Revisiting the Ramirez-Beckett Deal Three Years Later

(Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)

In the world we live in, we get a lot of choices to make. What do you prefer: Burger King or McDonald's? iPod’s or Zune’s? Xbox 360, Wii or PS3? Two percent or whole milk?

Ok, I’m kidding about the last one.

The Hanley Ramirez-Josh Beckett was a huge trade when it happened and still has a tremendous impact, and it surprises me that it does not get talked about very much, especially when the Sox are struggling mightily at shortstop.

I’ve had strong feelings on this deal since I heard it go down. My initial reaction was excitement because, even though Hanley was a great prospect, Beckett was a proven young player that had won the clinching game of the ’03 World Series against the YANKEES. I’ll take it.

Then, Hanley Ramirez turned into a beast (and arguably the best player in baseball) while Beckett struggled through his first year and the thought of the deal made me cringe more than watching Brian Collins speak.

Then, 2007 happened, and my thoughts got thrown into flux. Just when I was about to get back on track with the deal, Beckett decided there wasn’t enough of 2006 for him and now I’m back to cringing. So what should we take away from this deal after three and a half years?  

First off, let’s look at the actual deal. Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell, and Guillermo Mota went to Boston while Florida landed four prospects at the time: Hanley, Anibal Sanchez, Jesus Delgado, and Harvey Garcia. That’s the setup. Let’s look at the Florida, namely the Hanley side, for now.

Hanley Ramirez is still one of my favorite players in all of baseball, and I’m sure if he had stayed in Boston he would easily be my favorite, hands down. He is one of the handful of guys you can make a legitimate case for being the most talented position player in baseball.

He can run and has 40+ steal potential, as well as having 40+ homer potential. That puts him in a class with guys in their prime like Alfonso Soriano, Alex Rodriguez, Jose Canseco, and Barry Bonds.

Sadly, the last three’s careers have been tainted more than Britney Spears’ after marrying K-Fed.

Anyway, on top of Hanley’s 40-40 potential, he is a great contact hitter with a .308 career average coming into 2009 and hitting .348 as of today. Plus, he’s only 25, which means he has not hit his full potential as of yet and has AT LEAST 10 more solid years of production ahead of him, at a position that is so talent-scarce that it’s rivaled only by NBC’s Friday Night lineup.

But on the other side of things, Josh Beckett has not exactly been chopped liver. From the little I’ve heard analyzing the deal so far, the pro-Beckett side has relied heavily on his dominance during the 2007 playoffs, and basically boils down to this statement:

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