Boston Red Sox: Hanley Ramirez Will Be a MVP-Caliber Player in AL East

The Boston Red Sox were very aggressive on the free-agent market this offseason, spending nearly $200 million to acquire sluggers Hanley Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval.

While Sandoval's numbers should improve playing in hitter-friendly Fenway Park, Ramirez is the one who will truly thrive in his new environment. The former shortstop will take advantage of his new position and home ballpark and has a chance to be one of the most productive offensive threats in all of baseball.

The most obvious reason why Ramirez can be successful is the fact that he will take his right-handed power swing to Fenway Park with the opportunity to launch balls over the Green Monster. Hits that were routine fly balls to left field back at Dodger Stadium are all of a sudden going to be landing well over the fence for home runs.

More than half of his home runs last year were to straight-away left, and he only hit one opposite-field home run all season, according to FanGraphs.

As you can see by his spray chart, he hit plenty of deep fly balls in 2014 that were just long outs. And it's not only Fenway Park and Dodger Stadium that need to be noted. The National League West, where Ramirez resided for the past two-and-a-half seasons, is a perennial pitching division that is known for large parks.

The American League East, on the other hand, is known for gaudy home run numbers and boatloads of runs scored.

So Hanley is trading in home games in Dodger Stadium as well as intradivision games in spacious Petco Park and AT&T Park for home games in Fenway Park and intradivision games in bandboxes like Rogers Centre, Yankee Stadium and Camden Yards.

According to ESPN.com's list of hitter-friendly parks, all three of the aforementioned NL West stadiums ranked in the bottom six in the league in average runs scored per game. Fenway Park ranked fifth, Rogers Centre was ranked ninth, and Yankee Stadium was the stadium most vulnerable to the long ball in 2014.

However, the thing that has plagued Ramirez the most over his career has not been playing in cavernous stadiums, but that he is one of the most oft-injured players in the MLB.

He has missed a combined 110 games in the past two seasons, but in Boston, he will move away from shortstop to a much less rigorous position in left field. While he will have to learn how to play caroms off of the 37-foot, two-inch tall Green Monster, the position change should take a lot of pressure off him both mentally and physically.

He should be able to focus more on his hitting while also enjoying the luxury of staying healthy for an entire season for the first time since 2012.

The folks over at MLB Network are definite believers in Ramirez playing left field in Boston. In their annual rankings of the "Top 10 Right Now," they put Hanley at the top of the list of left fielders despite never playing an inning in the outfield in his professional career, majors or minors.

In that segment, Mike Petriello of FanGraphs predicted that Ramirez would hit at least 35 home runs. That is quite optimistic, but it isn't hard to see where he is coming from.

Nobody has every doubted Ramirez's talent, just his defensive ability and attitude.

Now, he moves to a new position that allows him to place the majority of his focus on his hitting. He says that he has taken the change in stride, and judging by what he told Steve Buckley of the Boston Herald, he is approaching the new season with the right attitude:

"

I'm a left fielder. I just want to have a freakin' trophy in my hand. I can't wait. So if I have to catch or pitch, whatever it takes to win. That's why I'm here with this organization, to play left field.

"

While those are the right things to say, it will be interesting if that is actually what happens when Opening Day rolls around.

Ramirez will also have plenty of help in the lineup. David Ortiz will once again be one of the premier power threats in the league, Dustin Pedroia looks like he has regained his power so far in spring training, and Sandoval will also be an intimidating presence.

The offense will not be short on productivity, and Hanley will be a big reason why.

I think Ramirez will definitely have a successful inaugural season in Boston, and the new environment and position give him a chance to accumulate some impressive stats and be a dark-horse candidate for the American League MVP award.