FanHouse Red Sox

In Advanced Scouting, MLB FanHouse's professional talent evaluator breaks down offseason moves from a scouting perspective.

It hasn't taken long for the Hot Stove to get heated up as we roll past the World Series. Some key players have already been locked up and some high upside trades have already gone down. What do these moves mean for each club involved and how will the players dealt respond to their new homes? Just as significant, how important will the prospects dealt turn out to be?

From Mark Teahen headed to Chicago, to the Carlos Gomez for J.J. Hardy swap, to Bobby Abreu's new deal with the Angels, each move had a distinct impact. Perhaps the most interesting of these, however, was Jeremy Hermida being shipped to Boston. For the price of a pair of young lefties, the Red Sox took a gamble that may prove very worthy.

The Boston Red Sox have declined their $6 million option on shortstop Alex Gonzalez for next season, according to the Boston Globe, once again leaving the team without a reliable everyday player at the position heading into offseason.

It's been a revolving door at shortstop in Boston since the team dealt Nomar Garciaparra at the trading deadline in 2004, with general manager Theo Epstein unable to find a suitable long-term replacement.

Four different players -- Gonzalez, Nick Green, Julio Lugo and Jed Lowrie -- played at least 21 games at the position this season. Between Garciaparra's departure and this season, Orlando Cabrera, Edgar Renteria, Gonzalez (in 2006), Lugo and Lowrie have manned the position, with the Red Sox doling out $76 million in contracts to Renteria and Lugo alone.

With the conclusion of the World Series, it appears Major League Baseball isn't wasting any time thrusting us directly into Hot Stove season. In the midst of Mark Teahen rumors, we have been served our first actual trade. The Boston Red Sox have acquired 25-year-old outfielder Jeremy Hermida from the Florida Marlins for pitchers Jose Alvarez and Hunter Jones.

Thus far in his career, Hermida has failed to live up to the lofty expectations that come for someone with his natural abilities. A former first-rounder once said to have five-tool potential, Hermida has hit .265 with a barely above average OPS through just over 3 1/2 seasons in the bigs. Of course, some circumstances should be considered.

The Red Sox have a storied history of long-term, very popular left fielders patrolling the grounds in front of the Green Monster at Fenway Park.

Ted Williams spent 16 years in left field for Boston, Carl Yastrzemski lasted 11 and Jim Rice played 12 years. If you add the eight years of Mike Greenwell's tenure and seven from Manny Ramirez, those five players have spent 54 of the 69 years since Williams' first year in 1940 playing left field for the Red Sox.

Now, that's job security.

The playoffs are almost over and the stage is set for the defending World Champion Philadelphia Phillies to face the dreadnought New York Yankees ... or the Los Angeles Angels Angels, pending a dead Christopher Lloyd-style miracle.

The bottom line is this: the World Series is like one block to our left, and we're going to have to start buckling down and making some declarative statements. Before we do that, though, today's Dugout features some pre-ALCS decision arguing and some sad realities.

Fenway Sports Group, the sports marketing company owned by the Boston Red Sox, has expanded its media empire, entering into a sponsorship deal with Fulham FC, an English Premier League soccer club.

The company already has a number of similar partnerships in other sports, most famously with Roush Fenway Racing, the NASCAR racing team that features top drivers Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards. Might this be there most impressive partnership yet?

That's hard to say, but partnering with a side from the Premiership can't be a bad thing. The EPL might not register much here in the NFL-centric United States, but its the most popular and powerful professional sports league in the world, with club revenues for the 2007-08 season exceeding $3 billion.

During FanHouse's marathon live chat of the ALCS and NLCS yesterday, I couldn't help but notice Scott Boras directly behind home plate as the Angels took on the Yankees in Game 3. I was informed during the chat by our own Jeff Fletcher that Boras has season tickets behind home plate at both Angels and Dodger Stadium, and he likes to show up early so he's available to the media.

Well, Boras was available Monday, and he fired his opening salvo of the Matt Holliday Sweepstakes this winter. It looks like any team that wants to sign Holliday should start their offers somewhere in the range of the eight-year $180 million that Mark Teixeira got from the Yankees last winter.

Knuckleballer and longtime Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield is set to undergo surgery on his back Wednesday to relieve pressure on the nerves in a herniated disc that is pressing against in his lower back. The disc caused Wakefield to feel weakness in his right leg, and limited him to only four starts following the All-Star break and kept him off the team's ALDS roster.

It could turn out to be an expensive operation for Wakefield, and not because he has a bad health care plan. No, the reason is that if the surgery turns out to be successful, which it's expected to, then the Red Sox have said they plan on picking up his $4 million option to return next season.

It's now ten days after the end of the 2009 baseball season and the only thing the Cleveland Indians know about their vacant managerial position is that it won't be filled by Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell. That's because Farrell, who was initially seen as a front-runner for the job, told the Cleveland Plain Dealer today that while he is interested in managing some day, he's not interested in the Indians job and he'd rather stay in his position in Boston.

As the former farm director in Cleveland under Mark Shapiro, Farrell seemed like maybe the most logical choice for the job, but this isn't the first time he's turned a managerial job down. He was believed to be the frontrunner in 2007 in Pittsburgh, where former Shapiro assistant Neal Huntington is GM, but he also asked for his name to be removed from consideration then, as well.

After coming to the Boston Red Sox this season Billy Wagner made 17 appearances out of the bullpen and posted a 1.72 ERA. It was exactly the type of performance Wagner needed to help his chances of finding a closer's job somewhere in 2010, which is what he had been saying he wanted to do. Preferably one near his Virginia home.

Well after allowing two runs in the eighth inning of Boston's loss to end their season on Saturday, it sounds like Wagner is changing his tune. When asked about what his plans were for next season on Monday Wagner implied that he's planning to retire.