.

We already know that the Dodgers have asked him to lose weight this winter following an injury-plagued season during which he played only 79 games. Maybe you’ve heard trade rumors attached to his name, but it is difficult to see Los Angeles trading him this winter, because right now the Dodgers would be selling low. Puig’s current trade value has never been lower.

One of Roberts’ biggest challenges as the new Dodgers manager, clearly, will be handling Puig. Roberts said he has never spoken a word to Puig, of whom he said, “From the other side, he is ultra-talented, a special player, feared, tough to compete against.”

“Feared” and “tough to compete with” could describe playing alongside Puig as well.

“This is an opportunity for me to embrace him,” Roberts said.

Biggest question is whether Puig ever will allow that to happen. It takes two to embrace.

 4. Barry Bonds and Miami is No Fish Story

The easy joke is that Barry Bonds just might be a better hitter at 51 than Ichiro Suzuki is at 42.

How might Bonds work out as the Miami Marlins’ co-hitting coach?

And can he be of any aid to Ichiro, who hit .229/.282/.279 in 153 games last summer?

And should Bonds even be welcomed as a full-time coach with any team?

Colleague Danny Knobler examined this issue the other day, so I won’t go deep here. Bonds generally got good reviews during his brief spring training stint as a San Francisco Giants hitting coach a couple of years ago and in working with Alex Rodriguez and others over the winter.

Whether or not Miami or any other team wants to hire Bonds is its own business. The man enveloped by one of the biggest steroids clouds in history has never acknowledged his cheating, nor is he expected to. Several years ago, it was made clear to Mark McGwire that if he wanted to leave exile to become Tony La Russa’s hitting coach with the Cardinals, he would have to cop to using steroids and apologize for it.

Granted, years have passed, and we live in a different day and age now. But it sure seems hypocritical to press McGwire for an apology and give Bonds a free pass.

5. Free-Agent Power Rankings

1. David Price: OK, $217 million in Boston, baby. Can y’all top that?

2. Zack Greinke: Working on it, owner of Astro the dog, who will eat very, very well now.

3. Jordan Zimmermann: Signs five-year, $110 deal with Detroit. He ain’t David Price, but he’s a start for the Tigers.

4. Ben Zobrist: Chatter surrounding him is increasing as next week’s winter meetings in Nashville draw near. Mets fans are dreaming of a Zobrist Christmas.

5. Johnny Cueto: Reportedly spit at a six-year, $120 million offer from the Arizona Diamondbacks. What does he want, water included with his desert?

6. Reviewing Instant Replay Reviews

Ever wonder which managers are the best at challenging umpires’ calls? You’re in luck: David Vincent of the Society for American Baseball Research has doggedly tracked this for the first two years of replay, and here’s what he found.

The list below includes, alphabetically, all managers and interim managers, with totals at the end. The “Total” category represents how many instant-replay challenges a manager has asked for, the “Over” category lists how many of those umpire calls were overturned, and the “Over %” category lists by percentage how many of that manager’s challenges have been overturned.

With a small sample size of only two years, as Vincent notes, “Any manager within five percent of the 52 percent average is average as far as I’m concerned.” One other note: Remember, while the names listed are the managers, their success rates also include the video guys assigned to watch replays in the clubhouse and individual team philosophies regarding replay. Some teams challenge far more often than others.

7. Reviewing Instant Replays Part II

So, breaking down the above list per Vincent’s information, we have two more charts. The first lists managers with the most challenges, the second lists managers by success rate:

8. The Evolution of Pitching

Here are some interesting complete-game and relief stats, courtesy of friend Tim Kurkjian. It’s why the market for a reliever like Darren O’Day is so hot, and why the Reds are taking so many calls on Aroldis Chapman:

9. How Many Sluggers Has Your State Produced?

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

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The market for starting pitching has begun to move, with J.A. Happ signing with the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday and Jordan Zimmermann agreeing to a deal with the Detroit Tigers on Sunday.

They’re significant deals for significant money, as Zimmermann‘s reported $110 million-for-five-years price tag caused Matt Ehalt of the Record to tweet:

Exactly. The Happ (for three years, $36 million) and Zimmermann signings made news for the teams that signed them and for others shopping in the midlevel pitching market. But it’s David Price, Zack Greinke and Johnny Cueto who will top the market and make a team a big winter winner.

Especially Price.

Winter winners often don’t become summer winners. But that won’t stop us from speculating right up until Price signs a contract that many are suggesting could approach or top the free-agent pitcher record $210 million the Washington Nationals gave Max Scherzer last January.

Scherzer was 30 years old and had one Cy Young and one fifth-place finish on his record. Price is 30 years old and has one Cy Young and two second-place finishes.

But this isn’t about Scherzer vs. Price, because Scherzer isn’t available on this winter’s market. Price is, and rather than guess at exactly how much money he’ll get—let’s just say it will be a whole lot—we’re going to try to guess where he might go.

Some of this is based on reports. Some of it is based on what we’ve heard. Some of it is just plain guesswork. If we’ve learned anything about free agency, it’s that some teams and some agents disguise their strategies so well that many reports and much of what we’ve heard turn out later not to be totally right.

So here goes, with the teams listed in order of which ones we give the best chance of landing the biggest free agent out there this winter:

1. Boston Red Sox: Back in August, shortly after Dave Dombrowski took over at Fenway, Bleacher Report asked me to put together his plan to rebuild the Red Sox. I know Dombrowski well, and I knew he wasn’t going to tell me or any other reporter his exact plans. But I also knew signing a high-profile starter would be high on his list.

“Dombrowski’s move to Boston should be great news for David Price,” I wrote then, and it’s no less true now. Whether Price actually ends up in Boston, the Red Sox are widely reported and expected to be preparing a bid that will top (and perhaps help set) the market for the left-hander Dombrowski once traded for when he was running the Detroit Tigers.

One National League general manager speculated to Peter Gammons that Dombrowski‘s bid will be $30 million-$40 million higher than anyone else’s. I can believe it because, in many ways, Price is the best possible ace Dombrowski could sign. He’s comfortable pitching in the American League East and comfortable leading a rotation.

While there’s been strong speculation the Red Sox will bid the most money, there’s also been lots of talk Price would prefer to sign elsewhere. He might, but I can’t see him being scared of Boston and I can see him going for the biggest money.

So the Red Sox are the top choice, although I wouldn’t put my own money on it.

2. Chicago Cubs: Back before everybody was rushing to predict Price will sign with the Red Sox, plenty were just as convinced he was headed to the Cubs. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports wrote just three weeks ago that two agents for other pitchers were calling Price to the Cubs and that one National League general manager told him Price prefers the Cubs.

All that’s happened since then is Cubs president Theo Epstein suggesting his offseason budget isn’t as big as everyone thinks and others suggesting (perhaps rightly) the Red Sox are willing to spend more money than anyone.

The Cubs could certainly use Price. But with Jake Arrieta and Jon Lester already topping their rotation, their need for him would seem to be a little less dire than the Red Sox’s need.

3. Los Angeles Dodgers: If the Dodgers really want Price, it’s hard to see them getting outbid by $30 million-$40 million—by the Red Sox or by anyone else. If Greinke signs elsewhere, you could argue the Dodgers should really want Price.

Dodgers boss Andrew Friedman is just as good as Dombrowski at hiding his real plans, but keeping Greinke might well be his preference. With little rotation certainty beyond Clayton Kershaw, and with the expectations that come with a $300 million payroll, it would seem Friedman had better get one of the big free agents.

4. St. Louis Cardinals: They fit geographically, since Price is from Nashville. They have a need, with Lance Lynn on the shelf for 2016. But are the Cardinals really ready to play with big money at the top of the market? We’ll see.

5. San Francisco Giants: The Giants would need to stretch their budget a little to sign either Price or Greinke, and the early suggestions had them preferring Greinke if they do stretch. But Greinke could stay with the Dodgers, and perhaps the Giants could be convinced to stretch for Price.

6. Washington Nationals: Zimmermann is already gone. Stephen Strasburg can be a free agent after 2016. The Nationals have some strong young arms, but they also have an owner with lots of money and a desire to win soon. Still, could they really pay out the top two free-agent pitching contracts?

7. Los Angeles Angels: I’m not going to be surprised again if Arte Moreno decides he wants a top free agent. His Angels already have two $20 million starters in their 2016 rotation, but both C.J. Wilson and Jered Weaver can be free agents after that.

8. New York Yankees: Should the Yankees really be this low on the list? Yes, only because Hal Steinbrenner has been so open and so consistent with his desire to stay away from the biggest free agents. Finally, we believe him—but not enough to leave the Yankees off the list entirely.

9. The field: The Blue Jays and Tigers would seem to be out. The Houston Astros and Baltimore Orioles don’t seem to have room in their budget. The Seattle Mariners need hitters. The Texas Rangers just traded for Cole Hamels. Free agency often comes with surprises, and maybe the chase for Price will include another one.

Or maybe the Red Sox really will just outbid everyone else.

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

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