Hanley Ramirez On Moving To First Base: 'It's Going To Be Easy'

Over the weekend, Hanley Ramirez was asked about his transition to first base for the 2016 season, and his answer probably made some eyes roll.

“I’ve always been an infielder, so it’s going to be easy,” he said on Saturday. “I know more of the territory. I’m going to feel more comfortable at first.”

Here’s the thing about Hanley; I don’t know what to make of this guy. I really don’t. The pessimistic fans (and Felger & Mazz) would like you to believe that he’s a lazy piece of shit who doesn’t care about anything. But then I see him busting his ass in his workout videos on Instagram all offseason, dropping the 15-20 pounds that the Red Sox asked him to shed, and then telling the team that he’s reporting to spring training early to work on his move to first base. And if you go back even further, Hanley actually wanted to play winter ball, but the Red Sox preferred that he didn’t, likely so that he could get healthy and focus on coming into camp with a lighter and more flexible frame.

On one hand, we know that the left field experiment was a complete disaster. And I’m only saying it was a complete disaster because I don’t know what other phrase would be used to describe something worse than a complete disaster, but that’s what it was. That being said, I’m just not ready to say that Hanley doesn’t care at all. I think that’s the easy thing to say about him, because it’s the popular opinion. But for losers like me who watched every single inning of every game last year, I saw a guy who actually did care. Sometimes, at least. Maybe he didn’t care enough to get better at the left field position, but Hanley Ramirez is not Jason Heyward. Hanley didn’t get paid a ton of money for his UZR. Hanley got paid to crush baseballs, and when he was healthy, that’s exactly what he did. So when it came time to contribute in the area that Boston wanted him here for in the first place, I saw a guy who cared when he didn’t perform up to expectations.

We can debate all day long if he actually cares, whether or not his own teammates actually like him, or if his offense will even be good enough to offset whatever he gives them defensively. One of the biggest concerns about Hanley isn’t even really being talked about, because it’s being overshadowed by his move to first base. What about his health? He’s averaged 106 games over the last three seasons, so we could be getting all worked up about this first base thing for nothing. Although, it should be noted that last year’s injuries (hand, shoulder) were contact injuries, and had nothing to do with poor conditioning, as he ran into a wall and took a Xander Bogaerts liner off the hand.

But back to his glove. Trust me, your concerns are plenty valid — there are several reasons to not feel so good about Hanley moving to first base. It’s more than fair to call into question his commitment to learning a new position, especially when first base will be roughly three times as many defensive opportunities as the last position that he attempted to learn, and failed miserably. Not only that, but we’ve already seen a bunch of stories where players like Travis Shaw, Mike Napoli and Brock Holt discussed how difficult the transition to first base was for them. And they’re actually, you know, good at playing baseball.

The casual fan will ask you, what’s the big deal? You just stand there and catch the ball from the infielders. As we all know, there’s obviously a lot more to the position than that, but then I think of what Hanley said over the weekend. He’s right. He has always been an infielder, and that definitely should make him more comfortable at first base. Do I think it’s going to be easy for him? Absolutely not, as shown above, but his experience in the infield can really only play a positive role here, no? Maybe? Please?

The other thing is that Hanley is also a lot sharper and wittier than people give him credit for. He’s quick, he has a sense of humor, and he enjoys messing with people to make himself laugh, so I wouldn’t put it past him to drop the “it’s going to be easy” line in there just to watch people lose their minds. He’s like that awkward friend who you can never be serious with. Even when he’s acting serious because the situation calls for it, he’s not serious. That’s Hanley. I think if he genuinely thought it was going to be easy, he wouldn’t have wanted to play winter ball, and he wouldn’t be reporting early to spring training to get a head start on the transition.

So where am I at on all of this? Let’s see what he’s got. Not because I’m optimistic about it, because I’m not, but let’s face it — what other choice do we have? Plain and simple, if the Red Sox could have unloaded Hanley this offseason, he’d be gone already. And we all know they’re not putting a guy who’s making $22 million on the bench. I understand that a lot of fans are rooting for this guy to fail, but it’d be wise to hope that Hanley’s transition to first base is successful, because they’re stuck with him now, and the team is basically screwed if it doesn’t work. There is literally nowhere else to put him in 2016. All we can do now is hope that he keeps the same work ethic during the regular season that it appears he’s had during his offseason workouts. But realistically speaking, I think we all know the ultimate result here, and this doesn’t end well.

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